Wednesday afternoon, Senate Republicans blocked the Right to Contraception Act, a Democrat-led measure that would have codified the right to contraception into federal law. The final vote was 51 in favor and 39 against, with just two Republicans (Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine) joining Democrats and Independents in support of the bill. (The bill needed 60 votes to overcome the filibuster and make it to a vote.)
Its passage was a long shot, pending any last-minute changes from Republicans looking to toe the party line, but it was a savvy political move by Democrats that aimed to get Republicans on the record against birth control ahead of the 2024 elections.
Similarly to his vote on the Equal Rights Amendment in April 2023, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) voted “no,” leaving him the option of reconsidering the resolution in the Senate in the future.
The decision comes just one day after Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) chaired a hearing on the impact of abortion bans post-Dobbs, in which reproductive rights experts and women affected by bans testified to the grave harm of these laws.
This bill is as clear as it gets, and if you can’t get behind that, I don’t think as a policymaker you should be able to say that you’re pro-contraception. I think that is something that people deserve to know about their elected officials.
Rachel Fey
The bill, only 11 pages long, would also guarantee the right for healthcare providers to prescribe contraceptives and provide information, free from government interference.
“It’s very simple. It just says you have the right to use and healthcare providers have the right to provide contraception,” said Rachel Fey, vice president of policy and strategic partnerships at Power to Decide. “I think this bill is as clear as it gets, and if you can’t get behind that, I don’t think as a policymaker you should be able to say that you’re pro contraception. I think that is something that people deserve to know about their elected officials.”
National Consensus on Contraception
Despite tension and inaction amongst lawmakers, reproductive rights remains the Republican Party’s most vulnerable election issue.
The national consensus on birth control access remains strong across party lines.
- A large majority of Americans (74 percent) believe that reproductive care, like birth control pills, should be made easier to access, including 52 percent of Republicans, according to new data by Navigator Research.
- Eight in 10 Americans support the Right to Contraception Act, according to a study conducted by Impact Research
- Over 60 percent worry about the Supreme Court overturning their constitutional right to contraception.
The dissenting opinion on Dobbs has opened the door to further attacks on reproductive rights—making protections like the Right to Contraception Acts increasingly crucial.
Two years ago, the Court put [access to contraception] in jeopardy by overturning Roe v. Wade and taking away a woman’s constitutional right to choose.
President Biden in a statement after the vote
In a statement after the vote, President Biden said,“Today’s vote comes two days before the 59th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Griswold v. Connecticut, which established that the fundamental right to privacy protects the ability to make deeply personal decisions free from the interference of politicians, including to access contraception. Two years ago, the Court put that right in jeopardy by overturning Roe v. Wade and taking away a woman’s constitutional right to choose.”
Contraceptive care is worsening post-Dobbs; in Arizona, Iowa, New Jersey and Wisconsin women of reproductive age reported more barriers in accessing contraception as well as decreased high-quality contraceptive care, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
Republican Stance on Contraception
Representing Republicans’ position on reproductive rights on Wednesday was Christina Francis, the president of American Association of Pro-Life OBGYNs and the GOP’s witness for the hearing. Skirting Sen. Murray’s questions on plan B, IUDs and other forms of birth control, Francis underscores Republicans’ strong opposition to abortion and reproductive rights.
“The playbook that they are following is very similar to the playbook that anti-abortion groups followed in order to overturn Roe,” said Fey. “It starts with small attacks, but the net effect of all those death-by-a-thousand-cuts attacks is that people—particularly with lower incomes, Black and brown people, people who depend on public programs, young people—all see severe barriers to access to the birth control they want and need.”
The playbook that they are following is very similar to the playbook that anti-abortion groups followed in order to overturn Roe.
Rachel Fey
Ahead of Wednesday’s vote, Schumer invited “Americans to read this bill for themselves,” stressing that the Right to Contraception Act is not about abortion, but rather birth control. However, as Grace Haley wrote in Abortion Everyday, Francis has admitted belief that IUDs and emergency contraception are ‘abortifacients,’ meaning that they cause miscarriage.
“Let’s be crystal clear, IUDs and Plan B do not cause an abortion. That level of disinformation is chilling—and it cuts to the heart of the issue about what many Republicans really think about contraception,” said Sen. Murray during her Wednesday speech.
Access to Contraception Moving Forward
This year, over-the-counter birth control became a reality when Opill hit the shelves, breaking a massive barrier in contraceptive access. Additionally, 13 states and D.C. have now enshrined the right to contraception into their constitution.
Fey stressed that equitable contraceptive care goes far deeper than access itself:
“We really need to understand that the Right to Contraception Act is the first step in a series of things that we need to do to make birth control accessible to everyone. When we think about birth control access, we really need to zero in on the fact that there is a deep inequity there. In the same ways that systemic racism plays out in this country when it comes to economic realities and in the healthcare system more broadly, that same racism plays out in who has access to birth control—and that builds on the history of a lack of reproductive autonomy that dates back to slavery.
“Contraception is what makes so many other dreams that people have for themselves and their lives and their families possible.”
