Reno Reporter

On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate voted on the Women's Health Protection Act, which sought to codify abortion as a right for women across the country. The vote failed 49-51. 

Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto voted in support of the bill.

The senate vote did not succeed in invoking cloture on the legislation, which would have ended debate and advanced the bill to a final vote for passage.

"Women deserve reproductive rights--it's as simple as that," Cortez Masto said in a Wednesday tweet, referring to her affirmative vote. 

Some Catholics are criticizing the senator for voting for the bill because she is Catholic and one of the beliefs of the faith is that abortion is wrong.

"She votes the way she wants and doesn't seem to be concerned about our Catholic values in the slightest," Jim Lydon, from Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Hawthorne, Nev., told the Reno Reporter on Thursday. "There is no justification for her actions except her self-serving outlook."

The legislation has been criticized as going too far, with moderate senators such as Susan Collins and Joe Manchin commenting that they would support a less extreme version of the bill, a Wednesday Forbes report said.

Susan B. Anthony List, a national pro-life organization, on Wednesday condemned Cortez Masto's support of the bill, which they criticized as allowing "abortion until the moment of birth."

Cortez Masto supported previous abortion legislation when it was brought up for a vote in February. That vote failed by a margin of 46-48.