Nebraska Democratic Chair Jane Kleeb called out Nebraska’s three Republican House members Thursday for not supporting a bill that would enshrine the right to contraception.
“Like a broken record, Don Bacon, Mike Flood and Adrian Smith are taking their marching orders from far right extremist Republican Party bosses, whose cruel agenda seems to know no bounds,” she said. “This is about controlling women — obliterating rights. Once again, they have let the people of Nebraska down. It is shameful, despicable and horrifying.”
BACKGROUND: The Right to Contraception Act, which passed 228-to-195, would “protect a person’s ability to access contraceptives and to engage in contraception, and protect a health care provider’s ability to provide contraceptives, contraception, and information related to contraception.”
On Tuesday, the House passed the Respect for Marriage Act, aimed at protecting same-sex and interracial marriages. It would require that someone be considered married in any state as long as the marriage was valid in the state where it was performed.
The two bills — and Democrats’ urgency in moving them — are the direct result of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade last month. In his concurrence with that decision, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the high court should also examine previous rulings that legalized the right for married couples to buy and use contraception without government restriction (Griswold v. Connecticut), same-sex relationships (Lawrence v. Texas) and marriage equality (Obergefell v. Hodges).
