Manchin leads effort to codify Roe V. Wade

WASHINGTON, D.C. (WVVA) - Sen. Joe Manchin has cosponsored a bipartisan bill that would codify some of the basics of Roe v. Wade to protect women’s abilities to make their own health care decisions.

Called the Reproductive Freedom For All Act, it would prohibit state regulations that impose an “undue burden on a woman’s access to pre-viability abortions.”

States would be allowed to enact reasonable restrictions on post-viability abortions as long as abortions that are necessary to protect the life or health of the mother are not banned. Viability is considered about 22 weeks of pregnancy.

Access to contraceptives would also be protected under the bill.

“The Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs abandoned over 50 years of established legal precedent. A majority of Americans support the balanced protections established under Roe v. Wade, and it’s our job to represent the will of the people,” Manchin said. “Our sensible legislation, the Reproductive Freedom For All Act, would reinstate the fundamental protections women held for five decades. It strikes a commonsense balance between radically different viewpoints on access to reproductive health services and neither expands nor restricts what had been the law of the land. While I will always consider myself pro-life, we cannot take away a woman’s basic right to make her own health care decisions, and I am hopeful Republicans and Democrats will come together to see this important, bipartisan legislation across the finish line.”

The legislation is also cosponsored by Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) and Susan Collins (R-ME).