Senate Democrats Block Anti-Trafficking Bill, Again

Senate Democrats again blocked a bill Wednesday that would create a fund to help victims of human trafficking over concerns about an abortion provision.

Even Democratic co-sponsors of the bill have backed off of it in the past week, claiming that they did not notice a provision that would bar the fees raised from perpetrators to build the fund to pay for abortions. After failing to nab the necessary 60 votes on Tuesday, Republicans failed to clear a procedural hurdle again Wednesday. Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, a member of the Democratic leadership, says “there’s only one way” to now break the impasse.

“They’ve got to take the offensive language out or take the bill off the floor,” he told TIME.

Republicans have blasted Democrats for blocking a bipartisan bill once expected to pass easily. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said before the vote Wednesday that Democrats had made a “historic mistake.”

“Democrats actually filibustered a bill to help victims of modern slavery, apparently because left-wing lobbyists told them to,” he said.

The bill’s delay has pushed back the confirmation vote of President Obama’s Attorney General nominee, Loretta Lynch, who has had to wait around 130 days, longer than the past five nominees combined. McConnell has said that her vote will occur once the sex-trafficking bill is passed.