HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A proposal to ensure access to contraceptives passed the Democratic-led Pennsylvania House on Tuesday, attracting dozens of Republican votes but facing an uncertain future in the GOP-controlled state Senate.
The bill passed 133 votes to 69, with 14 women among the 32 Republicans voting yes. A spokeswoman for the Senate Republican caucus did not respond directly when asked whether Republican senators or their leadership supported the measure in general.
There was no debate in the House before the vote – just brief comments from the sponsor, Rep. Leanne Kruegera Democrat from Delaware County.
The bill would have the state health secretary or physician general issue a statewide standing order for FDA-approved over-the-counter contraceptive medications, including emergency contraception. It would require health insurance and government programs to cover all FDA-approved contraceptive medications, devices, and other contraceptive products that have been prescribed, without copays.
It would also provide a religious and moral exception for employers, based on federal law, but that exception would not apply if the drug was needed for medical needs other than preventing pregnancy. There are also confidentiality provisions.
The vote came nearly three weeks after Republicans in the U.S. Senate blocked federal legislation designed to protect women’s access to contraception.
The issue gained new significance nationally when former president donald trump told a Pittsburgh TV station in May that he was open to supporting regulations on contraception. Trump later said his comments were misinterpreted and that he “has never advocated and will never advocate” restricting such access.
Planned Parenthood PA Advocates Executive Director Signe Espinoza called the proposal “a huge shift toward control over our bodies.”
“We should have control over if and when we decide to raise our families, but Pennsylvania has for too long allowed loopholes, exemptions and omissions to stand between us and our autonomy,” Espinoza said in a statement.
Rep. Krueger said in an interview Monday that she was also concerned about Concurring opinion of Justice Clarence Thomas in the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on abortion access two years ago. Thomas wrote that the Supreme Court “should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents,” including cases that have concluded that married people have the right to obtain contraceptives, people can engage in private, consensual sexual acts, and the right to same-sex marriage.
A state law could help people get contraceptives if the federal law were changed, Krueger said.
“We have seen that access to reproductive health care, including contraception, comes down to a state rights issue,” Krueger said.
In other states, contraception has been a politically controversial issue. An analysis earlier this month by the Guttmacher Institute, which advocates for abortion access, found that several states have proposed or enacted laws to reduce access to contraception this year.
KFF, a nonprofit that studies health issues, said in May that 14 states legal or constitutional protections for the right to contraception, with six states and Washington, D.C., enacting them since the high court’s abortion ruling in June 2022.
