Con­tra­cep­tion bill shot down in Sen­ate by GOP as Democ­rats deny par­ti­san motive

A Demo­c­ra­t­ic-led bill to pro­tect access to con­tra­cep­tion was defeat­ed in the Sen­ate on Wednes­day, fail­ing to reach the 60-vote thresh­old required to over­come a fil­i­buster.
The result was expect­ed but offered Sen­ate Democ­rats their lat­est oppor­tu­ni­ty to spot­light a hot-but­ton polit­i­cal issue they believe will aid vul­ner­a­ble mem­bers and Pres­i­dent Joe Biden ahead of the Novem­ber elec­tions.
“This is not a show vote. This is a show-us-who-you-are vote,” Sen­ate Major­i­ty Leader Chuck Schumer (D‑NY) said. “The Repub­li­cans don’t want to show who they real­ly are.”
The leg­is­la­tion would cod­i­fy fed­er­al pro­tec­tions for birth con­trol into law by mak­ing it a “fun­da­men­tal right,” a move Democ­rats argued was nec­es­sary in a post-Roe era with­out guar­an­teed access to abor­tion. It includes reli­gious lib­er­ty exemp­tions for con­tra­cep­tion providers, and Schumer called claims it expands abor­tion “vul­gar fear­mon­ger­ing.”
“For my Repub­li­can col­leagues who say t …