House Democrats on Tuesday plan to go on the offensive on reproductive rights, with an announcement that they will seek to force a vote on legislation to codify the right to birth control access nationwide.
The maneuver, through a procedural move known as a discharge petition, is all but certain to fail for lack of Republican support, but that is by design. It is part of a broad election-year push by Democrats to highlight Republicans’ record of opposing abortion rights and other reproductive health choices that voters fear will be stripped away following the fall of Roe v. Wade.
“The choice to use birth control should be yours and yours alone,” said Representative Katherine M. Clark of Massachusetts, the Democratic whip, who has held abortion events with 11 members and candidates across the country. “House Republicans have a choice to make: either sign this discharge petition or put their anti-freedom extremism in full view of the American people.”
It comes as Senate Democrats plan to force a vote this week on an identical contraceptive access bill, which Republicans are expected to block. The coordinated legislative push shows that Democrats regard issues of access to abortion, contraception and reproductive health options as their strongest issue on which to draw a contrast with Republicans before the November elections.
“Voters know that Republicans oppose abortion and that they are generally supportive of restrictions on abortion,” said Molly Murphy, a pollster for President Biden’s re-election campaign. “What voters don’t know is that Republicans are actively trying to find ways to ban and restrict abortion and contraception. That’s a significant gap of opportunity for Democrats. There’s a difference between being against something and actively working to take it away.”
The complicated and drawn-out discharge petition process allows lawmakers to make an end run around their leaders and force consideration of a piece of legislation on the floor if they collect the signatures of a majority of the members of the House. With Republicans holding a slim majority — 217 seats to Democrats’ 213 — only a handful of defectors would need to sign to meet the threshold of 218 votes.
