US Republicans block bill that would have guaranteed access to contraception

Republican members of the US Senate have blocked the Democrat sponsored Right to Contraception Act which would have guaranteed the legal right to get and use contraception and that healthcare providers would provide contraception, information, and referrals—but could abstain for reasons of conscience.1Democrats would have needed 60 votes from the 100 senators to pass the bill. The bill failed 51-39, even though two Republican senators, both women, voted for it. New York Democrat Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, voted against the bill in order for him to introduce it again.Speaking on the Senate floor, Schumer said, “Today we live in a country where not only tens of millions of women have been robbed of their reproductive freedoms—we also live in a country where tens of millions more worry about something as basic as birth control. That’s utterly medieval. It is sickening. It should never happen here in the US,…
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