OLYMPIA, Wash. – A bill before the US Senate which would have guaranteed a federal right to contraception was swatted down by Republicans on Wednesday. Governor Jay Inslee (D) condemned the GOP on reproductive issues Thursday morning.
“If you thought it was all about abortion, it’s so much more. The GOP is coming for contraception. Texas Sen. [John Cornyn] called it a ‘show vote.’ He’s right. Republicans have shown what they really think: if you have a uterus, you have no rights,” Inslee said via social media.
Republicans characterized the bill as an assault on religious freedoms, and South Dakota Senator John Thune (R) claimed that it could even rescind previous religious freedom legislation.
“This bill specifically targets the Religious Freedom Restoration Act which was passed in 1993, when Democrats believed in protecting our first amendment freedoms,” Thune said on the Senate floor Wednesday.
The Religious Freedom Restoration Act is mentioned once in the contraception bill, but it does not rescind the religious rights policy. Instead, it applies the potential federal right to contraception even in cases where the religious freedom restoration act could previously be claimed as an exemption.
Inslee has repeatedly emphasized his commitment to abortion and contraception access in recent months as polling suggests it is a winning issue for Democrats this election cycle. After Louisiana’s legislature designated the pregnancy termination drug Mifepristone as an illicit substance in late May, Inslee touted his decision to purchase a stockpile of that same medication in 2023.
The governor joins both of Washington state’s US Senators in slamming Republicans for shutting the bill down. In a post Roe v. Wade reality, it seems that the new battleground for reproductive rights is no longer merely over abortion, but whether women should be guaranteed a right to make any reproductive health choices involving medication.
