Expert discusses importance of passing federal birth control protections
After fall of Roe, one Supreme Court justice suggested overturning seminal birth control decisions
(Photo courtesy of Power to Decide’s Facebook page)
Reproductive rights were once again political football at the federal level as Republicans sank an effort to codify constitutional protections for contraception.
Thirty-eight Republican senators blocked the Right to Contraception Act. Lawmakers introduced the legislation in 2022 after worries spread that the Supreme Court would possibly overturn Griswold v. Connecticut, a seminal 1965 decision guaranteeing birth control access to married couples. That right later was extended in its 1972 decision, Eisenstadt v. Baird.
But all that has been under legal scrutiny in recent years. In his concurring opinion on the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe, Justice Clarence Thomas called for overturning all the precedents that protected contraceptives.
Rachel Fey is vice president of Policy & Strategic Partnerships at Power to Decide, an organization dedicated to expanding birth control and reproductive rights nationwide. She characterized the Republicans' debate on the recent bill as “outright lies.”
“I couldn't begin to tell you what's in their minds or why they chose to do that,” Fey said.
Republicans contended that it provided funding for Planned Parenthood, which Fey disputed.
“It is simply affirming a right,” Fey said. “So I don't know why they oppose something as simple as a right to contraception act. But their reasoning, or the things brought to the floor and their comments, were largely false.”
Though funding wasn’t part of this effort, Fey wants federal lawmakers to increase it through its Title X Family Planning program. It’s essential to make sure that poor women can access reproductive care to the same extent as wealthier ones.
“A right is only the first step, and right now, we live in a country where there is deeply inequitable access to contraception, to abortion, to pretty much every aspect of reproductive health care,” Fey said. “And that is due to systemic racism that our nation has a history of and that pervades reproductive health care to this day.”