Right to Contraception Act

Madam President, I am here today with the same concern that we heard from my colleagues--that this country is failing women in New Hampshire and across the country when it comes to protecting our fundamental freedoms--fundamental freedoms like the right to contraception, which we thought was safe just a few short years ago.

From the beginning, the right to full access to contraception was hard fought. Since that right was first recognized by the Supreme Court in Griswold v. Connecticut nearly 60 years ago to the Affordable Care Act's expansion of contraceptive coverage in 2010 requiring insurance companies to pay for it, there have been incremental yet vital steps forward for women to determine our own reproductive futures. It put us on a path to making sure our daughters and granddaughters had more fundamental rights, not fewer. But as with so many things, this progress has been met with resistance.

In the year since the Affordable Care Act, attacks on contraception have increased at both the State and Federal levels.

Like many Americans--like those of us here today--I was very alarmed when Justice Thomas wrote in his concurring opinion in the Supreme Court's Dobbs ruling that the Court should ``reconsider'' its ruling in Griswold v. Connecticut--should reconsider women's rights to access to contraception. That is my editorial analysis of what Justice Thomas was saying.

Then, of course, just last month, the former President, Donald Trump, implied that States should be allowed to decide access to contraception, potentially setting a dangerous precedent that would harm millions of women and families who rely on contraception. And we heard Senator Murray talk so eloquently about how the laws are being interpreted to raise concerns about access to contraception.

And as Senator Schatz said so well, we have heard people suggest that our concern about access to contraceptives is really a scare tactic. But for all of us who worked for years trying to protect Roe v. Wade and the right for women to make our own healthcare decisions, we heard that same argument for decades on the Roe decision: The Supreme Court is never going to overturn that; we have already heard the Justices say that is settled law. Well, we saw what happened in the Dobbs decision.

These threats against women are felt acutely in my home State of New Hampshire, where our critical family planning providers can't make ends meet because elected officials continue to block Federal and State funding vital to ensuring that Granite Staters have access to reproductive care.

That care doesn't just encompass contraceptive services--though that is critically important--but it also includes basic reproductive education. It includes things like breast cancer screening and sexually transmitted disease screenings and treatment.

By throwing up roadblock after roadblock, MAGA Republicans are showing that they don't really care about women's health or our personal freedoms. They are taking us backward when women want and deserve to go forward.

These efforts follow a concerning pattern--that women's rights are negotiable; that they can easily be taken away; and that women's lives and our freedoms to decide our own futures are not valued.

So to address the women and families who are on the frontlines of this partisan onslaught, let me just say that I understand the anxiety, the fear, and the hopelessness that comes from watching your rights be stripped away.

To Zoe, who is a recent University of New Hampshire graduate--she wrote so powerfully about the positive experience she had with a family planning provider in New Hampshire, saying:

Without access to birth control decisions about my future

would always have an element of uncertainty lingering.

But because Zoe had access to a family planning provider, she was empowered to make her own decisions, to have control over her own future.

To the women in New Hampshire who have written me--to say, for example: I'm worried about which rights would be taken away, or: I feel that women don't have equal rights, and: How did it come to this?--to the women not ready to start a family, to those whose families are just the right size, and to all the young women, like my granddaughters, who have fewer freedoms now than their mothers did at their age, I say to you: I hear you, and I feel that pain.

As we vote today, history is watching us. We can't sit back and watch while reproductive freedoms backslide because access to contraception is a fundamental right, and no one--not a sitting Supreme Court Justice, not a Governor, not a Member of Congress--should be allowed to decide whether or not a woman chooses to use contraception and determine her own future. That highly important and deeply personal decision belongs to the woman and to the woman and her family--to the woman alone.

With that, I yield the floor.

Madam President, I rise today with my colleagues to urge all of my colleagues to vote in favor of the Right to Contraception Act.

At its core, this bill is based on a very simple value. The value is that every individual should have the right to make decisions about their lives, their medical care, their families, and their bodies.

Passing this bill would not only protect the right to get birth control free from government interference, but it would protect this core American value because if you don't control your reproductive life, you don't control anything about your life.

