Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today spoke from the House floor in favor of and then voted for the Right to Contraception Act.
The vote on passage was 228 to 195.
In his floor remarks, Congressman Cohen said in part:
“The Republicans are so upset. The reality is it’s their Supreme Court and Justice Alito’s, who opened Pandora’s Box…When they said they were originalists, we didn’t realize that everything originated with them. They don’t care about precedent...You can’t trust this Supreme Court. They are radicals. They want to overturn privacy rights for all people in this country. Freedom is at stake. This bill needs to pass, and the only reason this bill is properly before this Congress is because of that Supreme Court that has gone off the radical right.”
See his entire remarks here.
The Right to Contraception Act establishes a statutory right to obtain contraceptives and to engage in contraception as well as protects health care providers who provide contraceptives, contraception, and information related to contraception. The bill protects against any state laws that attempt to restrict access to contraceptives and affirms the Attorney General’s enforcement authority to bring civil actions against any state that attempts to do so. The bill also establishes a private right of action for individuals to enforce their right to obtain contraceptives and for health care providers to enforce their right to provide contraceptives and information related to contraception.
Original source can be found here.
