Senate Democrats failed to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act in a 46-48 vote Monday. The bill needed 60 votes to break a GOP-led filibuster.

All Republicans voted no on the bill. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-WV, was the only Democrat to cross the party line and vote against it. Sen. Bob Casey, D-PA, voted yes, despite presenting himself for years as a pro-life Democrat.

Ahead of the vote, which was scheduled by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, earlier this month, U.S. bishops and other Catholic and pro-life leaders, including CatholicVote President Brian Burch, decried the bill as “extreme” and “radical.”

“This deceptively-named, extreme bill would impose abortion on demand nationwide at any stage of pregnancy through federal statute,” said a petition statement from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. “Even worse, it would eliminate modest and widely supported pro-life laws at every level of government — the federal, state, and local level — including parental notification for minor girls, informed consent, and health or safety protections specific to abortion facilities.”

The Bishops also warned that the bill “would force all Americans to support abortions here and abroad with their tax dollars,” and “would also likely force health care providers and professionals to perform, assist in, and/or refer for abortion against their deeply-held beliefs, as well as force employers and insurers to cover or pay for abortion.”

This bill would allow abortion, for any reason, up to the moment of birth, paid for by taxpayers. Further, it would wipe off the books all protections for concerned parents who would seek to protect their daughters from the grisly abortion industry. The U.S. Bishops have rightly called this law ‘deceptive’ and an ‘extreme violation of human rights.’

“The decision by Senator Schumer to hold a vote this week on the so-called ‘Women’s Health Protection Act’ is further proof that Democrats are afraid to tell the American people what they really believe,” added former White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, a Catholic. The bill is “so extreme,” Mulvaney said, that Schumer “purposely chose to vote on it while Americans are rightfully focused on the war in Ukraine….”

The above comes from a Feb. 28 story on CatholicVote.org.