This is a bipartisan issue at least in the Nation, if not in this Chamber. Over 80 percent of Americans support access to birth control, including over 70 percent of Republicans, but despite this overwhelming level of support, many of my Republican colleagues seem set to block this bill today. You know, I wish I could say that I was shocked, but there is a direct through line we see between Senate Republicans and Donald Trump in confirming Trump's extremist, anti-choice Justices, overturning Roe, and bringing us to this day. So this is not an accident; this is a plan.

In the era of chaos ushered in by the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision, the Republicans' refusal to protect access to birth control is just another example of this cruel and reckless approach to women's health, and every day, we are confronted with the grave consequences that overturning Roe has had for Americans.

Today, one in three women of child-bearing age lives in States with a Trump Republican abortion ban, and from those States, we hear the stories of the impact of that on people's lives--women trying to get reproductive health care and being turned away, sometimes until their conditions become life-threatening; doctors trying to provide healthcare that they feel is best for their patients but they can't because of the fear of prosecution. It is clear that the people responsible for this either don't understand women's health and bodies or they just don't care.

Now, people access contraceptive care--birth control--for a whole host of reasons, including to treat conditions like ovarian cancer, endometriosis, and migraines. Laws and regulations that restrict access to birth control harm people. They harm people, and they harm their families. That is why this is so important.

The Right to Contraception Act protects more than just your right to make your own decisions about whether and when and how to become a parent; it protects your right to chart the course of your life and to make decisions without politicians and judges interfering. So when Republicans vote no, what they are saying is that they want to be in charge of your freedom, your autonomy, and your personal dignity.

You know, you may be thinking as you are listening to this debate: I mean, why is this law necessary? I mean, what is out there? Who is out there who is actually trying to restrict access to contraceptives?

Well, the reality, colleagues, is that this is happening. You can see it in Republican efforts to redefine some contraception, like IUDs or the morning-after pill, to redefine those kinds of contraception as abortion--based not on the science, not on the best medical expertise, but on their political views. You can see it in their relentless efforts to defund Planned Parenthood and to cut title X funding.

Now, colleagues, title X is the bipartisan law that was signed by President Nixon. It is the only Federal program dedicated to providing comprehensive family planning and preventive healthcare. Title X helps low-income people afford wellness exams, cervical and breast cancer screenings, testing for sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS. It also provides basic infertility services. It is a godsend for over 2.5 million Americans. Most of them are without any health insurance and are under the age of 30. We should be supporting title X and not tearing it down.

Many of you know that long before I came to this body, I worked at Planned Parenthood. When I was there, I saw every day what it means to get access to basic reproductive health care, how that frees people to be able to live the lives that they choose, and how much they depend on those services. Now Donald Trump and extreme Senate Republicans have created a healthcare crisis by banning abortion for one in three women of child-bearing age in this country.

If my Republican colleagues are really interested, truly interested in helping women and families, you would vote for this bill, this Right to Contraception Act. You would vote for it today. I am here to tell you that actions speak louder than words. A ``no'' vote means that you don't trust women to make our own decisions about our bodies, our health, and our lives. So I urge you to join us in voting yes.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I rise at a very serious moment in our history. I want to thank Senator Hirono, Senator Markey, all of our colleagues, for joining together in really--not only speaking out but standing up for women across the country, for families, for everyone who wants the capacity to have their own freedom to make their own healthcare decision, their own personal decisions about their lives. That is really what this is all about.

Let me first back up in the big picture because we know for 50 years, Roe v. Wade protected our freedom to make our own healthcare decisions. Then 2 years ago, because of a new Supreme Court majority appointed by Donald Trump--gone.

I was a college student when Roe v. Wade was decided. I can't believe that women today--that my daughter; that my granddaughter, as she grows up--may have fewer freedoms than I did all those years ago.

Today, 21 States now have near-total bans or severe restrictions on abortions. That means one out of three women now live under extreme and dangerous abortion bans.

And we know who to blame because he said it. Donald Trump--MAGA Republicans--he said himself: I was proudly the person responsible for ending Roe, proud to put the lives of millions of women at risk, proud to take this freedom away.

And if you think Donald Trump and Republicans are going to stop there, then you haven't been listening to them.

