From our friends in Washington DC
Statutory Right to Contraception
Right now, the right to contraception rests on two Supreme Court decisions: Griswold v. Connecticut 1965 (contraceptives for married people) and Eisenstadt v. Baird 1972 (contraceptives for unmarried people).
In 2022, as part of his concurrence for the Dobbs opinion which struck down Roe v. Wade and ended nationwide access to abortion, Justice Thomas suggested that other decisions relying on similar logic and precedents should also be reconsidered. This included Griswold, Eisenstadt and Obergefell (same sex marriage) among others.
In response, also in 2022, Congress passed and the President signed, the Respect for Marriage Act providing statutory protection to same sex marriages by repealing statutes defining marriage as between one man and one woman.
Since then, there have been efforts to pass laws providing statutory protection for access to contraception as well. These haven't been successful so far.
This week, the Senate's bill, S. 4381: A bill to protect an individual’s ability to access contraceptives and to engage in contraception and to protect a health care provider’s ability to provide contraceptives, contraception, and information related to contraception could not clear the filibuster requirement of 60 yes votes to come to the Senate floor for a vote. It failed 51-39. It was 9 votes short of the threshold and 9 Republicans simply did not vote. Would it have made a difference if they did vote? Possibly not; non-voters included very conservative Sens. Britt (AL), Sullivan (AK), Braun (IN), Moran (KS), Kennedy (LA), Vance (OH), Graham (SC), Hagerty (TN), and Romney (UT). The one Democrat not voting was Sen. Menendez who is on trial for bribery and acting as an unregistered foreign agent.
Dayton Right to Life will continue to follow this interesting development.
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