Schumer Plans Vote on Contraception Access, Teeing Up a Campaign Issue

Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, plans next month to fast-track a Senate vote on a bill to protect access to contraception nationwide, the start of an election-year push to highlight Republicans’ record of opposing reproductive rights that voters view as at risk of being stripped away.

The Right to Contraception Act is expected to be blocked in the closely divided Senate, where most Republicans are against it. But a vote on the bill is a crucial plank of Democrats’ strategy as they seek to protect their majority in the Senate, in part by forcing G.O.P. lawmakers to go on the record with their opposition to policies with broad bipartisan support.

Access to contraception is a constitutional right regarded by many voters as possibly the next to go after the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade. Recent moves by conservative state houses and governors have added to a sense of urgency about addressing it at the federal level.

In Virginia earlier this month, for example, Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, vetoed legislation to protect access to contraception.

“This is a clarifying political vote that will put every Republican on record as to whether or not they believe in a constitutional right to contraception,” Senator Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts and the lead sponsor of the bill, said in an interview.

Last year, Senate Republicans blocked Mr. Markey’s attempt to bring up and quickly pass the legislation without debate or a vote, arguing that the bill’s definition of contraceptives could be interpreted to include pills that induce abortion. Democrats say the measure would codify a basic right that former President Donald J. Trump and Republicans refuse to protect.