WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., plans to hold a Senate vote next month on a bill to create federal protections for legal contraceptives, a source familiar with his plan said.
The vote is designed to force Republicans to take sides in the culture war over reproductive rights that has divided their party across the country ahead of the election.
“Now more than ever, contraception is an essential part of protecting women’s reproductive freedoms and stands as a vital lifeline for millions of American women across the country,” Schumer said on the Senate floor Wednesday.
Former President Donald Trump he suggested in an interview Released Tuesday, it is open to new restrictions on birth control. Asked by Pittsburgh’s KDKA-TV whether he supported restrictions on contraception, Trump said: “We’re looking at it and I’m going to have a policy on it very soon. will find it interesting. I think it’s a smart decision. We will publish it soon.”
(Trump later retracted those comments on the social media platform.)
A bill called the Contraceptive Rights Act, will protect a person’s ability to access contraceptives and protect a health care provider’s ability to provide contraceptives and information about contraception. The vote will be part of a larger push to get Republicans on record on reproductive rights. The decision of the Supreme Courtturning Roe v. Wade.
No date has been set for a vote, but Schumer began the process Tuesday to add the bill to the calendar and tabled it later. The Senate will vote on a separate border security bill Thursday before a weeklong recess over Memorial Day before returning in June.
Both votes are designed to put GOP senators on the record on tough issues this summer in a key election year as Democrats try to hold on to a slim 51-49 majority in the Senate and Trump fumbles on reproductive rights.
The Senate will vote this week bilateral border bill Introduced in February, it is expected to fail with bipartisan opposition and is largely seen as an attempt to address Republican criticism of the situation at the southern border.
“Republicans will vote against the right of American families to decide how many children they want. God willing, if this campaign is going to be a controversial issue, I will stick with American families. I know where they stand,” Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Wednesday.
RN.C. Sen. Tom Tillis said the vote shows Schumer is politically worried about the election.
“I suspect there will be members who will support him. But that’s another thing, there’s what we think is a trick in the border bill this week. He’s going to send these kinds of political messages because he knows he’s underwater in several states,” Tillis said. “And he’s trying to build political support for some of his officials.”
Sen. John Thune, R-RSD, who is running to be GOP leader next year, said a vote on the contraceptive bill “doesn’t seem necessary to me.”
“I think Republicans support it, yes. I don’t know why you have to put a bill on the floor,” Tune said.
Asked if Trump had said he would look at potentially restrictive policies on contraceptives, Thune said: “It seems like he’s made it clear what he means by that. But that’s clearly not my position, or, I would argue, the position of most Republicans.”
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., deflected when asked about Schumer’s plans.
“We’ll see what the Democrats do,” he said. “Nobody knows what they’re going to come up with.”
Julie Tsirkin contributed.