Today the U.S. Senate voted on the Right to Contraception Act, which fell short of the 60 votes needed for passage. The bill was sponsored by Senator Ed Markey (D., Mass.) and would have codified in federal law the right to contraception. Contraception is widely used by many Americans and often polls well, so it is not surprising that Democrats and supporters of legal abortion are grandstanding on the issue. Indeed, the aim of the bill was to solve a problem that doesn’t exist.
First, contraceptives are widely available. Moreover, studies have shown that every few sexually active women forgo contraceptives because of either cost or availability. The most common reasons women cite for forgoing contraception are that they wish to show trust in a partner or that they are willing to risk pregnancy. Given that Medicaid already covers contraception for low-income women, it is unlikely that the bill would have significantly increased contraceptive use.
Furthermore, more contraceptive use would not necessarily reduce the number either of abortions or of unintended pregnancies. Contraception has a failure rate. The Guttmacher Institute has shown that approximately half of women who sought abortions had used some form of contraception the month they became pregnant. Also, even though contraceptive use has increased in the United States since the early 1980s, the rate of unintended pregnancy has fluctuated.
The legislation contained no conscience protections. It could have forced Catholic health-care professionals to either violate their conscience or face punishment. It also provided no provision for parental involvement in a minor’s decision to obtain contraceptives and failed to draw clear distinctions between contraceptives and abortifacients. The definition of contraceptives in this bill can easily be interpreted to include the abortion drug mifepristone. That makes the lack of conscience protections even more troublesome.
Thankfully, the bill was opposed by pro-life and pro-family groups. Senator Rick Scott (R., Fla.) deserves credit for getting 21 other Republican Senators to release a strong statement in opposition to the Right to Contraception Act. Although the bill in its current form was defeated, Democratic elected officials will likely continue to raise the issue of contraception during the 2024 campaigns. Republicans need to make the case that legislative efforts to promote contraception are unnecessary. They only serve to threaten conscience rights and steer taxpayer dollars to Planned Parenthood and other groups that perform abortions.