The House passed legislation that ensures the right to access contraception, a bill that lawmakers on the Right argue violates religious freedom.
The lower chamber on Thursday passed the bill, the Right to Contraception Act, in a 228-195 vote, with eight Republicans joining all Democrats in favor and two members voting present. The measure would guarantee a right to all Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptive pills and devices, as well as sterilization procedures. The bill’s introduction was a response to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s note in his concurring opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the decision that overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide, that other Supreme Court precedents relying on the right to privacy, such as the right to contraception, should be reexamined.
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Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) argued as the bill moved through the House that it is overly broad and would strip healthcare providers of their freedom to object to administering birth control or sterilizations. The bill itself says, “Providers’ refusals to offer contraceptives and information related to contraception based on their own personal beliefs impede patients from obtaining their preferred method.”
Of particular concern to Republicans is language that would override the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a 1993 law that created legal safeguards for religious people and entities with respect to federal rules. The provision is expected to alienate centrist Republicans. Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) previously voted down a bill that would have codified the right to an abortion in federal law over concerns that it overrode the RFRA. The bill “is never going to see the light of day in the Senate,” according to Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX). It would require 60 votes in the Senate, an insurmountable feat for Democrats.
RFRA was central to the landmark 2014 Supreme Court case Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, in which the court determined that the Obamacare contraception mandate violated the law in cases of privately held, for-profit organizations like Hobby Lobby.
Rodgers added that some of the drugs permitted for use as contraception could also be used off-label to terminate a pregnancy. It would also open the door to federal dollars going to Planned Parenthood, which provides abortions.
“HR 8373 will also continue President Joe Biden’s war on religious liberty and conscience protections,” Rodgers said Thursday. “It would force health providers to violate their religion and sincerely held beliefs to provide contraception and perform sterilizations, including on minors, would also force organizations like the Little Sisters of the Poor to violate their religion and provide contraception.”
The Little Sisters of the Poor, a religious ministry that cares for poor elderly people, has been in the Supreme Court twice, arguing against the Obamacare mandate that employee health plans provide coverage for contraceptives. The court’s rulings marked a huge win for religious organizations.
Another sticking point in the bill, Rodgers and fellow Republicans said, was its means of getting to the floor for a vote. It did not pass through a committee for debate or markup, the typical avenue for legislation. The bill was also hastily introduced, having been issued on Friday and taken up in the Rules Committee the following Monday.
But Democrats maintain that nothing in the bill mandates contraception. While Republicans argue that contraception rights are not in danger and the bill is a solution in search of a problem, Democrats say the fall of Roe and Thomas’s opinion is a slippery slope.
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“While the right to contraception is legal today, we must act to ensure this remains true in the future,” Rep. Frank Pallone, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “This legislation does exactly that, by enshrining the right to contraception in federal law.”
