Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has not said whether he supports a 15-week federal ban on abortions, with exceptions, but told NBC’s “Meet the Press,” “I don’t think we’re going to get 60 votes in the Senate for any kind of national legislation.”
McConnell has made it clear that he believes this is an issue that needs to be resolved in each state, telling moderator Kristen Welker, “I’m not advocating anything at that level. I think it’s going to be resolved across the country and it’s going to be very different in different states.”
Since the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health struck down the constitutional right to abortion, states have enacted laws that strengthen or eliminate access to abortion. 10 states have expanded access to abortion, while 14 have virtually banned it. according to the analysis By the pro-abortion Center for Reproductive Rights.
Still, some at the federal level, including Sen. Lindsey Graham, R.S.C., have tried to pass national restrictions on abortion. In late 2022, after the Dobbs decision, Graham submitted a bill it would federally ban most abortions at 15 weeks.
“I don’t think any federal law is going to get 60 votes either way in the Senate,” McConnell said Thursday, dismissing the proposed bill as purely political.
He added, “It seems to me that the views on this issue at the state level vary depending on where you are. And we are elected by the states. And my members are pretty smart about how they want to deal with this very divisive issue. In fact, I’m going to put them here.” are the people who sent it.”
Over the past two years, Democrats have made abortion a campaign issue, binding Republicans to the Supreme Court ruling and statewide bans.
Former President Donald Trump tried to neutralize the issue for his presidential campaign when he told reporters in Atlanta earlier this month. he would not sign a federal abortion ban if he came to his desk as president.
In an interview Thursday, Welker also took issue with a statement from McConnell In 2022, he did When you say “a national ban is possible.”
“I said it was possible. I didn’t say it was my opinion. I just said it was possible,” McConnell said Thursday.