The Senate voted Wednesday to block a bill to create a federal right to contraception access after many Republicans said they opposed the legislation as unnecessary and government overreach.

The Democratic bill – intended to put Republicans on the spot in an election year on their unpopular positions on reproductive rights – would have prevented states from passing laws that limit access to contraception, including hormonal birth control and intrauterine devices. The measure failed to reach the 60 votes it needed to proceed, after all but two of the chamber’s Republicans voted against it.

The vote is likely to be one of several that Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., tees up on reproductive rights as he seeks to protect a raft of vulnerable Democratic incumbents running in red and purple states this November. The Senate may take up legislation next week to protect access to in vitro fertilization, known as IVF, Schumer said after the vote.

“Today was not a show vote. This was a ‘show us who you are’ vote, and Senate Republicans showed the American people exactly who they are,” Schumer said after the vote.

In the GOP-led House, Rep. Kathy Manning, D-N.C., introduced a discharge petition to attempt to force a vote on the same contraception bill, although it’s unlikely it would get the necessary 218 signatures to trigger a vote.

Reproductive rights have become a political liability for Republicans in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade, which led many states to ban abortion. Earlier this year, Alabama’s highest court ruled that embryos created by IVF are children, causing clinics to pause treatment for fear of prosecution. Many Republicans running for office have since clarified that they do not support banning the technology.

Access to contraception enjoys broad support. A 2023 Gallup poll found that 88% of Americans said birth control was morally acceptable, including 86% of Republicans and 93% of Democrats.

Republicans said the bill was intended to raise fears about a threat to contraception that does not exist. They also said the measure did not contain adequate religious freedom protections for providers who object to certain birth-control methods.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee sent a memo to GOP Senate candidates this week urging them to express support for increased access to birth control in the form of an alternate bill put forward by Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa.

“Republicans support access to birth control. Democrats are trying to make this a campaign issue and scare voters because they can’t talk about their failed policies on every other issue,” the memo said.

Democrats pointed to Republican opposition to contraception legislation – including GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia vetoing a similar bill last month – as evidence that the effort was necessary. Some Republican lawmakers in Oklahoma also pushed legislation that could have outlawed intrauterine devices, and some Republicans oppose the “morning-after pill” that helps prevent pregnancies. Former president Donald Trump recently said he was “looking into” whether he supported restrictions on birth control, but later clarified that he would “never” support a birth-control ban or restrictions.

“They’re all going to be put on the record, every one of them,” Sen. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., who sponsored the bill, said before the vote. “And in November, the American people will not forget.”

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Tex., called it a “show vote” beforehand and said he would be voting against it.

“It’s a phony vote because contraception to my knowledge is not illegal. It’s not unavailable,” Cornyn said. “To suggest that it’s somehow in jeopardy should be embarrassing, but it’s hard to embarrass some people around here.”

Ernst, who also opposed the bill, introduced legislation to encourage more birth-control methods to be developed that can be sold over the counter. The legislation does not apply to the morning-after pill, which Ernst said is a “red line” for many Republicans.

“Theirs is fearmongering – mine is actual solutions,” Ernst said of the bills.

Republicans also raised concerns that the Democratic bill did not include religious or conscience exemptions for providers who are opposed to some kinds of contraception. The bill’s defenders said it would not force anyone who has religious objections to provide contraception.

Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who support abortion rights, were the sole Republicans who voted to proceed on the bill. Schumer switched his vote to no after it became clear that the vote would fail, a procedural maneuver that allows him to bring the bill back up for consideration in the future.

An outside group, Americans for Contraception, said it would spend $7 million to “educate, inform and empower voters on where their officials stand on contraception.”

Democrats have cast Republicans as trying to take away women’s freedoms with the focus on abortion restrictions.

“Every day another woman is confronted with the agonizing reality that she does not have control over her own body,” said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. “That Republican politicians are forcing her to remain pregnant.”

 

Marianna Sotomayor contributed to this report.

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