United States: A Senate vote on a bill to protect women’s right to contraceptives and access to birth control is set for this Wednesday in the coming week in a bid by House Democrats to keep the abortion issue alive in the run-up to the November election, but it will not pass.
The Right to Contraception Act, which would codify the right to birth control at the federal level, is not expected to gather 60 votes to pass in the chamber even though Democrats predominantly rule with a 51-49 majority, as reported by Reuters.
The issue of reproductive rights is one of the key battlegrounds of American politics currently, particularly following the US Supreme Court ruling in 2022, which eliminated constitutional protections for abortion access.
Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump last month became a victim of his words when political opponents said that he was ready to ban birth control, and he had to defend himself in public, stating that he would not support banning birth control.
“I would hope that protecting access to birth control would be the definition of an easy, uncontroversial decision here in the Senate, but the vote will tell all when we gavel in tomorrow,” top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, the Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives said that they would try to bring a discharge petition, which would force a debate on the same bill the Senate is set to consider, although they stood little chance given the Republican-dominated House.
Democratic Leaders Push for Action
“Republicans have a choice to make: they can put aside their MAGA ideology and join us (to) get this bill passed, or they can triple down on their anti-freedom extremism in full view of the American people,” No. 2 House Democrat Katherine Clark said on Tuesday.
However, the effort was not well received by all: some Senate Republicans expressed their disagreement with it.
Republican Opposition and Political Context
“The situation has been designed to make abortion a high-stake; it is an election year; there is a Democratic incumbent president who is lagging behind,” Republican Senator Bill Cassidy claimed, pointing at Joe Biden.
“You can’t normalize a procedure where the intent is to end a life,” Cassidy said.
Public Opinion and Future Legislation
Respondents were questioned in a May Reuters/Ipsos poll that involved 3,934 adults aged 18 years and above living in the United States: 37% said that Biden has a better approach to abortion than Trump; 27% said the same about Trump ahead of a Nov. 5 election that is anticipated to be neck-and-neck, as reported by Reuters.
He also said that the Democrats will be coming up with a bill that will seek to protect in vitro fertilization, which the Senate Republicans had voted against, following the move by an Alabama court to outlaw a procedure that millions of Americans use to conceive.