‘Calling their bluff’: Contraception bill fails in Senate

Senate Republicans blocked passage Wednesday of a bill to protect Americans’ access to birth control, one of several legislative actions Democrats have pledged on reproductive rights in the leadup to the November election.

Only Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) broke with the GOP to vote in favor of the legislation, which failed 51 to 39 — short of the 60 votes needed to advance.

The vote comes on the heels of former President Donald Trump telling a local television station that he’s “looking at” restrictions on contraception, and just ahead of the two-year anniversary of the Dobbs decision that ended the federal right to abortion. Trump quickly walked back his comment in a social media post, vowing never to “ban” birth control. But Democrats point to Trump’s comments as part of the broader fallout of losing Roe v. Wade, and 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 promised to wield it against GOP lawmakers, 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 reelection campaign told reporters in a Wednesday morning call that they are holding events this week in Atlanta, Georgia; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Madison, Wisconsin; Reno, Nevada and Tucson, Arizona, “to mobilize voters and volunteers around the threat Donald Trump poses to contraception,” and said Biden plans to go after Trump on the issue during their debate in Atlanta later this month.

“We're going to make sure voters know that contraception is on the ballot this November,” said campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez.

The bill would have codified Americans’ right to obtain contraception and the right of medical providers to dispense it. Senate Republicans scuttled a voice vote on the same legislation in 2022, shortly after the fall of Roe, and again in 2023. But the roll call Wednesday gives Democrats and progressive groups the opportunity to use members’ no-votes as ammunition.

“This week and in future weeks, Senate Republicans will have to answer for their anti-abortion, anti-women agenda,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer ahead of the vote. “And my Republican colleagues should know that the American people are closely watching.”

Ahead of the vote, the advocacy group Americans for Contraception set up a 20-foot, inflatable IUD a few blocks from the Capitol, and joined Senate Democrats in a press conference touting the bill.

“Republicans will try to say they support the right to contraception,” Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said. “We are calling their bluff yet again.”

Some GOP 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 its protections for patients’ right to contraception applies regardless of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

“A judge could basically 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 it can be used by a judge at some point to mandate what they call gender change procedures.”

Democrats disputed this accusation, telling reporters Wednesday that “there is no religious issue that is part of this legislation at all.”

“All this legislation does is to give an individual the right to access to contraception and the right for a provider to be able to provide contraception,” Markey said at a press conference.

Other Republicans cast the vote as a partisan stunt and argued it was unnecessary.

“There's no real opposition to contraception anywhere in the United States Senate or around the country, so I think it's pretty much a non-issue,” said Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.). “It's a show vote to deflect attention from the huge wave of inflation caused by the Democrats, the utter failure of their plan at the border, and their lack of taking care of our national security needs.”

Earlier this week, nearly two dozen GOP senators signed a “Dear Colleague” letter accusing Democrats of “fearmongering on this important issue to score cheap political points.” Some of those same members are supporting a narrower rival bill by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) that would direct the FDA to prioritize review of applications for additional over-the-counter oral contraceptives — but not emergency contraceptives.

Democrats and their progressive allies counter that the threat to birth control access is very real, at both the state and federal level. The text of the bill, for instance, cited a concurring opinion Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the 2022 Dobbs decision that the court “should reconsider” other longstanding precedents like Griswold v. Connecticut — the 1965 decision guaranteeing the right for married couples to use contraception.

Supporters of the bill also cited former Trump’s recent remark that he is “looking at” restrictions on contraception to argue that federal protections are needed. Though Trump has since said he will never ban birth control, Democrats argue that promise can’t 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, regardless of how outrageous or oppressive it is,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper told reporters on a call Wednesday morning organized by the Biden campaign.

Many of Trump’s policies as president made it harder to access birth control — particularly for the poor and working class — including changes to the Title X family planning program, carveouts to Obamacare’s contraception mandate and deep cuts to the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program. Trump allies, who have drafted a policy manifesto for him to implement should he win in November, are calling for him to reimplement those policies and go further — by rolling back insurance coverage for some forms of emergency contraception and allowing virtually any employer to refuse to cover any contraception in their health plans.

Recent state level fights over contraception also cast a shadow over Wednesday’s vote. In May, Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed a bill that would have established a right to contraception in the state, and GOP lawmakers in Arizona and Louisiana blocked legislation that would have done the same.

House Democrats are pushing the issue as well as they work to regain a majority, using a discharge petition that aims to force a floor vote. No Republicans have yet signed on.

Ben Leonard contributed reporting.