First, their ultimate goal is to have a nationwide ban. Under a nationwide ban, all of Michigan's hard work--our election to protect our freedoms in the Michigan Constitution that we passed 2 years ago-- will be gone. None of that will matter, and we can't let that happen.

But as we are here talking about today, Republicans have indicated they want to go even further in their assault on reproductive freedoms. Rightwing judges and Republicans across the country are attacking access to contraception.

I never thought, Madam President, in my wildest dreams that I would be standing on the floor of the U.S. Senate talking about efforts to take away my right, your right, any woman's right, any person's right to make their own decision on when to have a family, on contraception. But right now, in States like Virginia--not very far from here--Nevada, and Arizona, Republicans are working to block protections for birth control right now.

Justice Clarence Thomas, as has been quoted on this floor today, has called on the Supreme Court to reconsider the constitutional freedom to access contraception in America.

Let's be clear: Birth control is a key part of a woman's healthcare. It is important for reproductive decisions, for treating medical conditions, for decreasing the risk of cancer, and, most importantly, it is a personal decision.

This is a personal decision. Americans don't want politicians-- anybody here--or judges and their doctor's office in their medicine cabinet or in their bedroom.

They want to make their own decisions. They have every right, in America, to make their own decisions about their healthcare, their life, and their future. That is as basic as it gets in America. We talk about the freedoms that we have in this country, and that is pretty basic: to make your own decisions on your own healthcare.

Well, we are here on the floor as Democrats to say: We couldn't agree more. We could not agree more. This is absolutely fundamental. And that is why we need to pass the Right to Contraception Act now. Everybody on this floor is going to have a chance to either vote to do that or not.

This critical legislation will guarantee the right--the freedom--to contraceptives, a right that was decided by the Supreme Court nearly 60 years ago. We can't let Republicans turn back the clock. We need to defend Americans' freedom to make decisions about our own healthcare, our own lives, our own futures. Protecting contraceptives is an essential part of that. It is a basic part of that for us, and that is why we are here. Reproductive freedom is something we should all embrace as a basic American freedom.

I hope colleagues will join us in moving forward on this essential legislation.

I yield the floor.

The so-called Right to Contraception Act goes far beyond the scope of providing access to contraception. It is important the American people understand what the Democrats are peddling.

Senator Markey's bill creates a precedent to mandate access to abortion drugs for women and girls of all ages. It also allows taxpayer dollars to be funneled to organizations like Planned Parenthood.

The bill removes conscious freedom protections, which allow our doctors and nurses to maintain their religious and moral beliefs while practicing medicine, a right that we are all afforded in the workplace which should be upheld.

I would like to remind my Democrat colleagues of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act--or RFRA is what we call it here. It is a law that was championed by Senator Chuck Schumer more than 30 years ago.

The majority leader has really come a long way, hasn't he? Just like President Biden who used to be pro-life. Religious professionals and organizations across the country rely on RFRA for protection from broad government overreach. Yet the Democrats are willing to upend that precedent for politics and, more importantly, for abortion.

Let's be clear what is going on here. From the Senate to the White House, Democrats do not have anything to run on--no agenda that resonates with the American people. So instead, they are fearmongering in the name of politics.

Fortunately, Republicans have a solution: the Allowing Greater Access to Safe and Effective Contraception Act.

Like 90 percent of Americans, I believe routine-use contraception should be safe and accessible. That is why I have long worked to increase access to safe and effective over-the-counter oral contraceptives.

With my bill, we are ensuring women 18 and over can walk into any pharmacy, whether in Red Oak, IA, or Washington, DC, and purchase a safe and effective birth control option.

This Republican bill creates a priority review designation for over- the-counter birth control options to encourage the FDA to act quickly.

I am encouraged that as of this year, the first, but the only, over- the-counter option on the market has been approved. But having just one over-the-counter product on the market is just a starting point.

We need more options that are truly effective for women--women in rural areas, women facing domestic violence.

In addition, my bill brings much needed transparency and accountability in Federal spending to better understand where gaps are occurring and also to ensure dollars are actually going to supporting women and families.

