Congress must codify the right to contraception before it’s too late 

The MAGA Republican Party’s war on abortion has largely overshadowed its attempts to ban our right to contraception and its refusal to preserve this well-established right. Given that 90 percent of Americans support the right to use birth control, this commonsense issue should be noncontroversial.  

Despite this, last year, 195 House Republicans voted against the “Right to Contraception Act,” which only passed the House thanks to the support of all 220 Democrats then in the majority. Senate Republicans proceeded to block all action in the Senate. There can be no confusion here about what these politicians did. They refused to pass a clean and simple bill that would have enshrined the right to contraception in federal law.  

Just last week, I reintroduced my bill on June 14 at the steps of the U.S. Capitol with Senate co-lead, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.). Moreover, this week, my colleagues in the Senate again blocked the “Right to Contraception Act,” from unanimous consent. This comes on the heels of Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo (R) vetoing a right to contraception bill in Nevada, despite it passing with bipartisan support including the Senate minority leaders in his own party. It is clear that congressional Republicans and Republicans in the states care far more about appeasing their MAGA base than representing the American people.  

Let’s not be fooled into thinking this right is not at risk. In Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s concurring opinion of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization last year, Thomas voiced support for overturning the constitutional right to contraception — a right established in Griswold v. Connecticut in 1965. Specifically, Thomas wrote that because the legal basis for Roe v. Wade is also the basis for other rights, including the right to contraception, the decision recognizing that right (Griswold) should therefore be “reconsider[ed].”  

We cannot afford to leave such a fundamental right to the whims of a far-right court, which is why passage of the Right to Contraception Act is critical.  

Thomas and others on the far-right simply fail to recognize that the right to contraception is central to an individual’s privacy, health, well-being, career growth, and participation in our nation’s social and economic life. Contraception is also used for preventing and treating various medical conditions like endometritis, iron deficiency, ovarian cancer and other cancers.  

Many Americans that support the right to contraception are unaware of the GOP’s attacks on it. Polling conducted weeks before the 2022 Election Day found that most voters heard little about congressional Republicans’ attempts to block the “Right to Contraception Act.” The survey also found that 59 percent of voters, including 74 percent of Democrats, 63 percent of independents, and 40 percent of Republicans, said they were “less likely to vote for a candidate who opposes protecting the right to contraception.”  

Given the enormous stakes, Americans must be made aware of all the ways in which extremist Republican lawmakers and far-right courts are attempting to infringe on this fundamental freedom. The MAGA Republican Party is counting on the 90 percent of the American people in favor of contraception not to notice, and sadly, thus far, they’re largely succeeding.  

Equally alarming are the recent efforts of Republican-led state legislatures and MAGA politicians to restrict access, affordability and availability of contraception. 

Late last year, a Texas judge ruled that Texas teens would need parents’ permission to get birth control at federally funded clinics. In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) blocked funding for contraception — specifically for LARCs (long-acting reversible contraception, or IUDs and the Implant) for low-income constituents. In Virginia, legislators introduced bills that could ban certain forms of birth control, including IUDs. The list of states extends to Ohio, Louisiana, Tennessee and beyond.  

The public needs to be made aware of the right-wing extremists’ war on contraception and outright assault on Americans’ fundamental rights, personal freedoms and well-being. In their efforts to satisfy their fringe MAGA base, the GOP has made clear they do not and will not represent the 90 percent of Americans in favor of contraception.  

For these reasons and more, we’re launching a movement to protect our freedoms and right to contraception. We must expose the MAGA Republican Party’s efforts to restrict our right to contraception at every level and make clear to lawmakers that we will not stand for such attacks on our fundamental rights.  

For years, Congress failed to protect abortion access by codifying it as a federal law, and now it’s been overturned. We cannot sit by and wait for MAGA extremists and far-right justices on the bench to undo decades of precedent and progress by letting Americans’ right to contraception suffer a similar fate.  

It’s time for Congress to listen to their constituents and the 90 percent of the American people in favor of contraception and pass this crucial legislation now before it’s too late. 

Rep. Kathy Manning represents North Carolina’s 6th District.