U.S. Senate GOP prevents contraception access bill from moving ahead

(Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom).

WASHINGTON — An attempt to reinforce Americans’ access to contraception failed Wednesday when U.S. Senate Republicans blocked a bill from advancing toward final passage.

The 51-39 procedural vote required at least 60 senators to move forward, but fell short after GOP lawmakers said the measure was too broad as well as unnecessary.

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Maine Sen. Susan Collins, both Republicans, broke with their party and voted to advance the legislation. Missouri’s GOP senators, Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt, both voted to block the bill from moving forward.

Democrats argued during debate on the 12-page bill that it would provide a safety net should a future Supreme Court overturn two cases that ensure married and unmarried Americans have the right to make decisions about when and how to use contraception.

GOP senators contended the vote was mere politics and that if Democrats were serious about safeguarding access to contraception for future generations, they’d work with Republicans on a bipartisan bill.

Nevada Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen said the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the constitutional right to an abortion in the Dobbs decision two years ago showed women how quickly things can change.

“It demonstrated that a fundamental right, the right of women to make decisions over their own bodies, could be taken away in the blink of an eye,” Rosen said.

Women, she said, can’t rely solely on the Supreme Court to uphold the cases that have guaranteed Americans access to contraception for more than 50 years.

“Contraception has been safely used by millions of women for decades,” Rosen said. “It’s allowed women to take control over their own bodies — to decide when they want to start a family, how many kids they have, who they want to start a family with.”

“For these very same reasons, the right to contraception has been a target of anti-choice extremists for years,” Rosen added.

Senate Minority Whip John Thune, the South Dakota Republican seeking to become the chamber’s next GOP leader, said the bill was meant to “provide a talking point for Democratic candidates.”

“These votes have nothing to do with legislating and everything to do with boosting Democrats’ electoral chances, he hopes, in this fall’s election,” Thune said, referring to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

The legislation was a non-starter with many Republicans, Thune said, because it didn’t carve out the conscience protections that exist under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

The federal law, enacted in 1993 after being sponsored by Schumer, established “a heightened standard of review for government actions that substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion.”

Sales of contraceptives

Democrats’ bill would have protected “an individual’s ability to access contraceptives” and “a health care provider’s ability to provide contraceptives, contraception, and information related to contraception.”

The legislation would have barred state and federal governments from prohibiting the sale of any contraceptives or blocking “any individual from aiding another individual in voluntarily obtaining or using any contraceptives or contraceptive methods.”

The bill defined contraception as “an action taken to prevent pregnancy, including the use of contraceptives or fertility-awareness-based methods and sterilization procedures.”

House Democrats introduced an identical bill in that chamber on Tuesday, though it’s unlikely to get a vote while Republicans remain in control.

Following the vote, Schumer moved to schedule a procedural vote next week on legislation that would guarantee access to in vitro fertilization.

Schumer said during a press conference afterward that vote would give Americans an opportunity to “see where Republicans stand on the so very important issue” of reproductive rights.

Supreme Court opinion

Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas stirred up concerns about access to contraception two years ago when he wrote a concurring opinion in the Dobbs case.

Thomas wrote that the justices should “reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell.”

None of the other nine justices joined Thomas in writing that opinion, likely signaling they didn’t agree with some or all of it.

The 1965 Griswold v. Connecticut case was the first time the court recognized that married couples’ constitutional privacy rights extend to decisions about contraception. That ruling struck down a Connecticut state law that barred access to contraceptives.

The Supreme Court, in 1972, extended the right to make private decisions about contraception to unmarried people in the Eisenstadt v. Baird ruling.

Following the release of Thomas’ concurring opinion, Democrats and reproductive rights organizations immediately began pressing for federal laws that would reinforce current contraception access. Congress has not passed any so far.

Mini Timmaraju, president and chief executive officer of Reproductive Freedom for All, said during a press conference with Senate Democrats on Wednesday before the vote that women should talk with their mothers and grandmothers about when they were first able to obtain birth control.

