Democrats then warned that Republicans were going after IVF. “That’s ridiculous!” Yes, Republicans have voted against protecting IVF. Alabama effectively banned IVF, but 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.)
Ahead of the vote, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) emphasized the importance of this moment. “What message do we want to send to our voters? 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 bill after bill that has 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 argued it was “unnecessary,” yet roared in support of it. Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organizationwhich took away any basis for 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, and that’s what the so-called fetal person bills are about. State measures to protect “fetal personhood” would jeopardize not only IVF but many forms of contraception because they protect the fertilized egg. At any stage(“By claiming, contrary to all medical evidence, that certain contraceptive methods are abortifacients, anti-abortion advocates have deliberately and effectively spread misinformation to sow division about what abortion is,” pro-abortion advocacy groups explain. Vague personhood laws “have repeatedly allowed lawless and aggressive prosecutors to go beyond the bounds of the law to 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, the protection of access to birth control that MAGA celebrates Dobbs The decision effectively eliminates federal protections, and Republicans are pursuing “fetal personhood” bills that would make abortion, in vitro fertilization and some forms of contraception illegal at both the state and federal levels.
Voters have every reason to fear that a Republican-controlled Congress will pass a nationwide abortion ban and “fetal personhood” legislation. They know it’s true. Republicans have pushed through these measures while simultaneously voting to block measures that would have protected IVF and contraception.And no one seriously believes that Trump, even if elected with the support of white evangelical Christians, would veto such a bill.
