Bernie Sanders, AOC call for Congress to pass legislation to defend Roe v. Wade after leaked draft shows the Supreme Court poised to overturn it

• Leading progressives urged Congress to codify abortion rights after a SCOTUS leak.
• The leak indicated justices might be on the verge of repealing the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

Leading progressives Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called for urgent action by Democrats in Congress to defend federal abortion rights after a leaked Supreme Court memo suggested that justices were on the verge of overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision.

After Politico reported the news, Sanders called on Congress to codify the rights enshrined in the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which ensured access to abortion for women across the US.

"Congress must pass legislation that codifies Roe v. Wade as the law of the land in this country NOW," Sanders tweeted. "And if there aren't 60 votes in the Senate to do it, and there are not, we must end the filibuster to pass it with 50 votes."

Ocasio-Cortez, the leading progressive voice in the lower chamber of Congress, joined Sanders in urging action.

"People elected Democrats precisely so we could lead in perilous moments like these- to codify Roe, hold corruption accountable, & have a President who uses his legal authority to break through Congressional gridlock on items from student debt to climate," the New York representative tweeted.

"It's high time we do it," she added.

Any bid to defend abortion rights in Congress, where Democrats hold a slender majority in the House and a one-vote majority in the Senate, would likely face significant obstacles.

In February, the Senate rejected the Democrat-backed Women's Health Protection Act, which aimed to defend access to abortion. Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin sided with Republicans in the vote, and it was defeated 46-48.

Manchin and fellow Democratic moderate Sen. Kyrsten Sinema have both also opposed calls by President Joe Biden to temporarily lift the filibuster, a rule requiring 60 or more votes to pass legislation, which has been used by Republicans as a blocking measure.

With the rule lifted, Democrats could pass the bill with a simple majority vote, but the prospects of Manchin or Sinema reversing their positions appear limited.

The issue will likely feature heavily in Democratic midterm campaigns as candidates seek to rouse their core supporters by pledging legislative action should the party maintain control of Congress. On the campaign trail in 2019, Biden pledged to defend the rights protected by Roe v. Wade.