The Right To Contraception Act would create federal protections to access birth control. So why did 195 House Republicans vote against it? (via MaddowBlog)
, congressional Democrats scrambled to advance the Respect For Marriage Act, to codify existing protections in federal law.
The politics of contraception access has followed a similar trajectory. Up until quite recently, there didn’t appear to be much of a point to lawmakers considering legislation to ensure access to contraception.
When the House considered a bill to protect marriage equality this week, the vote was relatively bipartisan:, representing nearly a fourth of the House GOP conference, voted with the Democratic majority in support of the legislation. It was a timely reminder of just how much the politics surrounding same-sex marriage have changed.
But there was no comparable bipartisanship on protecting contraception access: 195 Republicans voted “no” this morning, while only eight — Wyoming’s Liz Cheney, Pennsylvania’s Brian Fitzpatrick, Ohio’s Anthony Gonzalez, New York’s John Katko, Illinois’ Adam Kinzinger, South Carolina’s Nancy Mace, Florida’s María Elvira Salazar, and Michigan’s Fred Upton — voted with a unanimous Democratic conference.
To be sure, one of the principal GOP arguments this morning was that there’s no need to pass the Right To Contraception Act, since no states have tried to ban it in recent decades. That’s not a ridiculous point: As with the Respect For Marriage Act, today’s bill was inherently preemptive and intended to address a potential threat, not restrictions that have already been implemented.
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