In remarks to a packed rally crowd, Pennsylvania’s Democratic candidate for US Senate John Fetterman pledged his support for eliminating the filibuster and voting to codify abortion rights protections, issuing a warning that the election of his Republican opponent Mehmet Oz could be a “rubber stamp” for a nationwide ban.
“Women are the reason we can win,” Mr Fetterman told a sea of supporters wearing pink “Fetterwoman” T-shirts. “Let me say that again: Women are the reason we win. Don’t piss women off.”
The campaign rally on 11 September at Montgomery County Community College, held as NFL season-opening games were underway, follows a recent wave of anti-abortion legislation in the wake of the US Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the constitutional right to abortion care.
“You know what I would do if I were that 51st vote? Get rid of the filibuster,” Mr Fetterman said, referencing the Senate rule requiring 60 votes to pass most legislation in the currently evenly divided upper chamber.
He urged voters to “send me to [Washington DC] and you will know I will be there to be that vote to scrap the filibuster and codify Roe v Wade.”
Democrats have seized on abortion rights as a central campaign issue in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision to revoke the landmark precedent in that case. New voter registrations among women and young people has surged nationwide, Republican candidates have distorted their messaging to “soften” their anti-abortion agenda while painting their Democratic opponents as extreme, and legal challenges and voters in several states secure key victories for the right to abortion care.
“This decision is between a woman and a real doctor,” Mr Fetterman said. “Oz believes abortion is murder. If every abortion is murder, that means Oz thinks every woman who had to choose an abortion is a killer. Think about that.”
In audio captured byThe Daily Beast, Dr Oz characterised abortion at any stage in a pregnancy as “murder”.
“If life starts at conception, why do you care what age the heart starts beating at,” he says in a recording from a tele-town hall in May during the lead up to the GOP primary election. “It’s, you know, it’s still murder if you were to terminate a child whether their heart’s beating or not.”
Following publication of the audio, he clarified that he is “strongly pro-life” but supports exceptions for abortion for pregnancies from rape, incest, or if the pregnant patient’s life is at risk.
