This week in Reddit news, conservatives were dismayed to find out their representatives voted against bill HR 8373 which, if passed, would guarantee that contraceptives remain legal in all 50 states.
Reddit user u/FartingTacos posted a question in the u/Conservatives subreddit questioning why Republicans would vote down such a bill. They wrote,
“Why would anyone vote against the bill? I’ve been a conservative my entire life, and even I would support something that ensure that a contraceptive was available to anyone who wanted ‘actual’ family planning services. Are people concerned that Abortions would be considered contraceptives? Is it a gateway drug kind of situation? I’ve got to be missing something here.”
Users responded with similar sentiments. Some of the comments included:
“Same here OP, I assumed it had a bunch of unrelated crap thrown in, so I read it and do not see anything objectionable. A 100% no vote by Rs is idiotic.”
“Who is voting against this? I really want to know. I will be watching my Republican congressman regarding this. My mother and I are conservative and fully support it. We believe birth control prevents abortions. It’s a good thing.”
“I don’t see how you can be against abortion AND against birth control. Abortion as birth control-NO. The pill, condoms, etc.-YES.”
“I don’t get it. The argument after Roe was that SCOTUS shouldn’t be making laws and that we should leave that to congress. So when they mention that Griswold could be threatened, they try to codify protection contraceptives. But then now this is not acceptable because it’s not the federal government’s place. What am I missing?”
“I honestly have no idea. We as a society NEED birth control.”
“Anyone against contraceptives is too extreme.”
“Birth Control and effective sex education are the best ways to reduce abortions. Address the problem before conception and no abortion decision needs to be made. I would support full conception subsidization by the government.”
“Republicans are shooting themselves in the foot day by day. We should be having a field day with this midterm coming up but instead we are our own worst enemy and people are going to vote for democrats just because our logic in no way is lining up.”
For the most part, commenters seemed to agree that people should have access to birth control, although not everyone agreed that it should be classified as “a right.”
The bill in question passed through the House on July 21, 2022, with eight Republican Representatives voting in favor of it and the rest voting against.
This “birth control bill” is the latest in a series of bills that House Democrats are attempting to pass in order to protect reproductive rights such as access to safe and legal abortions and access to contraception. All of the bills have been vehemently opposed by the GOP.
