The House passed the Right to Contraception Act on Thursday ― a bill codifying the right to birth control and other contraceptives amid fears that the Supreme Court may come down on that aspect of reproductive health care next after the high court struck down protection of Roe v. Wade on abortion rights last month.
The bill passed despite 195 Republicans voting against the bill in a final vote of 228 to 195. Republicans who voted against the legislation included Rep. Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Paul Gosar (Ariz.), Jack Bergman (Mich.) and Joe Wilson (SC). Only eight Republicans voted in favor of the bill.
The Senate recently introduced a companion proposal which will likely see a vote next week. Despite the flurry of reproductive rights action in the House, all recently passed health care bills are likely doomed to die by a filibuster in the Senate.
The Right to Contraception Act, introduced by Rep. Kathy Manning (DN.C.), codifies the right to birth control into federal law by creating a statutory right for people to obtain and use contraceptives, as well as to codify protections for doctors who provide contraceptives. The bill protects a range of contraceptives approved by the Food and Drug Administration and defines contraception as any “action taken to prevent pregnancy, including the use of contraceptives or fertility-awareness based methods, and sterilization methods.”
The bill allows the Department of Justice to take civil action against any federal or state official who attempts to restrict access to birth control, and it allows those affected to take civil action against anyone who tries to enforce any restriction on contraception.
“It’s clear that their attempts to turn back the clock on contraception is another plank in their extreme agenda for American women,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said at a news conference Wednesday before the vote.
“Let us be clear: We are not going back ― for our daughters, for our grandchildren,” Pelosi added.
The law was a direct response to Justice Clarence Thomas, who wrote in a concurring opinion in the decision that overturned Roe that the court should also reconsider the landmark 1965 decision in Griswold v. Connecticut, which protects the right to buy and use contraceptives without government interference.
