McConnell tamps down chance abortion bill could pass GOP Senate

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) downplayed the possibility that a Republican-controlled Senate would pass a federal abortion ban. 

McConnell, during a weekly press conference, sidestepped a question about if he would rule out bringing up an abortion ban but said that most of the Senate GOP believed abortion should be dealt with at the state level. 

“Historically, there have been abortion votes on the floor of the Senate. None of them have achieved 60 votes. … I think it’s safe to say there aren’t 60 votes there at the federal level, no matter who happens to be in the majority, no matter who happens to be in the White House,” McConnell said. 

McConnell added that he believed that there were “no issues that Republicans believe should be exempt from the 60-vote threshold.”

McConnell’s comments come after he said that it was possible a GOP-controlled Congress could take up federal restrictions on abortion. 

“If the leaked opinion became the final opinion, legislative bodies — not only at the state level but at the federal level — certainly could legislate in that area,” McConnell told USA Today when asked if a national abortion ban was “worthy of debate.”

McConnell, asked about his comments, said the remarks were meant to refer to the leaked Supreme Court decision, which he said would make it “possible” for state and federal legislatures could take up abortion bans.

“If that’s the decision, the court makes it possible,” McConnell said. “The word possible refers to the Supreme Court’s decision.”