The bill passed 267-157, with 47 Republicans joining every Democrat who voted for the bill. Congressional Democrats issued the legislative response this week to a concurring opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas that suggested Supreme Court rulings on access to contraception and same-sex marriage should be reconsidered, with lawmakers passing two bills that aim to address concerns that more rights could be revoked. While the Supreme Court struck down parts of DOMA in US v. Windsor and Obergefell v. Hodges, the law still stands. The House of Commons will also take up the Right to Contraception Act later this week, which, if passed, would create a statutory right to access birth control and protect a range of contraceptive methods, as well as ensure that providers healthcare providers have the right to provide contraceptive services to patients. “House Democrats are not waiting for an election to protect our rights and freedom. We are fighting NOW to keep abortion and birth control legal and stop corporate price gouging,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote Monday . “We will not let Republicans crush our rights and line corporate pockets on our watch.” House Minority Leader Steve Scalise, R-Louisiana, said most Republicans would likely oppose the contraception bill, but he predicted before the vote that GOP lawmakers would be split on the same-sex marriage proposal. Both measures are expected to clear the Democratic-led House and join a pair of bills designed to protect abortion access that passed the House last week and await action in the Senate. But with Republicans and Democrats each controlling 50 seats in the upper chamber, the path to Senate approval is difficult. Support from at least 10 Senate Republicans is needed for any bill to move forward. While the two abortion measures — one that would enshrine the right to an abortion in federal law and the other that would bar states from interfering with a woman’s right to travel for the procedure — have little chance of becoming law, it’s unclear whether bills protecting same-sex marriage and access to contraception will suffer the same fate. One Republican, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, is a supporter of the marriage equality measure, and GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said she would like to see contraception and same-sex marriage rights protected under federal law. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, told reporters Monday he believed the two bills preparing for House action this week would get the 60 votes needed to overcome a tie. “Notice how quiet Republicans were when the issue of same-sex marriage finally came up during the Obama administration,” he said Monday. “They get it. They’re on the wrong side of history.” But Durbin acknowledged that the Senate calendar could complicate the timeline for future action. “I’d like to see it discovered, and I’d like to vote for it, but I can’t say it’s going to be planned,” he said. “There are so many things and so little time.” Both bills, meanwhile, are supported by the White House, which has urged its passage by the House. “The right to marry provides vital legal protections, dignity and full participation in our society,” the Office of Management and Budget said in a statement on the marriage equality bill. “No person should face discrimination because of who they are or who they love, and every married couple in the United States deserves the security of knowing that their marriage will be defended and respected.” Regarding the Contraceptive Right Act, the budget office said: “Access to contraception is essential to ensure that all people are in control of their personal decisions about their own health, lives and families. After the passage of Roe, which rested on the fundamental right to privacy in matters of health, bodily autonomy, and family, protecting and expanding access to family planning services has never been more important.” The House action is the Democrats’ response to the Thomas-authored concurrence in the Supreme Court decision overturning the constitutional right to abortion established under Roe v. Wade. In his opinion, in which no other justices joined, Thomas said the Supreme Court should revisit landmark decisions that recognized rights related to contraception and same-sex relationships: The 1965 decision in Griswold v. Connecticut, according to which married couples have the right to use contraception without government interference; the 2003 decision in Lawrence v. Texas, which established the right to same-sex intimacy. and Obergefell, the 2015 decision recognizing the right to same-sex marriage. “Going forward, we should review all of this court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell,” Thomas wrote. But the majority of the court in the abortion controversy, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, made it clear that rights regarding contraception and same-sex relationships were not threatened by the Supreme Court. “The court emphasizes that this decision concerns the constitutional right to abortion and no other right,” wrote Justice Samuel Alito. “Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on non-abortion precedents.” But Democratic Reps. Kathy Manning of North Carolina and David Cicilline of Rhode Island, who are behind the birth control and marriage equality bills respectively, warned that rights are under attack after the Supreme Court’s decision on the destruction of Roe. “Let me be clear: We are working to protect women’s right to control their lives. Our opponents are working to take away women’s rights,” Manning told reporters Tuesday. “I look forward to this bill being passed to protect the rights of women across this country.” Jack Turman, Ellis Kim and Zak Hudak contributed to this report.
