WASHINGTON, July 21 (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday approved a bill to protect access to contraception, responding to concerns that it could be threatened by a conservative Supreme Court that overturned the ruling that guaranteed the right to abortion throughout the country.
The bill passed the Democratic-controlled House on a 228-195 vote, with all 220 Democrats and eight of the chamber’s 211 Republicans supporting it. He faces uncertain odds in an evenly divided Senate.
The bill would create a federal right for people to access contraceptives and for doctors and pharmacists to provide them. Contraceptives are used by 88 percent of American women of childbearing age who are not trying to get pregnant, according to the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion rights advocacy group.
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Some state legislatures have introduced bills to restrict access to contraceptives, although they have not passed. In addition, 12 states allow health care providers to refuse contraception, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
“We need federal legislation that makes absolutely clear that people have the right to use and buy contraceptives,” Democratic Representative Kathy Manning, the bill’s sponsor, said in an interview.
Republican Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers said the right to contraception was not at risk and that Republicans understood there is a “clear distinction” between contraception and abortion.
A package of birth control pills is shown in this file photo in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., July 11, 2022. REUTERS/Hannah Beier/Illustration
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The bill would force health care providers to “violate their religion,” he said in a House debate.
Democrats introduced the bill after the Supreme Court ended the nation’s right to abortion in June by overturning its 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.
Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the court should reconsider other decisions establishing contraception and same-sex marriage rights because they were based on the same legal argument as Roe.
Democrats hope the bill will clash with Republicans ahead of the Nov. 8 midterm elections, when control of Congress is at stake.
The House on Wednesday passed a bill to protect same-sex and interracial marriage with bipartisan support. Last week, the House passed bills to establish abortion rights nationwide and to protect the right to travel interstate for an abortion, with votes largely along party lines.
It is unclear whether any of these bills will pass the Senate for Democratic President Joe Biden to sign into law. Read more
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Reporting by Rose Horowitch; edited by Andy Sullivan and Jonathan Oatis
Our standards: the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.