Vice President Kamala Harris has ignited a fresh debate on Capitol Hill by advocating for the elimination of the Senate filibuster to codify abortion rights nationwide. In a Tuesday interview with Wisconsin Public Radio, Harris made it clear that she supports changing Senate rules to allow for a simple majority vote to reinstate Roe v. Wade, which the Supreme Court overturned in 2022.
"I've been very clear," Harris said. "I think we should eliminate the filibuster for Roe and get us to the point where 51 votes would be what we need to actually put back in law the protections for reproductive freedom."
Harris's proposal comes at a time when the filibuster, a Senate rule allowing a minority to block legislation unless 60 votes are obtained, has emerged as a major roadblock to many of the Biden administration's priorities, including abortion rights. Despite Democrats currently holding 51 seats in the Senate, the filibuster effectively allows Republicans to block efforts to codify Roe.
The vice president's call to bypass the filibuster on this issue has sparked significant opposition, notably from Senator Joe Manchin (I-W.V.), a vocal defender of the rule. "Shame on her," Manchin told reporters. "The filibuster is the holy grail of democracy. It's the only thing that keeps us talking and working together. If she gets rid of that, then this would be the House on steroids."
Manchin's steadfast defense of the filibuster has made him a key figure in this debate, as his opposition complicates efforts to change Senate rules. In the past, Manchin has argued that removing the filibuster would undermine the deliberative nature of the Senate and allow future majorities to more easily reverse landmark legislation.
Harris's stance on the filibuster, however, has roots in the political realities of post-Roe America. Since the Supreme Court's decision to strike down Roe v. Wade, abortion has become a central issue in the 2024 campaign. Harris has repeatedly framed the debate around reproductive rights as a matter of personal freedom, while Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, have claimed credit for overturning Roe.
"When Donald Trump was president, he hand-selected three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention that they would overturn the protections of Roe v. Wade," Harris said during a rally in Georgia last week. "And as he intended, they did."
Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema, another staunch filibuster defender, echoed Manchin's criticism. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Sinema called Harris's proposal a "terrible, shortsighted idea" and warned that eliminating the filibuster could backfire. "To state the supremely obvious, eliminating the filibuster to codify Roe v. Wade also enables a future Congress to ban all abortion nationwide," she wrote.
The filibuster has long been a contentious issue in Washington. In 2017, Trump himself called on Republicans to abolish the filibuster to repeal the Affordable Care Act. While that effort failed, Trump has maintained that his judicial appointments have reshaped the Supreme Court, and he continues to tout his role in the Court's decision to overturn Roe.
Harris, by contrast, has made it clear that abortion rights will be central to her 2024 campaign. As part of this strategy, she has continued to push for Democrats to win additional Senate seats to circumvent the filibuster. "With just two more seats in the Senate, we can codify Roe v. Wade, we can put the protection of Roe into law," Harris said in 2022.
Democrats are acutely aware that changing the filibuster rules requires a Senate majority willing to make that move. For now, the fate of the filibuster rests in the hands of Senators like Manchin and Sinema, both of whom have shown no sign of shifting their position.
