Audacy | Should you be stocking up on condoms?
By Lauren Barry | Originally Published by Audacy
While it may be easy now to pick up certain methods of contraception in the U.S., the right to access them is not codified – and Republican senators blocked a move to make them so this week.
What comes next?
“Today’s vote will not deter us from fighting for reproductive justice. Republican lawmakers must be held accountable for disregarding the needs and rights of their constituents. And we will continue to push for legislation that protects individuals’ rights to make their own healthcare decisions,” said Dr.
Dara Kass, a board Member at Americans for Contraception.
According to NBC News: “If passed, the Right to Contraception Act would codify the right of Americans to have access to birth control pills, patches and implants, condoms, intrauterine devices (IUDs) and sterilization procedures, including vasectomies.”
Per the proposed legislation, it covers any “action taken to prevent pregnancy, including the use of contraceptives or fertility-awareness-based methods and sterilization procedures,” and that it is meant to protect both people seeking contraceptives and health care providers. Following the controversial Dobbs v. Jackson Supreme Court decision in 2022, Audacy has also reported on failed efforts to codify abortion rights.
In addition to preventing pregnancy, condoms in particular help prevent sexually transmitted infections. According to the World Health Organization, 374 million new STI infections occurred globally among adults aged 15 to 49 with one of the four curable STIs (syphilis, chlamydia, gonorrhea and trichomoniasis) in 2020 alone.
“The majority of these could be prevented with the correct use of condoms,” said the WHO.
Rebecca Hart Holder, president of the Reproductive Equity Now group said that the GOP blockade of contraception rights should alert voters of “what is at stake this November,” and she called for an end to the filibuster to protect reproductive health.
While a majority of senators (51-39), including Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), both Republicans, voted in favor of the legislation, it didn’t meet the 60 votes needed to advance out of the chamber. Previously, the bill passed in the House. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) voted no as well, but only to be able to bring the legislation up again in the Senate at a later date, according to Roll Call.
“Thanks to Donald Trump and the right-wing MAGA Supreme Court, Americans now have to question whether or not they’ll have access to something as basic and widely supported as birth control,” said Schumer. “We could have eliminated that worry in one fell swoop by passing the Right to Contraception Act, but Senate Republicans showed the American people where they truly stand.”
POLITICO noted that codification of contraception rights was one of several legislative actions Democrats have pledged on reproductive rights we we heard towards the November election. It also said the vote came just after former President Donald Trump – the presumptive GOP presidential candidate – said in an interview that he was “looking at” restrictions on contraception, but then quickly walked them back.
“The vote comes at a crucial time as right-wing judges, U.S. Supreme Court Justices, and Republican-led state governments work to restrict contraception access across the country. Some states have attempted to ban some or all contraceptives, and others have defined abortion so broadly so as to include contraceptives in abortion bans. Despite nine out of 10 voters believing that birth control should be legal, Senate Republicans have blocked the bill from passing twice already, once in 2022 and again in 2023,” said a press release from Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), the bill’s sponsor.