GAO will take a 15-year look back at total dollar amounts for contraception reimbursement, inventory stocking, provider training, and patient education efforts to help better inform us as lawmakers and you as taxpayers on where and how our money is being spent.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 418, S. 4447; further, that the bill be considered read a third time and passed; and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Madam President, I am disheartened to see my colleague from Minnesota rise in opposition. I respect her greatly as well, and we do disagree on this issue. But, unfortunately, given the nature of this political exercise, I am not surprised.

This was never about finding real solutions. This was always about fearmongering and election-year stunts.

My effort, one that many of my Republican colleagues support, is a commonsense solution to give women more access to over-the-counter birth control options and bring accountability to government spending, not about finding loopholes so we can find a way to fund those drugs that cause abortions.

Despite attacks from the same far left that promotes drugs that endanger women, encourages the death of the unborn, I will always stand up for families. And as a mother and a grandmother, alongside my fellow Republican Senators, I will continue to protect life, while supporting policies that equip women to raise children to live the American dream.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to ask that baby to come back into the spectators' Gallery. That was the sweetest noise we have heard here for quite some time.

Right to Contraception Act

Madam President, Senate Democrats are using their power in the majority to push an alarmist and false narrative that there is a problem accessing contraception. They proposed a bill which is more about a solution to find a problem. Today's vote is nothing more than scaring and misleading, misleading, misleading the American people.

Here are the facts. Let me show this graph.

There is no State or territory that bans access to birth control pills. We made this graph. Here you see all the States that ban birth control are in orange, and all of the States that allow it are in green. As you notice, every State is green. This is not an issue. Unless--unless--your candidate for President is running behind in the polls, and there is a need to make people frightened; to turn out on a false issue; to, hopefully, improve poll numbers. But misleading and scaring voters seem to be, in their mind, the only way they can get that extra support.

But don't be mistaken, the bill goes way beyond protecting access to the routine use of birth control pills or other contraceptives. There are plenty of reasons why Republicans oppose this legislation. Here is what the bill actually does: It defines contraception so broadly that it likely also includes a right to a chemical abortion pill. It eviscerates conscience protections for healthcare providers, overriding the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, or RFRA. In fact, if enacted, this would be a first time a law explicitly waived RFRA.

Now, by the way, we are a pluralistic society. Some people are pro- life; some people are pro-choice. But we have tried to find peace on this issue. You don't find peace by eviscerating people's rights to follow their conscience, knowing that there is a provider down the street that could give the service that would be required under this law.

And, finally, the bill prioritizes abortion provider Planned Parenthood, preventing States or the Federal Government from prioritizing funding for life-affirming organizations.

This is not serious legislation. It bypassed the HELP Committee. Just kind of taken out, brought straight to the floor. Again, not seriously considered, rather a vehicle for political grandstanding. It is not a serious process but, rather, a political stunt designed to fearmonger and mislead the public in an attempt to sway voters in an election year.

Republicans should not play along. I oppose this legislation and urge my colleagues to do the same.

I also want to highlight my amendment to this flawed bill. While the bill is beyond improvement in current form, my amendment proposes to shed much needed light on another issue that has been pulled into the Democrats' political stunt of the month; that is, the fact that the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention has very little data on abortion, including on abortion survivors.

If the policy preference of the other party is to promote abortion on demand, the American people deserve accurate information on this policy's effects.

We were fortunate to meet a women who survived two--two--abortion attempts this week. She testified in the HELP Committee.

And so as Democrats continue to push the chemical abortion pill on women, we may learn of more abortion survivors, when at-home, unsupervised abortions fail and put mothers at risk.

My proposal directs the CDC to include attempted abortions as a method of delivery and collect data on abortion survivors. It would also direct the Department of Health and Human Services to refer abortion survivors to applicable Federal programs for vulnerable and newborn children. If Democrats stand behind their abortion-on-demand stance, why would they not support this policy.

Nevertheless, I suspect the other party will not be interested in considering my proposal as part of this bill or any other political show vote that is scheduled in the coming weeks.

With that, I yield the floor.

Madam President, I want to thank all of my colleagues who are here on the floor and thank Senator Hirono, who has led this legislation, along with Senator Markey.

As you just heard, today, every Senator is going to be confronted with a very simple question: Should Americans have the right to contraception, the right to birth control--IUDs? Plan B?

