BREAKING: Sen. Manchin Votes With GOP to Shut Down Democratic Abortion Bill

It looks like Joe Biden will have an opportunity to nominate a justice to the Supreme Court.

Nevertheless, there will still be a clear conservative majority with six of the nine jurists having been nominated by a GOP president.

This bias has left many Democrats concerned about the future of abortion rights.

As a result, many leftist lawmakers have advanced a plan to enshrine the precedent established decades ago in the Roe v. Wade decision.

The effort passed in the House last year, but it hit a roadblock when the Senate recently considered it.

In the evenly split upper chamber, one Democrat cast a decisive vote that stopped the measure in its tracks.

Newsweek provided all the details:

A bill to codify abortion rights into federal law died in the Senate on Monday, after it failed to amass enough support to pass a procedural vote.

The Women’s Health Protection Act needed the support of several Republicans to reach the necessary 60-vote threshold to overcome a filibuster in the evenly split Senate. It was co-sponsored by all but two Democratic senators, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania.

It failed to advance after the Senate voted 46-48 to block the bill, with Manchin joining Senate Republicans in opposition. Six senators didn’t vote.

Although he is technically still a Democrat, Manchin has been siding with the GOP on a number of issues in recent months.

Specifically, he opposed the Biden administration’s push to pass a huge spending package known as the Build Back Better bill.

His willingness to reach across the aisle has earned him some praise from several prominent Republicans.

Asked abt Dems tax&spend spree on FoxNews Manchin “I cannot vote to continue w this legislation” Further proving separating partisan BBB&bipartisan infrastructure into 2bills was right thing Needed infrastructure investment secured in bipart way w/out Dems social spending passing

— Chuck Grassley (@ChuckGrassley) December 19, 2021

Senator @tedcruz on @Sen_JoeManchin and the Build Back Better bill: “You know what, the people of West Virginia don’t want it. Manchin did the right thing—he actually represented the men and women of his state.” pic.twitter.com/ye0D3wEGYn

— Julia 🇺🇸 (@Jules31415) December 27, 2021

By the same token, he has become something of a pariah within his own party.

"I think what Sen. Manchin did yesterday represents such an egregious breach of trust of the President," Rep. Ocasio-Cortez on Sen. Manchin's remarks that he won't support the Build Back Better bill.

"It's an outcome we had warned about."

Watch more: https://t.co/QLe258vKOk pic.twitter.com/YAgt6HxVsq

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) December 20, 2021

In January, the child poverty rate increased by 40% in just 1 month – jumping from 12.1% to 17% as 3.7 million children slipped into poverty. How did this happen? 50 Republicans and 1 corporate Democrat allowed the $300 a month Child Tax Credit to expire. That is morally obscene.

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) February 18, 2022

As for the perceived threat to abortion rights, progressives have long held pro-life Republicans in contempt.

According to NPR:

With Roe v. Wade facing its strongest threat in decades, a new poll finds Democrats increasingly view protecting abortion rights as a high priority for the government.

Thirteen percent of Democrats mentioned abortion or reproductive rights as one of the issues they want the federal government to address in 2022, according to a December poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That’s up from less than 1% of Democrats who named it as a priority for 2021 and 3% who listed it in 2020.

Despite the constant pressure from his fellow Democrats, Manchin has maintained his fiercely independent streak on a number of hot-button issues.

In the following video clip, he explained his principled stance on the Build Back Better proposal.

Do you believe Sen. Manchin should switch parties?