A House bill that would codify the right to contraception has the “strong support” of President Joe Biden, who made the statement on Monday.
The Right to Contraception Act is one of several pieces of legislation that Democrats are passing to defend reproductive rights, and the Biden administration released a statement endorsing it. The House will vote on it this week.
In the statement, Biden once more expressed his concern that the Supreme Court’s decision to reverse Roe v. Wade would have “far-reaching ramifications” for the health of women.
The administration declared in a statement that “the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs, which reversed Roe v. Wade and erased a constitutional right to choose, has already had disastrous ramifications for women’s health and public health.”
The Right to Contraception Act allows people to obtain and use contraceptives, and protects healthcare providers’ ability to provide contraceptives and relevant information to patients.
The goal is to protect all contraceptives approved by the Food and Drug Administration, including oral and emergency contraceptives, intrauterine devices and condoms.
After the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, some proponents of reproductive rights worry that some birth control methods would be made illegal by individual states.
In the wake of the Supreme Court ruling that invalidated Roe v. Wade, the House of Representatives is working on a number of proposals.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi stated she was scheduling votes on several bills protecting abortion and contraception shortly after the historic decision.
By a vote of 219 to 210, the House approved a bill codifying the right to an abortion on Friday.
The Ensuring Access to Abortion Act, which would codify safeguards for interstate abortions, was likewise approved by the House 223-205 with the support of all Democrats and three Republicans.
All Republicans abstained from voting on the 2022 Women’s Health Protection Act, which codifies abortion rights, while all Democrats abstained from voting on the Ensuring Access to Abortion Act, with the exception of Rep. Henry Cuellar and Texas.
In the Senate, neither proposal is anticipated to advance.
After initially approving the Women’s Health Protection Act in February, the House enacted a modified version of the legislation. However, in a procedural vote in the Senate in May, that change was defeated 51-49.
In light of the Supreme Court ruling, the Biden administration has urged Congress to codify abortion rights.
The votes on Friday were praised by the White House as a “major step.”
‘These bills would ensure women´s access to essential health care services, regardless of where they live, and protect the bedrock right to cross state lines for medical care,’ press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. ‘A majority of Americans across the country support them.’ She called the GOP’s refusal to support the bills ‘extreme’ and ‘out of touch.’
No state currently bans out-of-state travel for abortions, though conservative lawmakers in a handful of GOP-led states have floated the idea.
And some Democratic-led states have already taken steps to become abortion safe havens and promised to refuse cooperation in cross-state investigations into abortion cases.
In total 26 states have laws that indicate they are moving to outlaw or severely limit abortions in their state since the overturning of Roe.