Schumer: Senate to vote on "Right to Contraception" this Wednesday
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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol last week. Photo: Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced the chamber will vote on a bill to protect a person's ability to access contraceptives this Wednesday.
Why it matters: The vote on the Right to Contraception Act comes just ahead of the second anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court striking down federal abortion rights protections and as Democrats highlight the matter as a key 2024 election issue.
- Schumer wrote in a "Dear Colleague" letter released Sunday: "Democrats will be putting reproductive freedoms front and center."
Context: Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in concurring opinion overturning Roe v. Wade that the bench should reconsider "all of this Court's substantive due process precedents," including those guaranteeing birth control access and marriage equality.
What we're watching: Schumer promised in the letter that there would be "more action" after this week's vote on the Right to Contraception Act, which is led by Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawai'i).
State of play: Schumer noted since the Supreme Court's June 24, 2022, decision in the Dobbs case that at least 20 states have imposed near-total bans or severe restrictions on abortion.
- "There's no question in the American people's minds that Republicans have brought our country to this point," Schumer wrote.
- "And as Donald Trump reminded us recently, he is 'proudly the person responsible' for the annihilation of Roe v. Wade and the grotesque reversal of women's personal freedoms," he added.
- "Democrats have been clear we will not stand for these attacks and we will fight to preserve reproductive freedoms. That is why as we return from the Memorial Day state work period, Senate Democrats will be putting reproductive freedoms front and center."
Between the lines: November ballot measures seeking to guarantee abortion rights are either locked in or under consideration in several key states that are home to Senate races that could be pivotal in determining control of the chamber next year, including Arizona, Montana, Nevada and Florida, per Axios' Stef Kight.
- Keeping the issue front and center could boost support for President Biden in swing states likely to decide the presidential election, including Pennsylvania, Arizona and Nevada, notes Kight, who first reported on Democrats' plans to zero in on reproductive rights this month.
Read the letter obtained by Politico in full, via DocumentCloud:
