Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff today released the following statement after Senate Republicans blocked a bill establishing a right to access birth control pills. Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, many states, including Georgia, have severely restricted women’s access to reproductive health care.
“Today Senate Republicans blocked the Right to Contraception Act and refused to defend access to birth control for Georgia women.
“I will continue to fight back against any effort by extremists to ban birth control for Georgia women.”
The Right to Contraception Act would establish a right to access the pill, IUDs, and other contraception and would prevent governors from enforcing laws limiting access to birth control.
When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, it put at risk longstanding protections for contraception and IVF for women in Georgia. The State of Georgia has also enacted one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the country, banning women from abortion after six weeks, before many even know they are pregnant.
Sen. Ossoff continues working to protect Georgians’ access to reproductive health care.
In March, during a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Ossoff spoke up for Georgia families who fear efforts to ban IVF after the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the Alabama Supreme Court’s subsequent extreme ruling banning IVF in Alabama.
In February, Sen. Ossoff and Senate colleagues launched a push to pass the Access to Family Building Act, legislation he co-sponsored to establish a legal right to IVF in response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the Alabama Supreme Court’s subsequent extreme ruling this month. The bill was later blocked in the Senate.
Last year, Sen. Ossoff also co-sponsored the Women’s Health Protection Act of 2023, which would protect access to reproductive health care and prohibit State laws that impose burdensome and medically unnecessary restrictions on access to abortion services.
Also, last year in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Ossoff spoke with Dr. Nisha Verma, an OB/GYN in Atlanta, about the maternal health care workforce shortage Georgia faces and how Georgia’s 6-week abortion ban risks making this crisis worse.
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