I 
118TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4121 
To protect an individual’s ability to access contraceptives and to engage 
in contraception and to protect a health care provider’s ability to provide 
contraceptives, contraception, and information related to contraception. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JUNE 14, 2023 
Ms. MANNING (for herself, Ms. JACOBS, Ms. WILLIAMS of Georgia, Ms. 
CRAIG, Ms. BLUNT ROCHESTER, Mr. CONNOLLY, Mr. DOGGETT, Mr. 
CARTWRIGHT, Mr. LANDSMAN, Mr. MULLIN, Ms. CHU, Mrs. FLETCHER, 
Mr. SMITH of Washington, Mr. CLEAVER, Ms. NORTON, Mrs. MCBATH, 
Ms. SCANLON, Mr. QUIGLEY, Mr. SHERMAN, Ms. STEVENS, Ms. WILSON 
of Florida, Mr. GARAMENDI, Ms. PLASKETT, Mr. TAKANO, Ms. 
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Mr. CASTEN, Mr. CARTER of Louisiana, Mr. 
BOWMAN, Mr. BEYER, Mr. GRIJALVA, Ms. MCCOLLUM, Ms. CROCKETT, 
Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. PANETTA, Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ, Ms. 
LEE of California, Ms. BARRAGA´N, Mr. SOTO, Ms. BONAMICI, Mr. 
GOMEZ, Mr. TRONE, Mr. POCAN, Ms. JACKSON LEE, Ms. TITUS, Mr. 
ALLRED, Mr. CARBAJAL, Ms. MATSUI, Ms. DELAURO, Mr. PAYNE, Mrs. 
WATSON COLEMAN, Mr. MENENDEZ, Ms. DELBENE, Ms. KELLY of Illi-
nois, Mr. EVANS, Mr. VARGAS, Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin, Ms. BALINT, 
Ms. TLAIB, Mr. BERA, Mr. NEGUSE, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Mr. 
TONKO, 
Mr. 
FOSTER, 
Mr. 
MOULTON, 
Mr. 
GOTTHEIMER, 
Ms. 
STANSBURY, Mr. PETERS, Mr. DELUZIO, Ms. MENG, Mr. MORELLE, Ms. 
GARCIA of Texas, Ms. ROSS, Mr. NICKEL, Ms. WILD, Ms. CASTOR of 
Florida, Mr. CA´RDENAS, Ms. ADAMS, Mr. GREEN
of Texas, Ms. 
SPANBERGER, Ms. PRESSLEY, Mr. SORENSEN, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Ms. 
LOIS FRANKEL of Florida, Mrs. FOUSHEE, Mrs. BEATTY, Ms. SCHRIER, 
Mrs. HAYES, Mrs. MCCLELLAN, Ms. OMAR, Mr. GALLEGO, Mr. KIM of 
New Jersey, Mr. LIEU, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Ms. PORTER, Mr. CORREA, 
Ms. SALINAS, Ms. BROWN, Mr. KILMER, Mr. LARSEN of Washington, 
Ms. ESCOBAR, Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts, Mr. NADLER, Mr. KHANNA, 
Ms. TOKUDA, Mr. IVEY, Mrs. TRAHAN, Ms. CARAVEO, Mr. RASKIN, Mr. 
MFUME, Mr. KILDEE, Mr. CASE, Ms. SHERRILL, Mr. SARBANES, Mr. 
JOHNSON of Georgia, Mr. AUCHINCLOSS, Ms. KAMLAGER-DOVE, and Ms. 
PINGREE) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Energy and Commerce 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
01:06 Jul 08, 2023
Jkt 039200
PO 00000
Frm 00001
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6652
E:\BILLS\H4121.IH
H4121
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
A BILL 
To protect an individual’s ability to access contraceptives 
and to engage in contraception and to protect a health 
care provider’s ability to provide contraceptives, contra-
ception, and information related to contraception. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Right to Contraception 
Act’’. 