“When we talk about the generations of women in this country who didn’t have access to birth control, we’re just talking about my mother’s generation — 1965,” Timmaraju said. “It was not that long ago and that should really be a wake-up call.”

‘Birth control is popular’

Michelle Trupiano, executive director of the Missouri Family Health Council, said Wednesday afternoon that Hawley and Schmitt’s vote shows “ how disconnected our senators are from what Missourians actually want.”

Recent polling by The Right Time, a family planning initiative through the Missouri Family Health Council Inc., showed Missourians across the political spectrum overwhelmingly support access to contraceptives , but some fear their lawmakers could pass laws limiting that availability.

About half the Republican respondents, 84% of the Democratic respondents and 61% of the independent respondents said they are very or somewhat concerned the legislature will push laws restricting birth control.

“Birth control is popular– everyone knows someone who has used or currently relies on birth control,” Mallory Schwarz, executive director of Abortion Action Missouri, said in a statement Wednesday.

Jessica Estes is among the Missourians who attributes part of her success to birth control.

In the 13 years between the births of her eldest two children, Estes graduated from high school and went on to earn a master’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis.

Estes, now a 35-year-old mother of three in University City, gave birth to her first child the day after she turned 17. She had her second child after finishing school.

“Reaching my academic goals opened up a wealth of opportunities professionally, which allowed me to have a level of stability that I would not have had if I didn’t have access to birth control,” Estes said. “To be able to make the right choice about when and if I would have more children.”

But in those 13 years she didn’t always have access to birth control. As an undergraduate, she was hired into her first full-time job with benefits. When she went to the pharmacy to pick up her birth control refill, she learned that her employer, a Catholic organization, did not cover contraceptives.

“I was afraid that for the first time in quite a while, I wasn’t going to have control over my life or my future,” she said. “I didn’t know what my next step was going to be.”

Estes eventually was accepted into the Contraceptives Choice Project at Washington University, where she got her first intrauterine device, which was placed for five years, for free. Because she didn’t have a car at the time, this also helped guarantee her access, since she no longer had to drive to the pharmacy every few months with her toddler in tow.

“Women and birthing people in Missouri find birth control to be valuable, life-changing for the better, and vital to their life and success,” said Estes, who is now a social worker and also serves as vice chair of Abortion Action Missouri Foundation Board.

Ernst alternative proposal

Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst said during debate on the bill that Democrats’ legislation went too far and pressed for the Senate to take up a bill she introduced earlier this week.

The measure has since gained nine co-sponsors including Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Steve Daines of Montana, Todd Young of Indiana, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Ted Cruz of Texas, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, James E. Risch of Idaho and John Cornyn of Texas.

Iowa Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson plans to introduce the companion bill in the House, according to an announcement from Ernst’s office.

“With my bill, we’re ensuring women 18 and over can walk into any pharmacy, whether in Red Oak, Iowa, or Washington, D.C., and purchase a safe and effective birth control option,” Ernst said. “This Republican bill creates a priority review designation for over-the-counter birth control options to encourage the FDA to act quickly.”

Ernst said she was “encouraged” that one over-the-counter oral contraceptive has been approved and is available, but that should be “just a starting point.”

The four-page bill would encourage the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve additional over-the-counter oral contraceptives and “direct the Comptroller General of the United States to conduct a study on federal funding of contraceptive methods.”

The legislation would require the secretary of the Health and Human Services Department to give priority review to a supplemental application for oral contraceptives “intended for routine use.” But it does not extend that to “any emergency contraceptive drug” or “any drug that is also approved for induced abortion.”

Access to over-the-counter oral birth control that receives FDA approval so that it no longer requires a prescription would be available for people over 18.

The post U.S. Senate GOP prevents contraception access bill from moving ahead appeared first on Missouri Independent .