GOP blocks Democrat bill to secure access to contraception saying it’s a ‘false scare tactic’ ahead of the election

Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic-led effort to codify America’s right to contraception.

It’s a pre-election effort to expand reproductive rights and further brand Republicans as the party against women’s health.

The bill would have given Americans a federal right to condoms, birth control pills and patches, intrauterine devices (IUDs), and sterilization procedures such as vasectomies.

But Republicans say it’s just a false “scare tactic” to rally voters against the Republican Party — which actually also supports contraception.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer held a test vote on the Right to Contraception Act on Wednesday afternoon, but it failed to gain enough support to pass the 60-vote threshold needed to move forward.

Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., the youngest in the chamber who represents one of the most conservative states in the county, called the Right to Contraception Act an election-year “scare tactic.”

“I want to be absolutely, 100 percent clear that I support continued nationwide access to contraception,” she said on the Senate floor Tuesday. “But that is not the intent of the bill my colleagues across the aisle are putting forward.”

Schumer’s move comes as Democrats continue to try to make clear that they are the pro-choice party, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision to strike down federal abortion rights.

Schumer said this week that he wants to “put reproductive freedoms front and center in this House so that the American people can see firsthand who is standing up to defend their fundamental freedoms.”

Democrats are also expected to vote again later this month on federal right to in vitro fertilization (IVF) to continue their quest to market themselves as the pro-health party.

A full vote on either measure is unlikely to pass the Senate with the required 60 votes, as nearly all Republicans oppose them.

And the Republican-controlled House would likely never choose to advance the reproductive bills even if they passed the Senate.

Republican senators have loudly pushed back on the birth control law, calling Schumer’s plan “stunt legislation.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said this week that he wants to “put reproductive freedoms at the center of this chamber” so that Americans can see who does and does not support a federal bill that would codify Americans’ right to contraception.

Schumer held a press conference on the contraception bill on Wednesday before the vote

“There is no threat to access to contraception, which is legal in every state and required by law to be offered by health insurers, and it is disgusting that Democrats are fear-mongering on this important issue to score cheap political points,” a coalition said . of 22 GOP senators wrote in a letter led by Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Rick Scott of Florida.

“This bill infringes on the parental rights and religious freedoms of some Americans and would allow the federal government to force religious institutions and schools, even public elementary schools, to provide small children with contraception such as condoms.”

“It’s just another way for Democrats to use activist lawyers and our courts to further their radical agenda and that’s why we oppose this bill.”

The vote is similar to one at the end of May on an immigration and border security measure.

That bill, which failed in the Senate in February, was brought up again by Schumer, Republicans say, to signal that Democrats are in favor of border security.

Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., speaks alongside fellow Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DY, during a news conference in support of the Right to Contraception Act

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., pre-empts Democrats’ attacks on IVF by releasing an ad claiming he will ‘always protect it’

It is no surprise that the bill failed again. But it does give Democrats, especially those in vulnerable seats, an opportunity to tell their voters that they tried to pass border reform twice but were blocked by Republicans.

Schumer is widely expected to bring more bills to a vote later this summer, including the IVF measure.

Senator Scott, anticipating the Democrats’ next messaging bill, recently took out an ad saying he is in favor of IVF and that his daughter has undergone the treatment.

“This grandfather will always protect IVF, you can count on that,” he says.