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Posted: 2022-05-03T14:27:35Z | Updated: 2022-05-03T15:57:00Z

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Tuesday that the chamber will vote on a bill to codify Roe v. Wade , the ruling that protects abortion rights and that is now under threat.

Schumers announcement comes in the wake of a report that the Supreme Court court is set to dismantle Roe v. Wade, according to a draft opinion leaked to Politico . The Supreme Court later confirmed the draft was authentic .

A vote on this legislation is not an abstract exercise, Schumer said on the Senate floor. This is as urgent and real as it gets. We will vote to protect a womans right to choose and every American is going to see [on] which side every senator stands.

Democrats have widely decried the draft ruling, which Politico noted is not yet final. But they are also limited in what they can do. The Senate needs either 60 votes in favor of abortion rights or 50 votes in support of nuking the filibuster as of now, it has neither.

The House passed the the Womens Health Protection Act, a bill to codify abortion rights, last year. The Senate attempted a vote on it in March, but Republicans and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) blocked it from coming to the floor for debate.

Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) also oppose ending the filibuster, which would be necessary to pass legislation with fewer than 60 votes. After the leaked draft was published, Sinema reiterated that she backs the Womens Health Protection Act, but also referenced [p]rotections in the Senate safeguarding against the erosion of womens access to health care an allusion to the filibuster. Manchin said Tuesday that he continues to support filibuster rules.

Some Democrats called on the Senate to do away with the filibuster in order to codify abortion rights.

Congress must pass legislation that codifies Roe v. Wade as the law of the land in this country NOW, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wrote on Twitter. And if there arent 60 votes in the Senate to do it, and there are not, we must end the filibuster to pass it with 50 votes.

Schumer did not address the filibuster in his remarks.