am stephanie ruhle. 181 days to the midterm elections. and presenting protecting the right twos is quickly becoming a key strategy for democrats. today, all 50 senate republicans, with a help from joe manchin, blocked legislation that would have made roe v. wade federal law. now democrats are gearing up to take their case to the courts and the voters. the senate failed to stand in defensive a woman s right to make decisions about her own body. this vote clearly suggests that the senate is not where the majority of americans are on this issue. it also makes clear that a priority for all who care about this issue a priority should be, to elect pro choice leaders at the local, state and federal level. we are going to continue to highlight this issue, where land closely and strongly, between now and november. senate republicans susan collins and lisa murkowski say they are not giving up on a lot to protect the rights upheld and roe v. wade. they have introduced their own
the founders were designing a government for a country whose entire population was the same size. the same size as the population of brooklyn today. it was inconceivable to the founders that the unexplored areas of the continent would eventually include a state called wyoming, with a population smaller than many of the country s biggest cities. and that even deeper into the unexplored territory, they would eventually be a state named by its spanish speaking settlers that would eventually have a population to rival the size of some of the most influential countries in the world. and the economy of that state alone would grow to be the seventh largest economy in the world, if it were a separate country. the founders would have recognized that the 40 million people of california, being restricted to voting for the same number of senators as the 580,000 people of wyoming, is a crime against democracy. we long ago outgrew the senate formula of two per state, which has evolved to a
to walk and chew gum. they have to talk about pocketbook issues. they had better. but this is important. and it s intrinsically important to millions end and millions of americans, what s about to happen to roe v. wade. they would not be doing their jobs just as representatives and as politicians and as people, i think, if they did not make this a big issue as well. because of the impact, because of what it is about to do. well, 130 women will be eligible to vote in the midterms. 70% support a woman s individual choice. that is 91 million voters out there. joyce, i mentioned it before. the one democrat who did not vote with the rest of his party, west virginia s joe manchin. in an interview today he explained why. watch this. the bill we have today to vote on, the women s health
prize-winning columnist for the post. all right, let s get started jacqui, it s official. roe v. wade is not going to become law, at least not yet. so, we are seeing democrats in congress now focus on the midterms, making abortion their key issue. is that a winning strategy given how many americans are so concerned about pocketbook issues? yes, stephanie, it s really a question about democrats grappling with this. but senate majority leader chuck schumer really said, as much today. that the vote to codify roe v. wade was essentially a move around mobilizing voters. and not actually about passing legislation, as has been considered for quite some time now, despite the slight democratic majority, the democrats have not had the votes to codify this, nor defeat republican filibusters and change senate rules. you heard vice president kamala
protection act and i support people who support it. but make no mistake, it is not roe v. wade codification. it s an expansion. it wipes 500 state laws off of the books. it expands abortion. it is just disappointing that we are going to be voting on a piece of legislation that i will not be voting for today. but i would vote for a roe v. wade codification if it was today. i was hopeful for that. joyce, fact check this for us. because lots of us are sitting here and thinking, that this was all about roe versus wade. so, his criticism might be true in some sort of a hyper technical sense. but it is really disingenuous. what he s talking about our provisions in this bill that make it in permissible for states to engage in some of the restrictions on access to abortion, that make a very difficult for women to fulfill their promise that roe v. wade offers them. for instance, these waiting periods and delays, we have to