Kaine Statement After Senate Republicans Block Right to Contraception Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, released the following statement after Senate Republicans blocked the Right to Contraception Act, legislation he cosponsored to protect Americans’ access to contraception and health care providers’ right to prescribe contraceptives:

“Women deserve the right to make decisions about whether and when to start their family without interference from the government. It’s outrageous that the Senate couldn’t pass this bill to protect access to contraception—a safe, effective, and widely used form of care that has come under attack since the Supreme Court’s disastrous Dobbs decision. When given the opportunity to show that they support this commonsense measure, many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle chose extremism. I’ll keep pushing to pass legislation to protect Americans’ reproductive freedom.”

Nearly seven in ten Americans want federal action to protect abortion access, and a majority of women in the U.S. have used contraception at some point during their lives. However, several states have restricted access to contraceptives.

Kaine has long championed efforts to protect reproductive freedom. Following the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade and Americans’ right to abortion, Kaine worked to introduce the bipartisan Reproductive Freedom For All Act to codify the essential holdings of Roe v. Wade and related cases—including Griswold—and protect Americans’ access to abortion and contraception. In May, Kaine also introduced the Access to Birth Control Act to guarantee timely access to contraceptives at pharmacies nationwide. He also introduced the Convenient Contraception Act to improve access to contraceptives last year.

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