Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic-led effort to codify Americans’ right to contraception.
It’s a pre-election effort to expand reproductive rights and further label Republicans as the party against women’s health.
The bill would have ensured that Americans had a federal right to condoms, birth control pills and patches, intrauterine devices (IUDs), and sterilization procedures such as vasectomies.
But Republicans say it’s just a false “scare tactic” to try to rally voters against the GOP, who actually also support contraception.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer held a test vote on the ‘Right to Contraception Act’ Wednesday afternoon, but failed to gain enough support to clear the 60-vote threshold needed to proceed. forward.
Hannah Tuohy and Meghan Ravi, both with Americans for Contraception, take a selfie in front of an inflatable contraceptive implant, intrauterine device (IUD) on Capitol Hill ahead of the Senate vote on the “Right to Contraception Act,” Washington, USA, June 5, 2024
Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., the youngest member of the chamber representing one of the county’s most conservative states, criticized the Right to Contraception Act as a “scare tactic” in an election year.
“I want to make it absolutely clear 100 percent that I support continued access to contraception across the country,” she said on the Senate floor Tuesday. “But that is not the purpose of the bill my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are introducing.”
Schumer’s move comes as Democrats continue to try to signal that they are the pro-choice party following the Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision to overturn the federal right to abortion.
Schumer said this week that she wants to “put reproductive freedoms at the center of this chamber, so the American people can see for themselves who will defend their fundamental freedoms.”
Democrats are also expected to hold another vote on the federal right to in vitro fertilization (IVF) later this month to continue their quest to promote themselves as the pro-health party.
A full vote on either measure is unlikely to pass the Senate with the necessary 60 votes, as nearly all Republicans are against it.
And the Republican-controlled House of Representatives would probably never decide to advance the reproduction bills, even if they passed the upper chamber.
Republican senators have strongly rejected the contraception bill, calling Schumer’s plan “deceptive legislation.”
Senate Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said this week that he wants to “bring reproductive freedoms to the forefront of this chamber” so Americans can see who does and does not support a federal bill codifying the Americans’ right to contraception.
Schumer held a news conference on the contraception bill Wednesday before the vote.
“There is no threat to access to contraceptives, which are legal in all states and are required by law to be offered at no cost by health insurers, and it is disgusting that Democrats are sowing fear on this important issue to win cheap political points,” said one coalition. of 22 Republican senators wrote in a letter led by Senators Rand Paul of Kentucky and Rick Scott of Florida.
“This bill infringes on the parental rights and religious freedoms of some Americans and allows the federal government to force religious institutions and schools, including public elementary schools, to offer contraceptives such as condoms to young children.”
“It’s just another way Democrats are using activist lawyers and our courts to advance their radical agenda and that’s why we oppose this bill.”
The vote is similar to another held in late May on an immigration and border security measure.
That bill, which failed in the upper house in February, was taken up again by Schumer, Republicans say, to signal that Democrats are in favor of border security.
Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., speaks alongside other Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., during a news conference in support of the Right to Contraception Act.
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., is getting ahead of Democrats’ attacks on IVF by running an ad saying he will “always protect it.”
As expected, the bill failed again. But it does allow Democrats, particularly those in vulnerable seats, to tell their constituents that they tried twice to pass border reform but were stopped by Republicans.
Schumer is expected to bring more messaging bills up for a vote later this summer, including the IVF measure.
Sen. Scott, getting ahead of Democrats’ upcoming messaging bill, recently ran an ad saying he is in favor of IVF and that his daughter has undergone the treatment.
“This grandfather will always protect IVF, you can be sure of that,” he says.