Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is planning to zero in on reproductive rights next month — potentially forcing Republicans to take tough votes on issues such as contraception and in vitro fertilization.
The move is meant to tap into the potency of abortion rights as a voter-turnout generator for Democrats five months from Election Day. It’s timed to roughly coincide with the two-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, on June 24.
The details of the reproductive-rights blitz are being hashed out by a small working group of senators, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), the No. 3 Senate Democrat, told Axios.
“We are certainly going to be talking a lot about [abortion],” she said.
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), a leading advocate of protecting access to the procedure, said leaders plan to talk about potential floor actions on abortion-related bills later, but didn’t specify when.
Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee chair Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) confirmed to Axios he plans to use his gavel to push abortion rights around the anniversary of the court’s ruling, which led to a wave of abortion restrictions in red states. He declined to elaborate.