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) CONTRACEPTION.—The term ‘‘contracep-
tion’’ means an action taken to prevent pregnancy, 
including the use of contraceptives or fertility-aware-
ness-based methods and sterilization procedures. 
(2) CONTRACEPTIVE.—The term ‘‘contracep-
tive’’ means any drug, device, or biological product 
intended for use in the prevention of pregnancy, 
whether specifically intended to prevent pregnancy 
or for other health needs, that is approved, cleared, 
authorized, or licensed under section 505, 510(k), 
513(f)(2), 515, or 564 of the Federal Food, Drug, 
and 
Cosmetic 
Act 
(21 
U.S.C. 
355, 
360(k), 
360c(f)(2), 360e, 360bbb–3) or section 351 of the 
Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 262). 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
01:06 Jul 08, 2023
Jkt 039200
PO 00000
Frm 00002
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H4121.IH
H4121
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
(3) GOVERNMENT.—The term ‘‘government’’ 
includes each branch, department, agency, instru-
mentality, and official of the United States or a 
State. 
(4) HEALTH
CARE
PROVIDER.—The term 
‘‘health care provider’’ means any entity or indi-
vidual (including any physician, certified nurse-mid-
wife, nurse, nurse practitioner, physician assistant, 
and pharmacist) that is licensed or otherwise author-
ized by a State to provide health care services. 
(5) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ includes each of 
the 50 States, the District of Columbia, the Com-
monwealth of Puerto Rico, and each territory and 
possession of the United States, and any political 
subdivision of any of the foregoing, including any 
unit of local government, such as a county, city, 
town, village, or other general purpose political sub-
division of a State. 
SEC. 3. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The right to contraception is a fundamental 
right, central to an individual’s privacy, health, well- 
being, dignity, liberty, equality, and ability to par-
ticipate in the social and economic life of the Nation. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
01:06 Jul 08, 2023
Jkt 039200
PO 00000
Frm 00003
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H4121.IH
H4121
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
(2) The Supreme Court has repeatedly recog-
nized the constitutional right to contraception. 
(3) In Griswold v. Connecticut (381 U.S. 479 
(1965)), the Supreme Court first recognized the con-
stitutional right for married people to use contracep-
tives. 
(4) In Eisenstadt v. Baird (405 U.S. 438 
(1972)), the Supreme Court confirmed the constitu-
tional right of all people to legally access contracep-
tives regardless of marital status. 
(5) In Carey v. Population Services Inter-
national (431 U.S. 678 (1977)), the Supreme Court 
affirmed the constitutional right to contraceptives 
for minors. 
(6) The right to contraception has been repeat-
edly recognized internationally as a human right. 
The United Nations Population Fund has published 
several reports outlining family planning as a basic 
human right that advances women’s health, eco-
nomic empowerment, and equality. 
(7) Access to contraceptives is internationally 
recognized by the World Health Organization as ad-
vancing other human rights such as the right to life, 
liberty, expression, health, work, and education. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
01:06 Jul 08, 2023
Jkt 039200
PO 00000
Frm 00004
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H4121.IH
H4121
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
(8) Contraception is safe, essential health care, 
and access to contraceptive products and services is 
central to people’s ability to participate equally in 
economic and social life in the United States and 
globally. Contraception allows people to make deci-
sions about their families and their lives. 
(9) Contraception is key to sexual and repro-
ductive health. Contraception is critical to pre-
venting unintended pregnancy, and many contracep-
tives are highly effective in preventing and treating 
a wide array of medical conditions and decrease the 
risk of certain cancers. 
(10) Contraception has been associated with 
improved health outcomes for women, their families, 
and their communities and reduces rates of maternal 
and infant mortality and morbidity. 
