Bill to Protect Birth Control Access Passes House

Following the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court earlier this summer, Americans have collectively pinpointed numerous concerns about the status of other rights that have been established via other Supreme Court precedents. Lawmakers have introduced several bills in the House in an attempt to codify these rights into federal law, including a recent bill designed to protect birth control and contraceptive access.

The vote came out to 228-195 in favor of the bill, titled the Right to Contraception Act. Of the 228 representatives who voted in support, only eight were republicans. All of the 195 votes against the bill came from republicans. 

Having passed the House, the bill now heads to the Senate, where it is unlikely to receive the support of the 10 republicans it needs to pass. One of the sponsors of the bill,  Representative Kathy Manning, a democrat from North Carolina, states, “We are not willing to play defense on this critically important issue. We are playing offense.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has accused republican lawmakers of attempting to roll back the clock for people with uteruses by preventing access to birth control.

“This is their moment. Clarence Thomas has made that clear, right down to the fundamentals of privacy they want to erase,” Pelosi says of republicans. “With this passage, democrats will make clear we will never quit in the fight against the outrageous right-wing assault on freedom.”

While these are strong words, without republican support in the Senate, the Right to Contraception Act, along with the other bills that democrats have passed in the House, are unlikely to actually reach the President’s desk. The lack of security regarding the rights of women, LGBTQ folks, and more continues to be both alarming and frustrating. Unfortunately, we need to sit tight, vote, and try to ensure that these bills can be passed in the future.