Democrats Call for State Birth Control Protections

Rep. Lisa Subeck (D-Madison) said at the press conference in the state Capitol Tuesday that the right to contraception is in the “crosshairs” right now. (Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

A pair of Wisconsin Democratic lawmakers and reproductive rights advocates called for state protection of birth control on the 60th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that protected married couples’ ability to use contraception. State laws are necessary to protect Wisconsinites from potential actions by the Trump administration and the Supreme Court targeting access to birth control, they warned.

Griswold v. Connecticut, the 1965 decision that established a right to privacy for married couples, has long prevented state restrictions on contraception. But Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in his opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the case that overturned Roe v. Wade, that Griswold and other privacy-related precedents should be reconsidered in the future.

Rep. Lisa Subeck (D-Madison) said at the press conference in the state Capitol Tuesday that the right to contraception is in the “crosshairs” right now and lawmakers, who are out of session for the rest of the year, need to take action.

“We’re looking at a really different America, we are looking at an America run by Donald Trump. We are looking at MAGA politicians who want nothing more than to take away our reproductive freedom, to take away our freedom to make our own decisions about when and if we have children, when and if we start our families,” Subeck said. “This is a scary situation. I can remember the days when people said Roe would never be overturned.”

While the U.S. Supreme Court has not taken up the issue of birth control of late, it has continued to rule on cases related to abortion, including recently pausing a ban on mailing of abortion pills while litigation continues in the lower courts. A recent national Marquette Law School poll found that 57% of Americans agreed that the Supreme Court should allow shipments of mifepristone to continue, while 43% said the ban should remain.

A 2020 Supreme Court decision sided with employers who wanted to opt out of a mandate to cover birth control in health insurance plans due to religious objections.

State Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison), one of the Democrats in a crowded gubernatorial primary field, said at the press conference, “There are extreme forces in the state and in the country that are very powerful, that have a lot of political influence and are well-funded that would like to see birth control made illegal.”

Roys mentioned the Trump administration’s plan to burn birth control devices and pills worth millions of dollars meant to be distributed as aid in other countries as the Trump administration began shutting down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The administration called common birth control methods abortifacients.

Given the federal government’s hostility to contraception, lawmakers and advocates said the state should take action to protect Wisconsinites.

Nicole Safar with Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin said that every branch of Wisconsin’s state government, including the Legislature, the governor and the state Supreme Court, needs to play a role in protecting people’s access to reproductive health care as the federal government may restrict that access.

Subeck and Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) have introduced a bill that would have established a statutory right for patients to access contraceptives and for healthcare providers to provide contraceptives and related information. It never received a public hearing in the Republican-led Legislature.

Subeck called her bill the “first step” in undoing some of the actions related to public health that were taken over the last decade and a half under Republican control.

“We have a chance in Wisconsin, a real chance, to move into our governing era, passing policies and implementing systems that protect our rights and support our families,” Safar said. “It’s time for Wisconsin to pass the Right to Contraception Act, the Reproductive Freedom Act, which also codifies affirmative right to abortion, and for our elected officials in every branch of government to be accountable to prioritizing the values that we know we share and the needs of women and people in Wisconsin.”

Barbara Hostetler, who retired as an OB-GYN over a year ago, said she has never been more concerned about women’s health. She said lawmakers not taking action are “complicit” and are “causing real harm.”

“I have a daughter. I have two granddaughters. They have a right to privacy. They have a right to contraception because nobody knows better than them what they need in their life and when and how they make decisions about when they have a family. No one knows their health better than they do. They are the ones who have the right to make this decision,” Hostetler said. “The least the Legislature can do is take a vote.”

The legislation likely won’t be discussed until lawmakers return next year after a November election that could shake up control of the Legislature and the governor’s office. Democrats, who have not controlled the Senate or Assembly since 2010, are aiming to flip both chambers.

Roys said “threats from the federal government” and the “economic chaos that’s being created by the Trump regime” are part of why the issue will continue to be important to voters this year.

“There is nothing that impacts your finances more than whether or not you have a pregnancy or a child, so reproductive freedom is fundamental to economic security and well-being for women and for families,” Roys said. “Contraception is the ability to decide your own future whether that’s your economic future, it’s your personal future, it’s your career, it’s your family, and that is, at the core of this election cycle.”

Democrats and advocates call for state birth control protections was originally published by Wisconsin Examiner.