(11) The United States has a long history of 
reproductive coercion, including the childbearing 
forced upon enslaved women, as well as the forced 
sterilization of Black women, Puerto Rican women, 
indigenous women, immigrant women, and disabled 
women, and reproductive coercion continues to 
occur. This history also includes the coercive testing 
of contraceptive pills on women and girls in Puerto 
Rico. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
01:06 Jul 08, 2023
Jkt 039200
PO 00000
Frm 00005
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H4121.IH
H4121
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
(12) The right to make personal decisions about 
contraceptive use is important for all Americans, 
and is especially critical for historically marginalized 
groups, including Black, indigenous, and other peo-
ple of color; immigrants; LGBTQ+ people; people 
with disabilities; people paid low wages; and people 
living in rural and underserved areas. 
(13) Many people who are part of the 
marginalized groups described in paragraph (12) al-
ready face barriers, exacerbated by social, political, 
economic, and environmental inequities, to com-
prehensive health care, including reproductive health 
care, that reduce their ability to make decisions 
about their health, families, and lives. 
(14) State and Federal policies governing phar-
maceutical and insurance policies affect the accessi-
bility of contraceptives and the settings in which 
contraception services are delivered. 
(15) People engage in interstate commerce to 
access contraception services. 
(16) To provide contraception services, health 
care providers employ and obtain commercial serv-
ices from doctors, nurses, and other personnel who 
engage in interstate commerce and travel across 
State lines. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
01:06 Jul 08, 2023
Jkt 039200
PO 00000
Frm 00006
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H4121.IH
H4121
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
(17) Congress has the authority to enact this 
Act to protect access to contraception pursuant to— 
(A) its powers under the Commerce Clause 
of section 8 of article I of the Constitution of 
the United States; 
(B) its powers under section 5 of the Four-
teenth Amendment to the Constitution of the 
United States to enforce the provisions of sec-
tion 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment; and 
(C) its powers under the necessary and 
proper clause of section 8 of article I of the 
Constitution of the United States. 
(18) Congress has used its authority in the past 
to protect and expand access to contraception infor-
mation, products, and services. 
(19) In 1970, Congress established the family 
planning program under title X of the Public Health 
Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300 et seq.), the only Fed-
eral grant program dedicated to family planning and 
related services, providing access to information, 
products, and services for contraception. 
(20) In 1972, Congress required the Medicaid 
program to cover family planning services and sup-
plies and the Medicaid program currently accounts 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
01:06 Jul 08, 2023
Jkt 039200
PO 00000
Frm 00007
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H4121.IH
H4121
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
for 75 percent of Federal funds spent on family 
planning. 
(21) In 2010, Congress enacted the Patient 
Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 
111–148) (referred to in this section as the ‘‘ACA’’). 
Among other provisions, the ACA included provi-
sions to expand the affordability and accessibility of 
contraception by requiring health insurance plans to 
provide coverage for preventive services with no pa-
tient cost-sharing. 
(22) As of June 2023, at least 4 States tried 
to ban access to some or all contraceptives by re-
stricting access to public funding for these products 
and services. Furthermore, Arkansas, Mississippi, 
Missouri, and Texas have infringed on people’s abil-
ity to access their contraceptive care by violating the 
free choice of provider requirement under the Med-
icaid program. 
(23) Providers’ refusals to offer contraceptives 
and information related to contraception based on 
their own personal beliefs impede patients from ob-
taining their preferred method of contraception, with 
laws in 12 States as of the date of introduction of 
this Act specifically allowing health care providers to 
refuse to provide services related to contraception. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
01:06 Jul 08, 2023
Jkt 039200
PO 00000
Frm 00008
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H4121.IH
H4121
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
(24) States have attempted to define abortion 
expansively so as to include contraceptives in State 
bans on abortion and have also restricted access to 
emergency contraception. 
(25) Justice Thomas, in his concurring opinion 
in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization 
(142 S. Ct. 2228 (2022)), stated that the Supreme 
Court ‘‘should reconsider all of this Court’s sub-
stantive due process precedents, including Griswold, 
Lawrence, and Obergefell’’ and that the Court has 
‘‘a duty to correct the error established in those 
precedents’’ by overruling them. 
