On party line vote, Wisconsin's House Republicans oppose legislation protecting contraceptive access

Lawrence Andrea
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Top: Republican U.S. Reps. Mike Gallagher, left, and Glenn Grothman. Bottom: Republican U.S. Reps. Bryan Steil, left, Scott Fitzgerald, center, and Tom Tiffany.

WASHINGTON – Wisconsin's five House Republicans on Thursday opposed legislation that would protect the ability to access contraceptives, breaking from the state's three Democrats who supported the measure.

The so-called Right to Contraception Act passed the House on a vote of 228-195. Overall, eight Republicans supported the bill, which would codify the right to access contraceptive devices and ensure health care professionals could provide patients with contraceptive care.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has reached out to the five GOP members of the state's delegation for comment. 

After Thursday's vote, U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore called access to birth control pills, emergency contraceptives and other devices "critical to a women’s ability to plan her own future."

More:Wisconsin Republican Bryan Steil joins House Democrats in vote to codify same-sex marriage

"Women should make their own health care decisions," the Milwaukee Democrat said. "This right shouldn’t be left in the hands of an extremist Supreme Court majority intent on restricting individual liberties and freedoms, not expanding them."

The push to codify current rights comes in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's reversal last month of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision protecting abortion access. 

Justice Clarence Thomas, in his concurring opinion, wrote that the court should "reconsider" two of its previous due process precedents, citing the 1965 Griswold v. Connecticut case, which protected the right to contraception, and the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision, which gave same-sex couples the right to marry.

In a statement on his vote, Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher called the bill one of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's "unfounded attempts to stoke fear in the American people."

Gallagher said the Supreme Court was clear in its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson that the abortion ruling would not impact access to contraceptives. He did not address Thomas' comments in the concurring opinion. 

"This is more than just another brazen attempt by Speaker Pelosi to fearmonger," Gallagher said. "It's a poorly written bill that would vaguely define contraception to allow for the use of chemical abortion drugs, as well as non-FDA approved drugs, and override the Religious Freedom Restoration Act."

All five of Wisconsin's GOP House members voted for a motion to replace language in the Right to Contraception Act with an alternative measure that would, in part, order the Secretary of Health and Human Services to give "priority review" for over-the-counter contraceptives for those over the age of 18. That motion failed.

"Republicans had a commonsense alternative that would have expanded access to safe and effective over-the-counter oral contraception for those over the age of 18," U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany said in a statement. "Democrats rejected it, and instead, chose to politicize the issue by creating a right to chemical abortions and by violating the religious freedom of countless health care professionals who may have a moral objection to dispensing such drugs."

Both Tiffany and Gallagher told the Journal Sentinel they believe the measure would allow for "chemical abortion drugs" because of what they called the "vague" nature of the definition of contraceptive in the bill's text.

The bill defines contraceptives as "any drug, device, or biological product intended for use in the prevention of pregnancy." It includes oral contraceptives, internal and external condoms, as well as patches, injectables "or other contraceptives."

More:Sen. Tammy Baldwin is leading a push for GOP votes on same-sex marriage bill. Here's how she's doing it

On Tuesday, the House passed a bill that would codify same-sex marriage into law. U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil was the only Wisconsin Republican to support the measure, which got the support of 47 Republicans and passed on a 267-157 vote.

Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin, the Senate's first openly gay member, is taking a lead role in securing Republican support for the same-sex marriage legislation in the Senate. Democrats need at least 10 Republican votes in order to pass the legislation in the chamber.

“I am very hopeful going into the beginning of this process that we’ll come out with, I hope, more than 10," Baldwin told the Journal Sentinel on Wednesday.

Contact Lawrence Andrea at landrea@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter @lawrencegandrea.