Right to Contraception Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. CASTOR of Florida. Madam Speaker, we are at a perilous time where an extremist Supreme Court and the GOP are rolling back our rights. They are rolling back the legal guarantee to control our bodies and to make our own decisions about when to have children.

In States like mine in Florida, the Governor has already instituted a cruel 15-week abortion ban, and recently struck a plan to provide contraceptive care to working-class women and girls for the second year in a row.

I have served in Congress for enough years to watch the GOP over time fight to eliminate birth control and family planning funds. They fought to eliminate the no-cost birth control under the Affordable Care Act, in addition to the Democrats fighting to establish this right to contraceptives.

This bill also would ensure that doctors can continue to do their jobs and provide contraceptives without being turned into criminals. Contraceptive use is crucial to preventing unintended pregnancies, preventing and treating countless medical conditions, and decreasing the risk of certain cancers.

Everyone should have equal access to necessary preventative care no matter which State you live in. On behalf of the women in the State of Florida and America, I urge my colleagues to support the right to contraceptives and the right of women to control their own bodies.

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