Now, that really should not be a hard question. In fact, most Americans thought this matter was settled. After all, nearly 60 years ago, the Supreme Court decided Griswold v. Connecticut and affirmed Americans' right to privacy, including the right to contraception.

Today, the right to contraception is overwhelmingly popular. The vast majority of the American people, our constituents, supports this right. So this should be an easy vote. This bill should pass with flying colors. It almost shouldn't be necessary. Yet Republicans have been making clear that a bill like this is not only necessary but urgent.

Not only has Justice Thomas signaled an interest in reconsidering Griswold and not only have Senators said Griswold was unsound, but there are Republican bills right now with large GOP support that would severely undercut the right to birth control, like the Life at Conception Act, which is supported by more than half of the Republicans in the House, including the Speaker. That GOP bill would enshrine the truly extreme doctrine of fetal personhood nationwide. That would not just ban abortion, it would outlaw emergency contraception like Plan B, and it would outlaw IUDs.

You don't have to take my word for it. I chaired a HELP hearing yesterday on the damage of Republicans' anti-abortion attacks over the past 2 years, and I asked the Republicans' own witness directly: Do you view IUDs as abortion? The answer was yes.

Let's be crystal clear. IUDs and Plan B do not cause an abortion. That level of disinformation is chilling, and it cuts to the heart of the issue about what many Republicans really think about contraception.

So every time Republicans try to say no one is coming for your birth control, well, what about every Republican pushing for fetal personhood? Seriously. Let's say Republicans succeed in making fetal personhood the law of the land. I mean, they have already succeeded at overturning Roe. So if Republicans enact fetal personhood, what happens to all of the women with IUDs? Make no mistake, that isn't simply some provocative hypothetical. If Republicans actually pass the Life at Conception Act, this is a question millions of women will have to grapple with.

Now, I don't expect an answer from Republicans, and I don't expect every Republican to be as forthcoming as their witness yesterday when it comes to where they stand on the right to birth control, but we are putting every single Senator on the record today when we vote on the Right to Contraception Act.

This bill is as exactly straightforward and as common sense as it sounds. It simply codifies Americans' right to birth control into law. That is it. And you don't have to take my word for it; read it. It is 11 pages.

To me, this is not just a messaging bill; it is a meaningful way to protect a really fundamental right. But it is absolutely right that how each of us votes will send a message. So what message do my Republican colleagues want to send to the American people? What message do we want to send to our constituents: that we support their right to birth control--that we support access to IUDs, to Plan B--or that we are OK with taking that right away and letting politicians make medical decisions for women in this country?

I know where I stand--with the overwhelming majority of people who support that right. Soon, we will know exactly where every Republican Senator stands as well.

Whatever happens with this vote, Democrats are going to keep pushing in full force to hold Republicans accountable for their extreme policies and the harm they are causing. We will work to restore abortion rights in this country and to protect women's reproductive rights across the board.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I am thrilled to be joining Senators Markey, Hirono, Duckworth, and all of my colleagues today in support of the Right to Contraception Act.

This month marks the second anniversary of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, which upended a woman's right to choose and paved the way for former President Trump and anti-choice politicians to further erode women's rights in this country.

We knew these anti-choice Republicans wouldn't stop attacking reproductive rights after Roe fell. We knew they would keep trying to diminish our freedom to make decisions about our own bodies, including the right to attain and use birth control.

You don't have to take my word for it. Look at what is happening in States across the country, as you heard from my colleagues. Even though the right to birth control has strong bipartisan support, anti-choice lawmakers are passing bills left and right to chip away at access to contraception.

And listen to the leader of the Republican Party. Just 2 weeks ago, former President Trump said he was open to restricting women's right to contraception if he wins another term. For the anti-choice right, this is about controlling women.

On the other hand, my fellow pro-choice colleagues and I believe in reproductive freedom. We are working every day to protect access to birth control and other basic forms of women's healthcare, and we are making real progress here.

Last year, the Food and Drug Administration approved Opill, the first-ever over-the-counter birth control pill. Once it was approved, Senators Murray, Hirono, and I, along with others, pushed the manufacturers to make sure that Opill is widely accessible without a prescription. It is now available online and in stores across the country.

