Kamala Harris has called for an end to the filibuster tactics in the Senate in order to fulfill her promise to restore the right to abortion through law.
The US vice president, herself a former senator, told a Wisconsin radio station that abolishing the filibuster – which sets a 60-vote hurdle in the 100-seat upper chamber of the US Congress – is necessary to codify the rights enshrined in Roe v. Wade, a 1973 Supreme Court ruling that upheld the right to legal abortion across the US until it was overturned by another ruling two years ago.
“I think we should do away with the filibuster tactic for Roe and get to the point where 51 votes are enough to actually put into law protections for reproductive freedom and the ability of every person and every woman to make decisions about their own bodies – without the government telling them what to do,” Harris told National Public Radio affiliate WPR during a campaign trip to Wisconsin, a key Midwestern swing state where recent polls show her with a razor-thin lead over Donald Trump.
Her comments underscored her determination to make abortion rights a central part of her campaign message, even though polls show the issue is a high priority for many voters.
However, it cost her the support of outgoing West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin – a former Democrat who left the party this year to become an independent – who said he would not support her candidacy because of her campaign promises.
“Shame on her,” Manchin, who is leaving the Senate at the end of the year, told CNN. “She knows the filibuster tactic is the holy grail of democracy. It’s the only thing that gets us talking to each other and working together. If she gets rid of that, it would be a House on steroids.”
Trump is on the defensive on the abortion issue because the 2022 Supreme Court ruling came with the votes of three conservative justices he appointed during his presidency. Harris has claimed Trump would sign a nationwide ban if he reclaimed the White House, but stressed he would leave that up to individual states.
Harris used a radio interview to underscore her commitment after accusations that she deliberately avoids interviews with prominent figures – an accusation that Harris tried to counter by making herself available to select media outlets in swing states.
At a rally in Pennsylvania on Monday, Trump said he would “protect” women and they would “not think about abortion” if he won a second term.
Harris’ filibuster remarks were similar to a comment made by Joe Biden immediately after the Roe v. Wade ruling was overturned, when he said an exception to the time-honored Senate rule was needed to guarantee abortion rights.
“I believe we need to codify Roe v. Wade into law,” he said. “And the way to do that is to make sure Congress votes for it. And if the filibuster gets in the way, it’s like voting rights — we should make an exception to that … demand an exception to the filibuster for this measure to accommodate the Supreme Court decision.”
Harris had previously advocated overriding the filibuster tactic to pass additional voting rights and Green New Deal legislation.
In 2020, Barack Obama called the filibuster a “Jim Crow relic” of America’s racially segregated past and argued that if it was used to block electoral reform, it must be abolished.
The filibuster describes the use of lengthy debate to delay or prevent a vote on a bill. It can be used by any senator who objects to a bill and has become increasingly common in recent decades.
The filibuster can only be overridden by a so-called cloture action, which requires a three-fifths vote, or a majority of 60 of the 100 senators. If the cloture action passes, a vote can be taken on the original measure that the filibuster was intended to block.
The longest filibuster in Senate history was by Strom Thurmond, the segregationist senator from South Carolina, when he spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes to block civil rights legislation in 1957.
Thurmond’s speech – described by his biographer as a “urological mystery” – was reportedly achieved by taking steam baths beforehand, which dehydrated his body and eliminated the need for regular bathroom breaks. One aide also reported that he had a catheter inserted to relieve himself while speaking.
