Evergreen Reporter

Washington, D.C. – On June 14, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), joined U.S. Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) in reintroducing the Right to Contraception Act, legislation to protect every American’s fundamental right to use birth control.  The lawmakers first introduced the bill following Justice Clarence Thomas’s concurrence to the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision, calling for the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider the right to contraception that was first recognized more than half a century ago in Griswold v. Connecticut. Since the Dobbs decision last year, emboldened Republican-controlled state legislatures have ramped up efforts to restrict access to birth control—with nine states adopting restrictions on emergency contraception alongside other increased threats to contraception access.

“Millions of people use contraception and have been for decades, and the vast majority of Americans support the right to birth control,” said Senator Murray said. “But, as we saw all too clearly with Republicans’ relentless fight to overturn Roe, far-right Republicans just don’t care if they are ignoring the clear majority of Americans. They don’t care if women want to make their own decisions about their bodies, their families, and their futures. And they don’t care how long an established right has been on the books—they will still fight to overturn it.”

“We cannot meet this moment with empty words—we have to take meaningful legislative action. That’s why the Right to Contraception Act is so important,” Murray continued. “And my message to Republicans who claim to support the right to just get birth control: now is your chance to prove it. Stand with us—not in our way.”

The Right to Contraception Act would protect access to contraception by:

• Creating a statutory right for individuals to obtain contraceptives and to engage in contraception;
• Establishing a corresponding right for health care providers to provide contraceptives, contraception, and information related to contraception;
• Allowing the Department of Justice, as well as providers and individuals harmed by restrictions on contraception access made unlawful under the legislation, to go to court to enforce these rights; and
• Protecting a range of contraceptive methods, devices, and medications used to prevent pregnancy, including but not limited to oral contraceptives, long-acting reversible contraceptives, emergency contraceptives, internal and external condoms, injectables, vaginal barrier methods, transdermal patches, vaginal rings, fertility-awareness based methods, and sterilization procedures.

Over the course of her career, Senator Murray has always fought to ensure widespread access to affordable birth control. Senator Murray pushed to ensure birth control was covered under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), led the fight against the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby ruling, and has persistently pressed the Biden administration to enforce the ACA’s coverage for contraceptive services. Senator Murray has long held that FDA must make its decisions based on sound science and public health needs, not politics—and she is widely credited with leading the fight to make Plan B available over the counter.’ Last month, Senator Murray reintroduced her Affordability is Access Act, which would ensure that once the FDA determines an over-the-counter birth control option to be safe, insurers fully cover over-the-counter birth control without any fees or out-of-pocket costs.

Original source can be found here.