Manchin On Democrats’ Abortion Bill: ‘Make No Mistake, It Is Not Roe V. Wade Codification’

On Wednesday, Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) explained his decision to be the only Democrat voting against the Democrat-sponsored bill that would have legalized abortion until the moment of birth.

“The bill, known as the Women’s Health Protection Act, had passed the House last September and was brought forth for a Senate vote by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in wake of the leaked Supreme Court opinion draft showing that the court is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade,” The Daily Wire reported.

Just hours before the Senate voted on the bill, Manchin told reporters, the “bill we have today to vote on, the Women’s Health Protection Act, and I respect people who support it — but make no mistake, it is not Roe v. Wade codification. It’s an expansion. It wipes 500 — 500 state laws off the books — it expands abortion. And with that, that’s not where we are today. We should not be dividing this country further than we’re already divided.”

“It’s really — the politics of Congress that’s dividing the country, it’s not the people,” Manchin said. “They — they’re telling us what they want. And it’s just disappointing that we’re going to be voting on a piece of legislation that I will not vote for today.”

The Democrats’ bill would have allowed abortion until birth – even when the baby could survive outside of the womb “when, in the good-faith medical judgment of the treating health care provider, a continuation of the pregnancy would pose a risk to the pregnant patient’s life or health,” the bill states.

In contrast, Roe permitted restrictions on abortion after the first trimester, even though only 38% of Americans believe abortion should be legal with no restrictions during the first trimester of pregnancy, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.