We are not alone in this fight. The Biden-Harris administration has worked hard to expand access to contraception and make it more affordable for American women. We have made important progress, and we have seen that the anti-choice movement won't stop coming after our reproductive rights. That is why we have to pass the Right to Contraception Act and protect access to birth control in every State across our country.

We know that, despite dishonest efforts from anti-choice politicians to label it as dangerous, birth control is an essential part of healthcare. And for me, contraception was about my healthcare, as it is for millions of women in America.

I will tell you what, to my female colleagues here, if a man were able to give birth, we would have universal healthcare by now. But we don't because they don't feel it; they don't see it. So they disregard it, and they disregard the impact to women and the essential care that we need when it comes to our bodily health.

That is why this legislation is so important. It would protect the fundamental right to access essential healthcare. It would empower women in Nevada and across the country to make decisions about their own lives on their own terms. And it would make it clear to anti-choice candidates, like Donald Trump and his anti-choice followers, that messing with the right to contraception is not on the table.

My colleagues here and I will never stop fighting to reinstate the rights anti-choice politicians have stripped away from millions of women, and we will fiercely--fiercely--defend the rights women still have, including access to birth control. That is why we are here today.

I get asked quite often: What are you doing about it?

This is it. There is a role for Congress to play, and we are doing it. But there is a role for everyone who cares about this issue--no matter your station in life--to do something about it, to advocate, to be a part of a solution or policy change in your State or in your local community. There is a role for everybody and a responsibility. This is about women's rights. This is about women's freedoms in this country, and that is worth fighting for.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, for years, people were accused of being hysterical for saying Republicans would actually take away people's reproductive freedoms. The prevailing Republican position to ban abortions in almost every instance, with no exceptions, was so outrageous, so cruel, so unpopular that people said: Well, they

would never actually go through with that.

But, 2 years ago, it finally happened. Roe fell, and tens of millions of women across America lost their right to reproductive freedom overnight.

Now, once again, people question whether Republicans will actually go through with the thing that they say they want to do: It is too morally extreme; it is too politically risky. But the fact is, Republicans have shown no restraint whatsoever when it comes to shredding people's reproductive rights.

Overturning Roe was never going to be enough. The project also includes banning birth control and IVF. It doesn't matter how outrageous it is. It doesn't matter how unpopular it is. It doesn't matter that 92 percent of Americans support birth control and that almost 90 percent of women have used it at some point. It doesn't matter that women and families would lose the ability to plan whether and when to have kids. Dismantling reproductive freedoms is central to the Republican agenda. Aside from tax cuts for billionaires, it is kind of their main thing.

No right or freedom, no matter how basic or popular, is off limits until Congress enshrines that right in Federal law. The Right to Contraception Act does exactly that. It enshrines in Federal law the right to birth control, and it protects doctors who are simply doing their jobs by providing it.

This should not be controversial. No matter where you stand politically--if you want several kids or if you want none at all, whether you are religious or an atheist or somewhere in between--this is about the basic principle that people ought to be able to decide what is best for themselves, their bodies, and their families. Yet, over the past 2 years since the fall of Roe, Republican lawmakers in at least 17 States--Nevada, Arizona, Virginia, Wisconsin, Louisiana--have repeatedly killed efforts to protect access to contraception, and Republican-led legislatures in States like Missouri and Idaho are pushing bills to block access to various forms of birth control, including Plan B and IUDs. All the while, you have Donald Trump openly toying with a national contraception ban.

So to say the future of birth control in the United States is in serious jeopardy is not partisan spin. Republicans continue to work at this goal. They want fewer rights, less autonomy, less freedom. The only way to counter their crusade against people's fundamental freedoms is to enshrine this right in Federal statute.

The really cool thing about the Senate floor is this: This is the place where you find out what people actually think. There was a memo from the NRSC--an interesting memo. A lot of people are talking to the media near the train about what they think about contraception, but in 2 hours, we get to know what you think about contraception. We get to know whether you actually want to enshrine this right in Federal statute or you don't. That is the beauty of this place, and that is the beauty of this bill at this time. Everyone will go on the record.

I yield the floor.