WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans are attempting to make a clear statement on reproductive rights as part of their campaign effort. On Wednesday, Senate Democrats will vote on passing a bill to protect women’s access to contraceptives.
The test vote comes as the Senate has given up hope of passing earnest, bipartisan legislation before the election. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Democrats are instead trying to push issues they believe can support them win the presidency and keep the Senate majority in November. A similar vote on guaranteeing nationwide access to assisted reproduction could come as soon as next week.
Neither bill is likely to pass in the Senate, where Democrats would need 60 votes, much less in the Republican-led House. But Schumer said Tuesday that Democrats would “put reproductive freedoms at the center of this chamber so that the American people can see for themselves who will stand up to defend their fundamental freedoms.”
Democrats fear that reproductive rights are under further threat after the Supreme Court struck down the nationwide right to abortion two years ago, and they continue to see access as one of their top campaign issues. President Joe Biden’s campaign sees reproductive rights as key to winning over undecided voters, especially women.
Minority Republicans scoffed, saying the political messaging votes were a frivolous distraction from legislation they would like to vote on. “I expect we’re going to see a lot more mock votes this summer,” South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the second-highest-ranking Republican in the Senate, said Tuesday.
Still, Wednesday’s vote on whether to advance the bill could put some Republican senators in a challenging position. While most Republicans oppose any restrictions on contraception, they are unlikely to support the Democrats’ policy push.
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, one of the few Republican senators who supports abortion rights, said Monday that she would likely vote to continue the bill but that she would like to see the bill amended to provide more protection for religious freedom. “It’s clearly an attempt to send a message, not a serious attempt per se,” she said.
The Senate’s push on reproductive access this year differs from a bipartisan bill passed in 2022 that would protect same-sex marriage, amid fears the court could challenge the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling that legalized gay marriage nationwide. A vote on that bill was delayed until after the midterm elections that year to avoid political complications, and 12 Republicans ultimately supported it, sending it to Biden’s desk.
But since Republicans took control of the House last year, Congress has advanced few pieces of legislation that weren’t immediately urgent or had deadlines. Schumer has repeatedly said he wants to advance bills to improve rail safety, lower prescription drug costs and improve online safety for children, among others. But most of those bills have stalled in a divided Congress, with some Republicans and Democrats less willing to work together in an election year.
Instead, Schumer has focused the Senate on judicial nominations and political messaging bills, including a revote last month on a border security bill that Republicans rejected in February after months of bipartisan negotiations. Democrats, who have faced intense criticism over the border issue, hoped that by emphasizing that bill, they could blunt some of the criticism. But Republicans said it did not go far enough.
Democrats seized on the contraception issue after former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, said in an interview last month that he was open to restrictions on birth control. But he quickly reversed course, saying he had “never and never will” advocate for restricting such access.
But in some conservative states, contraception has become increasingly enmeshed in the abortion debate. In Missouri, a women’s health care reform bill was blocked for months over concerns about expanding insurance coverage for contraception after some lawmakers mistakenly confused contraception with medication abortion. In Arizona, Republicans unanimously blocked a Democratic attempt to protect the right to access contraception. Republicans in Tennessee blocked a bill that would have made clear that the state’s abortion ban would not affect contraception or fertility treatments.
And in Virginia, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed bills in the Democratic-controlled legislature earlier this year that would have protected the right to contraception. He said he supported the right to birth control, but “we cannot trample on the religious freedom of Virginians.”
The Senate bill would establish by federal law that everyone has the right to obtain and “prevent” contraception and that health care providers can provide it.
The legislation protecting in vitro fertilization comes after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law, prompting several clinics to stop IVF treatments. The state later passed a law to provide legal protections for IVF clinics, but Democrats argued that Congress should act to ensure nationwide access to reproductive care to prevent courts from making such rulings.
Patty Murray, Democratic Senator from Washington and chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, said Americans would “watch closely” if Democrats forced Republicans to vote on contraception on Wednesday.
“Senate Democrats believe that every woman has a right to contraception – whether it’s the pill, Plan B or an IUD – what could be more sensible and straightforward?” Murray said on Tuesday. “So tomorrow every single Republican in the Senate will officially state their position.”
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Associated Press writer Stephen Groves contributed to this report.
