WASHINGTON—U.S. Senators Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), joined 37 of their Senate colleagues in reintroducing the Right to Contraception Act, legislation that would create a statutory right to obtain and use contraceptives. The bill would also help ensure health care providers have a right to provide contraceptives and share information about this essential care. Companion legislation was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by U.S. Representative Lizzie Fletcher (D-Texas).

In July 2022, the Right to Contraception Act passed the House with a vote of 220-195. That same month, Republicans blocked an attempt in the U.S. Senate to pass the bill by unanimous consent. They did the same in June 2023. In June 2024, Republicans blocked Senate Democrats’ attempt to pass the bill on the floor.

U.S. Senators Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) also cosponsored the legislation.

The Right to Contraception Act is endorsed by Power to Decide, National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, National Women's Law Center, Guttmacher Institute, Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America), Population Connection Action Fund, Americans for Contraception, Advocates for Youth, National Partnership for Women & Families, American Public Health Association, American Humanist Association, National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health , Center for Biological Diversity, Ibis Reproductive Health, Physicians for Reproductive Health, Upstream USA, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, National Health Law Program, SIECUS: Sex Ed for Social Change, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, Reproductive Health Access Project, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Upstream USA, In Our Own Voice: National Black Women's Reproductive Justice Agenda, Center for American Progress, National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum, All* Above All, and Center for Reproductive Rights.

Full text of the legislation is available HERE.

Last year, Murphy released statements after Senate Republicans blocked the Reproductive Freedom for Women Act, the Right to Contraception Act and the Right to IVF Act.

In March, Murphy co-sponsored legislation to protect IVF access and other assisted reproductive technology, but passage was blocked by Senate Republicans. That month, Murphy also submitted an amicus brief calling on the Supreme Court to affirm the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) requires hospitals to provide emergency stabilizing care, including abortion care.

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