House Democrats are opening a discharge petition for the Right to Contraception Act just one day before the Senate is set to vote on the measure in an effort to force GOP leaders to bring the legislation to the floor for a vote.
The Right to Contraception Act, which would codify federal protections for birth control, is the latest legislative action taken by Democrats in the wake of recent women’s reproductive health court decisions and the looming two-year anniversary of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA) and Rep. Kathy Manning (D-NC) announced the petition on Tuesday during a press conference with several female House Democrats, as well as House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar (D-CA) and other members.
Clark, along with Manning and other members present, urged Republicans to reject the small “extremist” faction of their party’s base and join the petition.
“Republicans have a choice to make: They can put aside their MAGA ideology and join us, join the American people, and get this bill passed,” Clark said, “or they can triple down on their anti-freedom extremism in full view of the American people. The country is watching, and their constituents will remember where they stood when it mattered.”
The Senate is set to vote on the Right to Contraception Act on Wednesday, but the legislation is unlikely to garner the support of at least nine Republicans needed to clear the chamber’s 60-vote threshold. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has backed the bill.
To bring legislation to the floor under a discharge petition, House Democrats would need 218 signatures. Currently, the Right to Contraception Act has over 200 co-sponsors who are all Democrats. Introduced by Manning last Congress, it passed the House and was received in the Senate in July 2022. Manning reintroduced the legislation on June 14, 2023.
“One of my colleagues said — last term, when we had the debate on this bill — you get to know people pretty well in this Congress,” Manning said. “She said, ‘Nobody on the other side has 15 children. So somebody is using birth control on the other side.’ Let’s have them vote the way they’re conducting themselves in their house.”
Recent rulings in Alabama over in vitro fertilization and in Arizona over a decades-old abortion law have created political headaches for Republicans in the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned. Democrats have since attacked Republicans in Congress for being anti-IVF and anti-abortion, comments that many GOP lawmakers have pushed back against and spurned legislative action in both chambers.
Republicans had been warned about the risk they take holding anti-IVF and anti-contraception positions long before the Alabama court ruling. Kellyanne Conway, onetime adviser to former President Donald Trump, traveled to Capitol Hill in December, telling congressional Republicans to take contraception and IVF protections seriously or risk defeat in 2024.
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Polling also consistently shows there is broad bipartisan support for birth control. The Gallup poll’s annual values and beliefs poll released in 2023 found that 88% of people said birth control was “morally acceptable,” a 4% decrease from 2022.
“Birth control is something that I guarantee you just about every American has or will use sometime in their lifetimes for all the variety of reasons we’ve heard about,” Rep. Lizzy Fletcher (D-TX) said. “So whatever you call it, whether you call it contraception, whether you call it birth control, whatever you choose to use, we’re here to defend your right to use it.”