Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced Thursday that the Senate will vote next week on advancing legislation that codifies the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision into law.
Schumer called the vote "one of the most important" senators will take, per CBS News. But the measure is almost guaranteed to fail, considering lawmakers will need at least 60 votes to move forward. It will also mark the upper chamber's second attempt at enshrining abortion protections via legislation, after a similar effort in February was defeated.
The majority leader has been teasing his plan ever since Politico published a bombshell report Monday evening revealing the Supreme Court poised to overturn Roe.
"Come next week, Senate Republicans will have to answer for everything they've done over the years to embolden the hard right's hostility against a woman's choice," Schumer said on the Senate floor. "The vote will tell, next week. America will be watching."
Meanwhile, the Biden administration "spent much of Tuesday panicked as they realized how few tools they had at their disposal" to fight the court's expected decision, The Washington Post reports.
"Every single thing they do is going to get legally challenged, and every [government] lawyer agrees," one outside adviser told the Post. "A bunch of attorneys general will mobilize, and [the administration] will lose." Read more at The Washington Post and CBS News.