[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 95 (Tuesday, June 4, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S3940]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Right to Contraception Act

  Mr. President, I would like to speak on a separate topic at this 
point.
  Fifty-nine years ago this week, the Supreme Court ruled in Griswold 
v. Connecticut that all married Americans have a constitutional right 
to use contraception. This decision has served as the foundation for 
other landmark Supreme Court decisions, including the expansion of the 
right to access contraception to other Americans in 1972.
  For those of us who remember the time when Griswold was decided, we 
remember what it meant for millions of Americans. With that decision, 
finally, was the freedom to make their own reproductive family 
healthcare decisions, something which we take for granted in this 
country today.
  When Griswold was decided in 1965, our Nation still had a long way to 
go in living up to the promise of equal justice under the law.
  As one example, in 1965, women were often required to ask their 
husbands for permission to apply for credit cards--hard to believe, 
right? In many banks, widowers and divorced women had to bring a man to 
the bank with them to cosign for a credit card. We have certainly made 
a lot of progress, and 59 years later, we still have a long way to go.
  But the Griswold v. Connecticut decision was a breakthrough. It was a 
glimpse of the Nation that we can be.
  Sadly, 2 years ago this month, six rightwing judicial activists sent 
us back in time. I am referring to the Supreme Court's decision in 
Dobbs--the crowning achievement of a Republican-led, decades-long 
campaign to overrule Roe v. Wade and abolish fundamental reproductive 
rights in America.
  The Dobbs ruling is one of the most irresponsible and dangerous 
decisions ever handed down by the Supreme Court. It ripped away a 
constitutional right from individuals and their families and handed it 
over to politicians.
  With the Dobbs decision, the ultraconservative majority on the Court 
not only overruled a nearly 50-year-old precedent that had been 
reaffirmed over and over again but also twisted the facts to reach the 
outcome they wanted.
  What do I mean by that? In his majority opinion, Justice Alito 
claimed that abortion cannot be constitutionally protected because it 
is not ``deeply rooted in the Nation's history and tradition.''
  Judge Alito is wrong again because, whatever we may think about the 
issue, it has deep roots in our history. As the dissenting Justices in 
Dobbs wrote: ``embarrassingly for the majority--early law in fact does 
provide some support for abortion rights.''
  Justice Alito's argument for overruling Roe has no credibility. It 
wasn't originalism; it was an ideologically motivated outcome based on 
his historical cherry-picking.
  Incredibly, Justice Clarence Thomas wanted to go even further. He 
believes the constitutional right to privacy is a fiction. In a 
concurring opinion in Dobbs, Justice Thomas declared that the Court 
should ``eliminate'' the legal doctrine behind the constitutional right 
to privacy and ``reconsider all of this Court's substantive due process 
precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell.''
  That means one of the Justices who eliminated the right to abortion 
also thinks that the Court should reconsider the constitutional right 
to contraception as well as the constitutional rights to marriage 
equality and consensual relationships between LGBTQ people.
  Over the past 2 years, Republican lawmakers have picked up where the 
Supreme Court left off. In State after State after State, they have 
ripped away reproductive rights from millions of Americans, with 
devastating consequences.
  Overruling Roe v. Wade has unleashed a healthcare crisis in America, 
and 24 of the 50 States have either barred or severely restricted 
access to abortion or are attempting to do so. Many of these bans by 
the States provide no exceptions for rape and incest, and many are 
grossly insufficient in protecting the health and lives of mothers. 
Some of these bans are even written in a way that appear to limit 
access to contraception.
  You may hear some of our colleagues across the aisle argue that 
Democrats are exaggerating when we say the right to contraception is at 
risk. They claim there is nothing to see here.
  Well, tell that to the millions of Americans impacted by the 
successful effort to overrule Roe v. Wade, which has inserted 
politicians and judges into the most personal decision imaginable. Tell 
that to the Americans who are worried that some of those politicians 
and judges now have their sights set on contraception, particularly 
after Justice Thomas urged his colleagues to reconsider the Court's 
holding in Griswold.
  That is why my colleagues Senators Markey, Hirono, and Duckworth 
reintroduced the Right to Contraception Act, which I am cosponsoring. 
The bill would protect the rights of patients to access and use 
contraception and of healthcare providers to provide contraception and 
information about contraception. It would codify the right to 
contraception the Supreme Court first recognized in the Griswold 
decision. It would also allow patients, providers, and the Justice 
Department to go to court to enforce these rights.
  This week, the Senate has an opportunity to make history and 
counteract some of the repressive policies that Republican State 
legislatures have put in place post-Dobbs. Tomorrow, the Senate will 
vote on cloture on the motion to proceed to the Right to Contraception 
Act. My Senate colleagues will have to decide how they want to be 
remembered during this historic vote. Do they want to be remembered for 
blocking the effort to protect the right to access contraception or for 
standing on the right side of history and protecting reproductive 
rights?
  I urge my colleagues to join me during this anniversary week of the 
Griswold decision and help pass the Right to Contraception Act and 
ensure that Americans will always be able to access free and safe 
contraception.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Republican whip.