(26) In order to further public health and to 
combat efforts to restrict access to reproductive 
health care, congressional action is necessary to pro-
tect access to contraceptives, contraception, and in-
formation related to contraception for everyone, re-
gardless of actual or perceived race, ethnicity, sex 
(including gender identity and sexual orientation), 
income, disability, national origin, immigration sta-
tus, or geography. 
SEC. 4. PURPOSES. 
The purposes of this Act are— 
(1) to provide a clear and comprehensive right 
to contraception; 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
01:06 Jul 08, 2023
Jkt 039200
PO 00000
Frm 00009
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H4121.IH
H4121
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
(2) to permit individuals to seek and obtain 
contraceptives and engage in contraception, and to 
permit health care providers to facilitate that care; 
and 
(3) to protect an individual’s ability to make de-
cisions about their body, medical care, family, and 
life’s course, and thereby protect the individual’s 
ability to participate equally in the economic and so-
cial life of the United States. 
SEC. 5. PERMITTED SERVICES. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—An individual has a statutory 
right under this Act to obtain contraceptives and to volun-
tarily engage in contraception, free from coercion, and a 
health care provider has a corresponding right to provide 
contraceptives, contraception, and information, referrals, 
and services related to contraception. 
(b) LIMITATIONS OR REQUIREMENTS.—The statu-
tory rights specified in subsection (a) shall not be limited 
or otherwise infringed through any limitation or require-
ment that— 
(1) expressly, effectively, implicitly, or as-imple-
mented singles out— 
(A) the provision of contraceptives, contra-
ception, or contraception-related information; 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
01:06 Jul 08, 2023
Jkt 039200
PO 00000
Frm 00010
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H4121.IH
H4121
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
(B) health care providers who provide con-
traceptives, contraception, or contraception-re-
lated information; or 
(C) facilities in which contraceptives, con-
traception, or contraception-related information 
is provided; and 
(2) impedes access to contraceptives, contracep-
tion, or contraception-related information. 
(c) EXCEPTION.—To defend against a claim that a 
limitation or requirement violates a health care provider’s 
or individual’s statutory rights under subsection (b), a 
party must establish, by clear and convincing evidence, 
that— 
(1) the limitation or requirement significantly 
advances access to contraceptives, contraception, and 
information related to contraception; and 
(2) access to contraceptives, contraception, and 
information related to contraception or the health of 
patients cannot be advanced by a less restrictive al-
ternative measure or action. 
(d) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec-
tion shall be construed to limit the authority of the Sec-
retary of Health and Human Services, acting through the 
Commissioner of Food and Drugs, to approve, clear, au-
thorize, or license contraceptives under section 505, 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
01:06 Jul 08, 2023
Jkt 039200
PO 00000
Frm 00011
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H4121.IH
H4121
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
510(k), 513(f)(2), 515, or 564 of the Federal Food, Drug, 
and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 355, 360(k), 360c(f)(2), 
360e, 360bbb–3) or section 351 of the Public Health Serv-
ice Act (42 U.S.C. 262), or for the Federal Government 
to enforce such approval, clearance, authorization, or li-
censure. 
SEC. 6. APPLICABILITY AND PREEMPTION. 
(a) GENERAL APPLICATION.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in sub-
section (c), this Act supersedes and applies to the 
law of the Federal Government and each State, and 
the implementation of such law, whether statutory, 
common law, or otherwise, and whether adopted be-
fore or after the date of enactment of this Act. 
(2) PROHIBITION.—Neither the Federal Gov-
ernment nor any State may administer, implement, 
or enforce any law, rule, regulation, standard, or 
other provision having the force and effect of law in 
a manner that— 
(A) prohibits or restricts the sale, provi-
sion, or use of any contraceptives as defined in 
Sec. 2 (2); 
(B) prohibits or restricts any individual 
from aiding another individual in voluntarily 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
01:06 Jul 08, 2023
Jkt 039200
PO 00000
Frm 00012
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H4121.IH
H4121
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS