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VIDEO: Hickenlooper Urges Senate to Pass Bill Protecting Right to Contraception

Jul 27, 2022

“This is a bill that guarantees a woman’s right to access legal contraception. That’s it. There’s no trick, no sleight of hand.”

“For women everywhere, but especially in rural and low-income areas, birth control is essential health care.”

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper delivered remarks on the floor of the Senate today calling upon Congress to pass the Right to Contraception Act. The bill – which already passed the House – would codify the fundamental right to contraception that the U.S. Supreme Court first recognized more than half a century ago in Griswold v. Connecticut.

Republicans blocked Hickenlooper and Democrats’ attempt to pass the bill via unanimous consent.

“In 1963, Americans could be arrested in some states simply for buying birth control pills. Sixty years later, if many states have their way, Americans may face that reality once again,” Hickenlooper said.

“In Colorado some Republicans are campaigning to put an initiative on the ballot this November that could make contraceptives illegal.

“Who are we, as politicians, to tell American women who has children, how many, and when?”

For full video of his remarks, click HERE. A transcript is available below:

In 1963, Americans could be arrested in some states simply for buying birth control pills.

Sixty years later, if many states have their way, Americans may face that reality once again.

The Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade is so sweeping, so unprecedented, that it now threatens the right to contraception.

IUDs, emergency contraceptives, and other birth control could well all be banned, which seems hard to imagine.

We’re going backwards in time to when women did not have control of their own bodies. Nor the freedom to decide how and when they wanted to begin their families.

Who really believes a woman shouldn’t be able to use birth control?

That a woman shouldn’t be able to decide whether or not she wants to get pregnant?

That a couple can’t decide they aren’t ready for a family?

How many children should each woman have? Should it be as many as possible? Are they ever allowed to stop reproducing, or is it a lifelong duty?

Politicians should not be making these decisions.

This is a bill that guarantees a woman’s right to access legal contraception. That’s it. There’s no trick, no sleight of hand.

We can pass it into law today. The House has passed it already.

Starting a family is among the most private and personal decisions a person can make.

It changes your life in ways that most of us can’t even imagine.

And yet, there are people who want to force this restriction on women.

For women everywhere, but especially in rural and low-income areas, birth control is essential health care.

If you want to prevent unintended pregnancies, well that’s where you start.

When I was Governor, Colorado made long-acting reversible contraception like IUDs available at little or no cost. That reduced unintended pregnancies by 54 percent. 54 percent.

Yet now in Colorado some Republicans are campaigning to put an initiative on the ballot this November that could make contraceptives illegal.

Many other states are considering similar moves with bills and amendments waiting in the wings.

I think this is far, far beyond the mainstream of what most Americans believe.

In fact, 92% of Americans in a recent Gallup poll said that contraception is morally acceptable.

My mother was born in 1921, a child of the Great Depression. She scrimped and saved every penny but she always, always, made a point to make some donation to Planned Parenthood.

Some years it might only be $10, but she believed there were few burdens harder for a woman to bear than being compelled to start a family before she was ready.

As a mother of four, she knew how important it was for women to be able to make that decision for themselves.

Who are we, as politicians, to tell American women who has children, how many, and when?

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