Democrats put forward a very extreme abortion bill that would strip all state protections from all babies in the womb, up until the moment before delivery. Being so extreme, the bill got zero Republican votes and also lost one Democrat, leaving it with only 49 favorable votes. Meanwhile, 51 senators voted against it.
So a bipartisan majority defeated an extreme bill. But inexplicably, Democrats responded to this bipartisan majority vote against the bill as if a GOP minority of the Senate had filibustered it.
.@SenWarren: “I believe in democracy, and I don’t believe the minority should have the ability to block things that the majority wants to do. That’s not in the Constitution. […] It’s time to get rid of the filibuster.” https://t.co/2tBTIfvv2q pic.twitter.com/UwZuKxrotg
— The Hill (@thehill) May 11, 2022
This wasn’t just Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) being Elizabeth Warren. This was part of a clear Democratic strategy — to pretend that the defeat of the abortion-on-demand-until-birth bill was a GOP filibuster.
Today the Senate will vote on the Women’s Health Protection Act.
Today would be a great day to end the filibuster and protect abortion rights.
— Rep. Pramila Jayapal (@RepJayapal) May 11, 2022
Serious question: Why shouldn’t abortion rights be an exception to the filibuster? Dems are fine with a filibuster exception to raise the debt ceiling. So why not to save Roe?
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) May 11, 2022
Why do Democrats push such blatantly false storylines that are easily disprovable? Maybe because the establishment media are willing to play along with their deceptions.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats’ bill to write Roe v. Wade into law blocked by GOP-led filibuster as Supreme Court weighs abortion case.
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) May 11, 2022
That’s the Associated Press. Here’s the New York Times:
Breaking News: Senate Republicans used a filibuster to block a bill to safeguard abortion rights, thwarting Democrats’ effort to enshrine Roe v. Wade in federal law. https://t.co/zgJmZuoWyK
— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 11, 2022
The Washington Post chooses the word “blocks” and leaves it very ambiguous in its headline and first paragraphs about which side had the majority. The result is that readers end up believing the precise falsehood that Democrats were hoping they would believe.
Here’s a stark reminder that the lone purpose of the filibuster is to help U.S. Sen. John C. Calhoun of South Carolina protect and expand the right to own slaves: https://t.co/5Foamw3ywg
— Tom Whitehurst Jr. (@WhitehurstJr) May 12, 2022
The New York Times said that “Republicans used the filibuster to thwart the bill” — again, leaving the false impression that a minority blocked a bill that had majority support.
It’s all part of the campaign to pretend that most people stand with Democrats on abortion. The defeated bill would have made abortion legal nationwide up until the second of birth if the “emotional health” of the mother were in any way threatened. Most people believe abortion should be illegal after 15 weeks. Most people might support a federal law protecting first-trimester abortions, but this bill goes far, far beyond that.
I don’t suspect that this disinformation campaign will work. Democrats acted as if they represented the entire public on the question of election administration last year, and they only ended up fooling themselves, the media, and corporate executives. They’re playing the same game here on abortion, and hopefully, they will fail as miserably.
