House votes to affirm right to contraception with Rodgers and Republicans in opposition

The U.S. House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, on a 228–195 vote, passed leg­is­la­tion Thurs­day that would cre­ate a statu­to­ry right to preg­nan­cy pre­ven­tion, affirm the right of doc­tors and health care work­ers to pro­vide con­tra­cep­tives, and secure fed­er­al author­i­ty to sue states that seek to block the means of fam­i­ly planning.

The Right to Con­tra­cep­tion Act drew unan­i­mous sup­port from House Democ­rats. Oppo­si­tion came from 195 House Repub­li­cans, led by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers, R‑Washington (5th Dis­trict). Eight Repub­li­can law­mak­ers backed the mea­sure while two Repub­li­cans vot­ed “Present.”

The con­tra­cep­tion mea­sure was one of four bills inspired by the U.S. Supreme Court rul­ing that over­turned Roe v. Wade and took away Amer­i­cans’ right to access repro­duc­tive health­care through­out the coun­try. Specif­i­cal­ly, the bills were inspired by a con­cur­ring opin­ion by Jus­tice Clarence Thomas in which Thomas urged the court to “recon­sid­er” pre­vi­ous rul­ings that legal­ized con­tra­cep­tion, same-sex mar­riage, and con­sen­su­al sex acts between adults.

The Supreme Court ini­tial­ly legal­ized con­tra­cep­tion for mar­ried cou­ples in its 1965 Gris­wold vs. Con­necti­cut deci­sion, in which U.S. Supreme Court Jus­tice William O. Dou­glas defined a right of pri­va­cy, and lat­er removed bar­ri­ers for the unmarried.

“It is out­ra­geous that near­ly six­ty years after Gris­wold was decid­ed, women must once again fight for fun­da­men­tal free­dom to deter­mine the size and tim­ing of their fam­i­lies,” House Speak­er Nan­cy Pelosi told colleagues.

“But as Repub­li­cans turn back the clock on con­tra­cep­tion, Democ­rats today are mak­ing it clear. We are not going back.”

The House Speak­er took a shot at Thomas: “The asso­ciate jus­tice of the court has been clear. We’ve only just begun to over­turn women’s rights and indi­vid­ual free­dom and pri­va­cy when it comes to inter­ac­tion among us all.”

McMor­ris Rodgers, as rank­ing Repub­li­can on the House Ener­gy and Com­merce Com­mit­tee, man­aged floor debate for the opposition.

She deliv­ered a dog’s break­fast of alle­ga­tions, accus­ing Democ­rats of “fear mon­ger­ing” and “scare tac­tics,” say­ing the leg­is­la­tion fur­thers “Joe Biden’s war on reli­gious lib­er­ty and con­science protection.”

“Women deserve the truth, not more fear and mis­in­for­ma­tion that forces an extreme agen­da on the Amer­i­can peo­ple,” McMor­ris Rodgers argued.

She sim­i­lar­ly led oppo­si­tion on Tues­day to a mea­sure cod­i­fy­ing the right of same-sex cou­ples to mar­ry. Forty-sev­en Repub­li­cans, includ­ing Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Dan New­house, broke ranks to vote yea. So did two oth­er North­west Repub­li­cans: Mike Simp­son, R‑Idaho and Clif Bentz, R‑Oregon.

McMor­ris Rodgers, New­house and Jaime Her­rera Beut­ler, R‑Washington (3rd Dis­trict) all vot­ed nay on the con­tra­cep­tion measure.

Among the few Repub­li­cans vot­ing yea were Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Liz Cheney, R‑Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger, R‑Illinois, the two Repub­li­can law­mak­ers who defied Repub­li­can House lead­er­ship to serve on the Jan­u­ary 6th committee.

The House bills are bound for the Sen­ate, where at least ten Repub­li­can votes are need­ed to cut off debate and move to a vote.

The mar­riage equal­i­ty leg­is­la­tion stands a chance of pas­sage, although Sen­ate Minor­i­ty Leader Mitch McConnell has not yet said how he will vote.

One Wash­ing­ton Demo­c­rat, Dr. Kim Schri­er, spoke dur­ing the con­tra­cep­tion debate. “This bill affirms cur­rent law that women can deter­mine the path of their lives,” said Schri­er, a pedi­a­tri­cian who has pre­scribed con­tra­cep­tives for years.

“Every­one should choose means of con­tra­cep­tion that meets their needs with­out inter­fer­ence from politi­cians,” Schri­er added.

Con­tra­cep­tion used to be a bipar­ti­san cause. Future Pres­i­dent George H.W. Bush, as a Texas con­gress­man in the 1960s, was such an enthu­si­as­tic backer of fam­i­ly plan­ning that his col­leagues nick­named him “Rub­bers.”

In Gris­wold, Jus­tice Dou­glas wrote a pow­er­ful opin­ion that the state should stay out of America’s bed­rooms, remark­ing: “Would we allow the police to search the sacred precincts of the mar­i­tal bed­rooms for signs of the use of con­tra­cep­tives? The very idea is repul­sive to the notion of pri­va­cy sur­round­ing the mar­riage relationship.”

Appar­ent­ly not to Clarence Thomas and his Fed­er­al­ist Soci­ety law clerks.

On the House flood Thurs­day, Repub­li­can speak­ers mocked what they called “The Right to Decep­tion Act” and “The Pay­out for Planned Par­ent­hood Act.”

The Repub­li­cans said they would sup­port more lim­it­ed leg­is­la­tion, but noth­ing that would legal­ize “morn­ing after” preg­nan­cy ter­mi­nat­ing pills.

If Repub­li­cans retake con­trol of the House, McMor­ris Rodgers is in line to chair the pow­er­ful House Ener­gy and Com­merce Committee.

The East­ern Wash­ing­ton House mem­ber is an out­spo­ken abor­tion oppo­nent and sup­port­er of the Supreme Court rul­ing. She is also spon­sor­ing leg­is­la­tion that would throw open fed­er­al lands to oil and gas drilling.