Senate GOP blocks birth control access bill

What happened

The Senate voted 51-39 on Wednesday to advance the Right to Contraception Act, short of the 60 votes needed to overcome a Republican filibuster. Two Republicans, Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) joined all Democrats present to vote for the legislation, which would establish a nationwide right to “obtain contraceptives and to voluntarily engage in contraception,” and for health care providers to distribute birth control.

Who said what

Republicans called the bill an unnecessary messaging “stunt” and said they understood it was an “effort to force them to take an unpopular vote,” The New York Times said. “But the vast majority of them did so anyway, a sign of the strength of the anti-abortion lobby.” In fact, “far-right conservatives have been trying to curtail birth control access” by falsely redefining certain types of contraception, notably the morning-after pill and IUDs, as “abortifacients,” The Washington Post said.

“If it’s a messaging bill, my message is I support a woman’s access to contraception,” Murkowski said.

What next?