Senate Republicans Vote Down Democrat Contraception Bill: 'The Devil Is in the Details'
A Democrat-led effort to pass a bill that would have enshrined protections for contraception access failed in the Senate Wednesday.
Senate Republicans largely voted against the "Right to Contraception Act," which would codify the right to contraception in federal law.
The vote to advance the measure failed with 51 votes in favor to 39 votes against, with only two Republicans voting with Democrats. It needed 60 votes to advance.
GOP lawmakers argued the bill "infringes on the parental rights and religious liberties of some Americans and lets the federal government force religious institutions and schools, even public elementary schools, to offer contraception like condoms to little kids."
But Democrats insisted that the bill, which was introduced after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, was a way to protect women's access to contraception.
"Today, we live in a country where not only tens of millions of women have been robbed of their reproductive freedoms. We also live in a country where tens of millions more worry about something as basic as birth control," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday morning on the Senate floor. "That's utterly medieval."
Several Senate Republicans say Wednesday's vote was not about protecting women's reproductive rights at all, but rather a stunt by the Democrats to pull in undecided voters come November.
"The Democrats are using their power to push an alarmist and false narrative that there is a problem accessing contraception," said Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, the top Republican on the Senate Health, Labor, Education and Pensions Committee.
"It's 'show-vote' season in the Senate," Senate Pro-Life Caucus Chair Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) said Wednesday.
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, a pro-life group, said in a press release that the measure was "misleading," and called it a guise that would "funnel money to abortion giant Planned Parenthood, override conscience protections and create a 'right' to abortion drugs."
"Contraception is legal and available in every state and Congress funds contraception through numerous federal programs every year...With this bill, the devil is in the details...It's clear the Democrats' priority is not helping women, but helping the abortion lobby that spends millions to get them elected," said Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser.
Kristen Waggoner, President, CEO, & General Counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), called the bill an "unnecessary federal intrusion on the state's ability to protect women, children, and constitutional rights" that does more harm than good.
Waggoner took to X explaining it undermines women's health, free speech, and religious liberty protections.
The “Right to Contraception Act,” which the U.S. Senate is considering today, is an unnecessary federal intrusion on the state’s ability to protect women, children, and constitutional rights. And like many such measures, it does more harm than good and goes far beyond its stated
— Kristen Waggoner (@KWaggonerADF) June 5, 2024
"Simply put, it's a mess," she wrote. "It is a targeted attack on every person's constitutional freedoms and undermines the authority of states, who are best positioned to protect citizens' safety & liberty."
A similar vote on in vitro fertilization is expected next week, the Associated Press reports.
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