Month: May 2022

The Senate failed to advance a Democratic-led bill that would protect abortion access nationwide in a vote on Wednesday. The Women’s Health Protection Act was triggered by a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion that indicates Roe v. Wade is likely to be overturned.  The leaked Supreme Court draft opinion may not be the final ruling, and it would have no force of law until it was issued. But it has been widely expected that the court would overturn Roe v. Wade and the subsequent ‘Planned Parenthood v. Casey’ decision, which upheld a constitutional right to abortion.

The bill passed the House with 49 votes, but fell short of the 60 senators needed to break a filibuster. All 50 Republicans and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin voted against proceeding to debate with a vote of 49-51.  Biden said in a statement after the vote:  “Republicans in Congress — not one of whom voted for this bill — have chosen to stand in the way of Americans’ rights to make the most personal decisions about their own bodies, families and lives. To protect the right to choose, voters need to elect more pro-choice senators this November, and return a pro-choice majority to the House. If they do, Congress can pass this bill in January, and put it on my desk, so I can sign it into law.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said it was “one of the most consequential” votes the Senate has held in decades, adding in a floor speech, “for MAGA Republicans, this has always been about making abortion illegal everywhere.”  After the vote, Schumer said Democrats are “going to continue to highlight this issue relentlessly and strongly between now and November because it is so important.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called the bill “extreme” and “radical” and added in a floor speech:  “Our Democrat colleagues want to vote for abortion on demand through all nine months, until the moment before the baby is born — a failed show vote that will only prove their own extremism.”

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On Wednesday, President Biden visited farmers in Kankakee, Ill., to speak on the impact of the Russian-Ukraine war on the economy, and the White House’s efforts to lower food prices in the face of rising inflation.  Said Biden: “America’s fighting on two fronts. At home, it’s inflation and rising prices. Abroad, it’s helping Ukrainians defending their democracy. Putin’s war has cut off critical sources of food.”

Biden said efforts will be made at the upcoming G7 meeting to both provide food to the world, and to lower prices – something that the war in Ukraine is preventing from getting to market. Said Biden: “They’re going to see what action we can take to increase fertilizer supplies globally and identify how we can work together to prevent export restrictions on food and bring more global production to market, which will stabilize prices [and] bring more certainty to our farmers and keep people from dying of hunger.”  He added that his administration is working to “drive down the costs to farmers and prices to consumers,” and that the market has been distorted by lack of competition, which increases prices.

The White House said in a statement earlier Wednesday: “[Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s unjustified invasion of Ukraine has cut off a critical source of wheat, corn, barley, oilseeds and cooking oil. It has also disrupted global supply chains for fertilizer, which farmers depend on to maximize yields. These and other actions, combined with the ongoing pandemic-related disruptions to global supply chains, have put pressure on food prices, with global food prices increasing nearly 13% following Putin’s invasion.”

Earlier Wednesday, the Labor Department said that consumer prices rose by 0.3% during the month of April — slightly more than most economists projected. In particular, the report said that food prices increased almost 1% last month.

Editorial credit: YASAMIN JAFARI TEHRANI / Shutterstock.com