Pro-Life Group: Democrats Killing Filibuster Would Advance Abortion

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Dec 11, 2012   |   5:49PM   |   Washington, DC

One of the major pro-life groups in the nation’s capital is worried about a move by pro-abortion Democrats in the Senate to kill the filibuster. If Harry Reid and his colleagues are successful, it would pave the way for President Barack Obama’s abortion agenda.

The National Right to Life Committee is alerting pro-life advocates to the move with the hopes of stopping it.

“When the new Congress convenes on January 3, President Obama’s party will control 55 seats in the U.S. Senate — a gain of two seats over 2011-2012.  However, the longstanding Senate rules protect the rights of a Senate minority in ways that generally ensure that any legislation that will make a major change in federal policy will require 60 votes to be approved.  Currently, these rules act to provide vital protections for a number of pro-life policies that were enacted prior to the election of Barack Obama as president in 2008,” the group informed LifeNews.

“However, in recent weeks a grave new threat has emerged:  Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid is threatening to force through major changes in the Senate rules,” NRLC added. “While Reid has not yet revealed all the details of his plan, the bottom line is that he wishes to greatly narrow the range of circumstances under which the minority could invoke a 60-vote threshold.  To say it another way, Reid wants to make it far easier to ram legislation through the Senate with as few as 50 or 51 votes.”

NRLC says Reid, who supports abortion, intends to institute this power grab by breaking the Senate’s written rules.

Under the current Senate rules, no Senate rule may be changed unless two-thirds of the Senate votes to agree to the change, or 67 senators assuming every senator votes.

But Reid has indicated that he intends to work in concert with Vice President Joe Biden — who, under the Constitution, has the right to preside over the Senate whenever he wishes — to disregard the two-thirds requirement and impose the new rules by a simple majority vote. But Reid has indicated that he intends to work in concert with Vice President Joe Biden — who, under the Constitution, has the right to preside over the Senate whenever he wishes — to disregard the two-thirds requirement and impose the new rules by a simple majority vote.

Under this scenario, Reid would require the agreement of only 50 of the 55 Democratic senators, plus Biden’s control of the chair.

Republicans are working to build opposition to the plan, which they have termed the “nuclear option,” while media outlets term it as “filibuster reform.”

National Right to Life says the pro-abortion agenda would march on unfettered if Reid and Democrats get their way.

“The important thing to understand is that if Reid actually pulls the trigger on the “nuclear option,” it will make it much more likely that the pro-abortion Senate majority will ride roughshod over the mostly pro-life Senate minority, at least for the next two years.  This could put in jeopardy major pro-life laws, including the Hyde Amendment, which has prohibited most federal funding of abortion for the past quarter-century,” NRLC explains.

“Furthermore, if Reid is able to pull this off, it opens the door for him to employ the same rule-breaking, rule-changing method to later make further changes that would make it much easier for President Obama to pack key positions in the federal Executive Branch and the federal judiciary — including the Supreme Court — with extreme pro-abortion advocates, to an even greater degree than he accomplished during his first term,” the pro-life group adds.

All 45 of the Senate Republicans are expected to aggressively oppose the power grab and some Democrats are facing pressure to not support it as well, with even liberal pro-abortion Senator Dianne Feinstein of California saying, “I think that’s a mistake at this time but I’ll listen to arguments.” others like Senator Mark Pryor have said they are “reluctant: to support it and other Democrats who face re-election in 2014 may be cautious.

NRLC urges:  “Senator Reid’s historic power grab will play out between now and January 3.  If you don’t want President Obama using the U.S. Senate as a rubber stamp for his policies and nominations during the years just ahead, please immediately call [your senators].”

In a speech today on the Senate Floor, U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) today argued that there is no need to change the Senate’s filibuster rules, and that any efforts to do so would threaten the integrity of the Senate.

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“Let’s use some common sense and stop misleading our fellow citizens about how this body operates,” Hatch said in his speech. “A filibuster is debate that cannot be stopped. And guess what? During this 112th Congress, a much smaller percentage of cloture votes have failed than in the past. That’s right — cloture votes today are more successful in preventing filibusters than in the past.”

Hatch added that “[t]here simply is no crisis, no unprecedented abuse, that requires some sort of fundamental change in the rules and traditions of this body. Rather than blowing up the Senate, I suggest that the majority actually try working with the minority. That’s something we haven’t seen under the current majority leader’s tenure.”