Durbin Urges His Colleagues to Support the Right to Contraception Act Ahead of Vote on Senate Floor

WASHINGTON – During the week marking the 59^th anniversary of the landmark Griswold v. Connecticut decision, in which the Supreme Court ruled that all married Americans have a constitutional right to use contraception, U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, urged his colleagues to support the Right to Contraception Act when it comes before the Senate tomorrow. This bill, which Durbin is a cosponsor of, would protect the rights of patients to access and use contraception and of health care providers to provide contraception and information about contraception. It would codify the right to contraception that the Supreme Court first recognized in Griswold. It would also allow patients, providers, and the Justice Department to go to court to enforce these rights.

In a speech on the Senate floor today, Durbin began by explaining how Griswold has served as the foundation for other landmark Supreme Court decisions, including the expansion of the right to access contraception to other Americans in 1972.

“Fifty-nine years ago this week, the Supreme Court ruled in Griswold v. Connecticut that all married Americans have a constitutional right to use contraception. This decision has served as a foundation for other landmark Supreme Court decisions, including the expansion of the right to access contraception to other Americans in 1972,” said Durbin. “For those of us who remember the time when Griswold was decided, we remember what it meant for millions of Americans. With that decision, [they] finally [had] the freedom to make their own reproductive family health care decisions, something which we take for granted in this country today.”

Durbin continued, “Sadly, two years ago this month, six right-wing judicial activists sent us back in time. I’m referring to the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs, the crowning achievement of a Republican-led, decades-long campaign to overrule Roe v. Wade and abolish fundamental reproductive rights in America. The Dobbs ruling is one of the most irresponsible and dangerous decisions handed down by the Supreme Court. It ripped away a constitutional right from individuals and their families and handed it over to politicians. With the Dobbs decision, the ultraconservative majority on the Court not only overruled a nearly 50-year-old precedent that had been reaffirmed over and over again, but also twisted the facts to reach the outcome they wanted.”

Durbin explained that in his majority opinion, Justice Alito claimed that abortion cannot be constitutionally protected because it is not “deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and tradition.” However, Justice Alito was wrong. As the dissenting justices in Dobbs wrote, “embarrassingly for the majority—early law, in fact, does provide some support for abortion rights.”

“Justice Alito’s argument for overruling Roe has no credibility. It wasn’t originalism. It was an ideologically-motivated outcome based on historical cherry-picking,” said Durbin. “Incredibly, Justice Clarence Thomas wanted to go even further. He believes that the constitutional right to privacy is a fiction. In a concurring opinion in Dobbs, Justice Thomas declared that the Court should ‘eliminate’ the legal doctrine behind the constitutional right to privacy and ‘reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell.’ That means one of the justices who eliminated the right to abortion also thinks that the Court should reconsider the constitutional right to contraception—as well as the constitutional rights to marriage equality and consensual relationships between LGBTQ people.”

Durbin went on to detail how over the past two years, Republican lawmakers have picked up where the Supreme Court left off, and in state after state, they have ripped away reproductive rights from millions of Americans with devastating consequences.

“Overruling Roe v. Wade has unleashed a health care crisis in America. Twenty-four of the 50 states have either barred or severely restricted access to abortion or are attempting to do so. Many of these bans by the states provide no exceptions for rape and incest and many are grossly insufficient in protecting the health and lives of mothers. Some of these bans are even written in a way that appear to limit access to contraception,” Durbin said. “You may hear some of our colleagues across the aisle argue that Democrats are exaggerating when we say the right to contraception is at risk. They claim there is nothing to see here. Well, tell that to millions of Americans impacted by the successful effort to overrule Roe v. Wade, which has inserted politicians and judges into the most personal decision. Tell that to the Americans who are worried that some of those politicians and judges have their sights set on contraception, particularly after Justice Thomas urged his colleagues to reconsider [the Court’s] holding in Griswold. That is why my colleagues reintroduced the Right to Contraception Act.”

Durbin concluded, “This week, the Senate has an opportunity to make history and counteract some of the repressive policies that Republican state legislatures have put in place post-Dobbs. Tomorrow, the Senate will vote on cloture on the motion to proceed to the Right to Contraception Act. My Senate colleagues will have to decide how they want to be remembered during this historic vote. Do they want to be remembered for blocking the effort to protect the right to access contraception? Or for standing on the right side of history and protecting reproductive rights? I urge my colleagues to join me during this anniversary week of the Griswold decision and help pass the Right to Contraception Act and ensure that Americans will always be able to access… contraception.”

Video of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here.

Audio of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here.

Footage of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here for TV Stations.

-30-