Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) announced Wednesday that the Senate will vote next month on legislation to protect women’s access to contraception, setting up a campaign issue for the fall.
Democrats hope Republicans will block the bill, just as they blocked legislation protecting access to in vitro fertilization, which Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) said includes “poison pills.”
Schumer announced that the Senate has begun the process to consider the Right to Contraception Act, which would codify the right to contraception established by the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Griswold v. Wade.
Democrats say the right is now at risk because of the conservative majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned the right to abortion established by Roe v. Wade.
“Now more than ever, contraception is a critical piece of protecting women’s reproductive freedoms, providing nothing less than a vital lifeline for millions of American women across the country,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.
“Senate Democrats are committed to restoring women’s freedoms and will fight to protect access to contraception and other reproductive freedoms that are essential safeguards for millions of women to control their own lives, their futures and their bodies,” he said .
Senate Democrats plan to make women’s access to health care, including abortion rights, a major issue in the 2024 campaign.
Senators Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) are the lead sponsors of the Right to Contraception Act.
“The right to contraception is the right to essential health care, but extremist judges and radical Republicans continue to threaten access for millions of Americans. We cannot stand by while extremists continue to undo decades of precedent and progress,” Markey said in a statement when he introduced the legislation last year.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
