Sen. Kyrsten Sinema stands by her support of the Senate filibuster, dooming Democratic plans to codify federal abortion protections

• Sen. Kyrsten Sinema won't change the Senate filibuster rules to codify Roe v. Wade into law.
• "Protections in the Senate safeguarding against the erosion of women's access to health care," she said, "are more important now than ever."

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is standing by her support for the Senate's current filibuster rules that require most legislation to get 60 votes to advance to debate, dooming any hopes of Democrats passing federal abortion protections with the Supreme Court poised to overturn Roe v. Wade.

The Senate filibuster, in its current state, requires most legislation to get a three-fifths majority of 60 votes to end debate and advance to final passage, precluding Democrats from passing many of their big policy priorities in a Senate divided between 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans.

"A woman's health care choices should be between her, her family, and her doctor," Sinema said in a Tuesday statement. "Protections in the Senate safeguarding against the erosion of women's access to health care have been used half-a-dozen times in the past ten years, and are more important now than ever."

—Kyrsten Sinema (@SenatorSinema) May 3, 2022

Democrats are calling for Congress to codify abortion rights after Politico published a draft opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, in which the court's majority would uphold Mississippi's 15-week abortion ban and, crucially, overturn the federal protections for first-trimester abortion restrictions enshrined in the landmark Roe v. Wade decision.

Chief Justice John Roberts confirmed the document's authenticity on Tuesday and said he had ordered an investigation into how the opinion was leaked to the press.

Overturning Roe wouldn't make abortion illegal nationwide, but would leave abortion policy up to each state. In September, the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives passed the Women's Health Protection Act, which would codify the protections of Roe v. Wade into federal law.

But Democrats face a math problem in the Senate, where they don't have 50 votes in support of the bill itself — much less to eliminate the filibuster. The bill failed to advance to debate by a vote of 46-48, with Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, who holds more conservative views on abortion than most of his caucus, voting against moving the bill forward.

Sinema's long-held opposition to changing the filibuster rules has earned her the ire of progressive groups, including prominent pro-choice political organizations. After Sinema and Manchin voted against a one-time change to the filibuster rules to pass voting rights legislation in January, EMILY's List and NARAL Pro-Choice America announced they would no longer support her for office.

Sinema has long argued that the higher threshold to debate legislation forces senators to work across the aisle, and stabilizes federal laws from drastic swings in policy as Congress changes hands.

"In four years or any time when the other party gains control, without the filibuster in place, all those voting rights protections could be wiped out with a simple majority vote," Sinema said during an August 2021 interview on "The View."

"There's no need for me to restate my long-standing support for the 60-vote threshold to pass legislation," Sinema said in a January speech on the Senate floor. "There's no need for me to restate its role in protecting our country from wild reversals from federal policy. It's a view I've held during my years in both the House and the US Senate, and it's the view I continue to hold."