Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked passage of a bill to protect Americans’ access to contraception, one of several legislative measures Democrats have promised on reproductive rights ahead of the November election.
Sens only. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) broke with the Republican Party and voted in favor of the legislation, which failed by a vote of 51 to 39 – short of the 60 votes needed to advance.
The vote comes after former President Donald Trump told a local television station that he is “looking” at restrictions on contraception, and just before the two-year anniversary of the birth control election. Dobbs decision that ended the federal right to abortion. Trump quickly walked back his comment in a social media post, promising he would never “ban” birth control. But Democrats point to Trump’s comments as part of the broader consequences of losing Roe v. Wadeand argue that Republicans will limit access to contraception if given the chance.
In the days and hours leading up to the vote, Democrats and their progressive allies vowed to use it against Republican lawmakers as part of their push to frame the 2024 election as an existential choice between personal freedoms and a rollback of rights.
President Joe Biden‘s re-election campaign told reporters Wednesday morning that they are hosting events this week in Atlanta, Georgia; Grand Rapids, MI; Madison, Wis.; Reno, Nevada, and Tucson, Arizona, “to mobilize voters and volunteers around the threat Donald Trump poses to birth control,” and said Biden plans to confront Trump on the issue during their debate in Atlanta later this month.
“We’re going to make sure voters know there will be a vote on contraception in November,” said campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez.
The bill would have codified Americans’ right to contraception and the right of medical providers to provide contraception. Senate Republicans scuttled a voice vote on the same legislation in 2022, shortly after the fall of the House Rooand again in 2023. But Wednesday’s roll call gives Democrats and progressive groups the opportunity to use members’ no votes as ammunition.
“This week and in the weeks to come, Senate Republicans will have to answer for their anti-abortion, anti-women agenda,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said ahead of the vote. “And my Republican colleagues should know that the American people are watching closely.”
Ahead of the vote, the advocacy group Americans for Contraception set up a 20-foot-long, inflatable IUD a few blocks from the Capitol and joined Senate Democrats in a news conference touting the bill.
“Republicans will try to say they support the right to contraception,” said Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.). “We are calling their bluff again.”
Some Republican senators who voted against the legislation told POLITICO they believed it would force religious organizations to provide both contraception and gender-affirming care to their employees — pointing to language in the bill that says protecting patients’ right to contraception applies, regardless of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
“A judge could essentially force Catholic schools and others to violate their religious conscience,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said in an interview Tuesday, adding that he had not read the entire bill. “And I actually think at some point it could be used by a judge to mandate so-called gender reassignment procedures.”
Democrats disputed that charge, telling reporters on Wednesday that “there is no religious issue that is part of this legislation at all.”
“All this legislation does is give an individual the right to access contraception and the right for a provider to be able to provide contraception,” Markey said at a news conference.
Other Republicans called the vote a partisan stunt and argued it was unnecessary.
“There is no real opposition to contraception anywhere in the United States Senate or across the country, so I think it’s pretty much a non-issue,” said Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.). “It is a show vote to distract from the massive wave of inflation caused by the Democrats, the utter failure of their plan at the border and their lack of concern for our national security needs.”
Earlier this week, nearly two dozen Republican senators signed a “Dear Colleague” letter accusing Democrats of “fear-mongering on this important issue to score cheap political points.” Some of those same members support a smaller rival bill from Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) that would direct the FDA to prioritize reviewing applications for additional over-the-counter oral contraceptives — but not emergency contraceptives.
Democrats and their progressive allies counter that the threat to access to birth control is very real, at both the state and federal level. For example, the text of the bill cited a concurring opinion that Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in 2022 Dobbs concludes that the court must “reconsider” other long-standing precedents. Griswold vs. Connecticut — the 1965 decision guaranteeing the right of married couples to use contraception.
Proponents of the bill also cited former Trump’s recent comment that he is “looking” at restrictions on contraception to argue that federal protections are needed. Although Trump has since said he would never ban contraception, Democrats argue the pledge cannot be taken at face value.
“We know that Donald Trump has a history of playing to his right-wing base, and when he attacks reproductive freedom, Republican leaders at every level will follow like lemmings, no matter how outrageous or oppressive it is,” said Governor Roy Cooper of North Carolina. told reporters Wednesday morning during a call hosted by the Biden campaign.
Many of Trump’s policies as president made it harder to access contraception — especially for the poor and working class — including changes to the Title Trump allies, who have drafted a policy manifesto for him to implement if he wins in November, are calling on him to reinstate that policy and go further — rolling back insurance coverage for some forms of emergency contraception and allowing virtually every employer to refuse this. include any contraception in their health plans.
Recent battles at the state level over contraception also cast a shadow on Wednesday’s vote. In May, Virginia’s Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, vetoed a bill that would have established the right to contraception in the state, and GOP lawmakers in Arizona and Louisiana blocked legislation that would have done the same.
Democrats in the House of Representatives are pushing the issue and working to regain a majority, using a discharge petition that aims to force a floor vote. No Republicans have signed up yet.
Ben Leonard contributed reporting.
