Senate to vote on ‘right to contraception’ bill

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has announced in a “Dear Colleague” letter that the Senate will vote Wednesday on the Right to Contraception Act, timing the vote shortly before the two-year anniversary of the Supreme Court decision striking down the right to an abortion.

Schumer opened his letter by noting that June 24 will mark the two-year anniversary of the court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and that at least 20 states now have near-total bans or severe restrictions on abortion.

“There’s no question in the American people’s minds that Republicans have brought our country to this point. And as Donald Trump reminded us recently, he is ‘proudly the person responsible’ for the annihilation of Roe v. Wade and the grotesque reversal of women’s personal freedoms,” Schumer wrote, referring to the reversal of the landmark decision in 1973 that established a national right to abortion.

“Democrats have been clear we will not stand for these attacks and we will fight to preserve reproductive freedoms. That is why as we return from the Memorial Day state work period, Senate Democrats will be putting reproductive freedoms front and center,” he wrote.

The Democratic leader began the process for the Senate to consider the Right to Contraception Act sponsored by Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.).

The bill would guarantee the legal right for individuals to get and use contraception and for health care providers to provide contraception, information, referrals and services related to contraception.

It would also prohibit the federal government and any state from administering or enforcing any law, rule or regulation to prohibit or restrict the sale or use of contraception.

And it would allow the Justice Department, providers and individuals harmed by restrictions on contraception to go to court to enforce those rights.

“Members should expect to vote on that legislation on Wednesday this week. And there will be more action to come after that,” Schumer announced in his letter.

The vote, which is designed to highlight the differences between the parties on abortion rights and women’s access to health care follows a messaging vote Schumer scheduled last month on the Senate’s bipartisan border security deal.

Schumer forced Republicans to take a second vote on the border security deal, which was endorsed by the National Border Patrol Council and the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal, after they blocked it in February, when it was attached to a $95 billion emergency foreign aid package.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) was the only Republican to vote for the border security bill in May when it came to the Senate floor for a second time.

Democrats are highlighting abortion rights and women’s reproductive rights ahead of the November election as polls show most voters trust them more than Republicans in handling that issue.