Senate Democrats will force Republicans to vote on federal contraception protections

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., plans to hold a Senate vote next month on a bill to establish federal protections for legal contraceptives, a source familiar with his plan told NBC News.

The vote is designed to force Republicans to take a side in a culture war over reproductive rights that is playing out across the country ahead of the election and has divided their party.

“Now more than ever, contraception is a critical piece of protecting women’s reproductive freedoms, standing as nothing short of a vital lifeline for millions of American women across the country,” Schumer said Wednesday on the Senate floor.

Schumer announced plans to hold the vote just a day after former President Donald Trump suggested in an interview that he was open to new restrictions on birth control. “We’re looking at that, and I’m going to have a policy on that very shortly," Trump said when asked by KDKA-TV of Pittsburgh whether he supports restrictions on contraception."And I think it’s something you’ll find interesting. I think it’s a smart decision. We’ll be releasing it very soon.”

(Trump later walked those comments back on his social media platform.)

The bill, called the Right to Contraception Act,would protect a person’s ability to access contraceptives and protect a health care provider’s ability to provide contraceptives and information related to contraception. The vote will be part of a larger push to put Republicans on the record of reproductive rights ahead of the second anniversary of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.

A date hasn’t been set for the vote, but Schumer began the process Tuesday to put the bill on the calendar, making it available to bring up later. The Senate will vote on a