On Tuesday, House Democrats unveiled a plan to force a vote on contraceptive protections, aiming to hold Republicans in the chamber accountable on the issue before November’s election.
Leading the petition are Massachusetts Democratic Minority Whip Katherine Clark and North Carolina Rep. Kathy Manning. The duo introduced a discharge petition Tuesday afternoon to move forward a vote on the counterpart to the Senate Right to Contraception Bill, which is scheduled for a vote Wednesday afternoon.
A discharge petition is a way to bypass committee consideration and force a floor vote on a bill if a majority of members sign on. The procedural move is likely to fail because of a lack of Republican support, which is the point. Democrats want to showcase the GOP position on women’s reproductive rights ahead of the November election.
“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, or they can triple down on their anti-freedom extremism in full view of the American people,” said Clark during Tuesday’s press conference.
Clark said Republicans’ attacks on women’s reproductive rights will continue, as seen with Texas and Florida’s strict abortion laws.
“They aren’t stopping with Roe,” said Clark during the press conference. “Now, they’re going after the abortion pill. Fertility treatments. And yes, they are going after birth control.”
The move to bring it back to a vote comes two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
In the last Congress, Democrats voted unanimously to pass a right-to-contraception bill, while 195 House Republicans voted against it. The bill was sent to the Senate, where it stalled.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York took to the Senate floor on Tuesday to announce a motion to proceed with a vote for the Right to Contraception Act.
“I would hope that protecting access to birth control would be the definition of an easy, uncontroversial decision here in the Senate, but the vote will tell all when we gavel in tomorrow,” said Schumer on Tuesday.
Schumer says more action is to come. On Monday, he began the Right to IVF Act procedural process and plans to bring it up for a vote soon.
After the Alabama Supreme Court jeopardized access to IVF, Schumer said, families are worried that this option could be stripped away.
“In the coming weeks, Senate Democrats will put reproductive freedoms front and center before this chamber so that the American people can see for themselves who still stands up to defend their fundamental rights,” Schumer said.
--
Original story HERE.