West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin (D) is cosponsoring a bill to reinstate the 1973 Roe vs. Wade ruling that found a nonexistent constitutional right to abortion and was overturned by the more conservative U.S. Supreme Court in June of 2022.
Soon after that ruling, Manchin said he "absolutely" still supported the 20-week federal abortion limit he has voted for on multiple occasions, and he was reportedly "very interested" in Senator Lindsey Graham's (R-South Carolina) legislation to prohibit most abortions at 15 weeks of pregnancy and beyond. But as for the decision in the Dobbs case, he cited is Catholic-based pro-life beliefs for being "deeply disappointed" in the court.
Jamie Dangers of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America tells AFN the Reproductive Freedom for All Act provides for abortion up to birth and features a clause that says a viable child can be aborted if the mother's life is in danger.
"If a child is viable, and the life or the health of the pregnant woman is at risk, why wouldn't you just do an emergency C-section or an emergency induction to go ahead and deliver the child alive and try to save both of them?" Dangers wonders.
Senator Manchin said in a related press release that "while I will always consider myself pro-life, we cannot take away a woman's basic right to make her own health care decisions."
"Sometimes it's hard to know exactly what he thinks about this issue," Dangers responds. "He says he is pro-life; he has voted with the pro-life community on some things like government funding, but this is very blatantly a pro-abortion bill, and that's hard to square with a self-given title of being pro-life."
Manchin, who has served as his state's senior U.S. senator since 2010, is not running for re-election.
