For decades, forced-birth advocates have discounted warnings from pro-abortion activists that partisan right-wing justices were trying to gut Roe v. Wade. “Hysterical!” “Fear-mongering!” A radical six-judge majority then tossed out nearly 50 years of precedent to take away women's bodily autonomy. The right responded, “Leave it to the states, they'll decide rationally!” A series of inhumane, unworkable, and dangerous anti-abortion laws have been enacted since, endangering women's lives, creating doctor shortages, and sparking legal mayhem and endless litigation.
Democrats then warned that Republicans were going after IVF. “That's ridiculous!” But Republicans voted against protecting IVF. Alabama effectively banned IVF, then reversed course after a backlash.
At this point, you'd think Democrats' warnings that Republicans are going after reproductive rights, including contraception, would be heeded. But predictably, Republicans complained of fraud and rejected the idea of taking away access to contraception. Then, felon and former president Donald Trump let slip that he was “considering” restricting contraception. Then, when he realized that being too outspoken would be politically disastrous, he backed off.
And, as expected, Republicans showed their true colors again last week. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer mocked Republicans before calling for a vote on the National Protection for Birth Control Act. “This week and in the coming weeks, Senate Republicans will have to explain their anti-abortion, anti-women policies,” Schumer said. “Your Republican colleagues need to know that the American people are watching.”
The bill was straightforward. “The Democrats' bill was designed to force Republicans into an unpopular position on reproductive rights in an election year, and would have blocked states from passing laws that would restrict access to birth control, including hormonal and intrauterine devices,” the Post reported. Nine Republicans abstained from voting, and every other male Republican voted no. Two female Republicans and every Democrat present voted in favor. (New Jersey Democratic Senator Bob Menendez, who is on trial on charges of bribery, obstruction of justice, acting as a foreign agent and honest wire fraud, abstained from voting.)
Follow this authorJennifer Rubin's opinion
Ahead of the vote, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) emphasized the importance of this moment. “What message do we want to send to our constituents? Do we support the right to birth control? Do we support access to IUDs and Plan B? Or do we support taking away that right and putting health care decisions for women in this country in the hands of politicians,” she said. “I know where I stand. The overwhelming majority of people support that right. And very soon we'll know exactly where every Republican senator stands.”
Republicans, who have churned out a string of bills that have no chance of passing, cried out the bill as a “stunt.” They derided it as a Democratic message-making effort. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), one of the two Republicans who voted in favor of the bill, responded in a video that if the bill was a “message” bill, “I want to send a message very clearly that women have a right to birth control.” Her Republican colleagues who voted against it clearly didn't see it that way.
Republicans’ reasons for opposing the bill are confusing and contradictory: They argue that the bill is “unnecessary” even as they loudly praised the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which stripped away the basis of substantive due process rights regarding reproductive rights.
And it wasn't just for show: “Democrats pointed to Republican opposition to birth control bills — such as Virginia's Republican governor Glenn Youngkin's veto of a similar bill last month — as evidence that the effort was necessary,” the Post reported. “Some Oklahoma Republicans have pushed legislation that could make intrauterine devices illegal, and some Republicans oppose 'emergency contraception' pills that help prevent pregnancy.” Federal pregnancy protections seem pretty important if you want to protect birth control.
In fact, Republicans are going after all of this. That's the purpose of so-called fetal personhood bills. State measures to protect “fetal personhood” would endanger not only IVF but many forms of contraception, since they protect the fertilized egg at every stage. (“Opologists have deliberately and effectively sowed misinformation to sow division about what abortion is by claiming that some contraceptives are abortifacients, despite all medical evidence to the contrary,” a pro-life advocacy group explains. Vague personhood laws “have repeatedly allowed lawless and aggressive prosecutors to push back against the limits of the law and crack down on reproductive freedom.”)
Republicans in the House and Senate regularly introduce “life begins at conception” bills like clockwork. The House bill has 130 co-sponsors. The Republican Study Committee is on record this year as supporting both fetal personhood legislation and a ban on mifepristone (used to treat miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies).
In other words, protections for access to contraception are needed at a time when federal protections have been effectively eliminated by the MAGA-praised Dobbs decision, and Republicans are pursuing “fetal personhood” bills that would make abortion, IVF, and some forms of contraception illegal at both the state and federal levels.
Voters have every reason to fear that a Republican-controlled Congress would pass nationwide abortion bans and “fetal personhood” bills. They know that's true because Republicans have pushed those bills while simultaneously voting to block bills protecting IVF and contraception. And no one really believes that Trump would veto those bills if elected with the support of white evangelicals.
