{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://pressley.house.gov/2026/09/24/pressley-murray-colleagues-reintroduce-bill-to-expand-coverage-of-birth-control-and-sound-alarm-on-trumps-relentless-attacks-on-contraception-family-planning/", "Pressley, Murray, Colleagues Reintroduce Bill to Expand Coverage of Birth Control and Sound Alarm on Trump\u2019s Relentless Attacks on Contraception & Family Planning", "2026-09-24", "2026", "2026-09", "Democrat", "House", "MA", "Ayanna Pressley", "P000617", "pressley.house.gov", "pressley", "https://pressley.house.gov/news/", "scraper", "Bill Text (PDF)\n\nBOSTON \u2013 Today, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), alongside Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) and Representatives Ami Bera (D-CA) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), reintroduced the bicameral Affordability is Access Act.\n\nThe Affordability is Access Act would require insurers to fully cover over-the-counter birth control without any fees or out-of-pocket costs, once it\u2019s FDA-approved. The legislation also includes a new provision to require health insurance to cover every FDA-approved contraceptive drug or drug-led combination product without cost sharing unless the health plan also covers a therapeutically equivalent generic without cost sharing\u2014this would significantly eliminate barriers that some patients face in accessing contraceptives prescribed by their provider. This reintroduction comes as the Trump administration continues their senseless attacks on reproductive care, family planning, and contraception.\n\n\u201cWhile Trump and his Republican co-conspirators attack our bodily autonomy and make life less affordable, we\u2019re fighting hard to protect reproductive freedom, lower costs, and ensure contraceptives are affordable nationwide,\u201d said Rep. Pressley. \u201cOur bill would make over-the-counter birth control accessible to all who need it, without the burden of prescriptions or out-of-pocket costs. Reproductive justice means protecting and expanding reproductive healthcare, and I\u2019m proud to partner with Senators Murray, Cortez Masto, and Hirono, alongside Reps. Bera and Ocasio-Cortez, and our colleagues to make that a reality for all.\u201d\n\n\u201cI am proud to reintroduce the Affordability is Access Act alongside Representative Ayanna Pressley and Senator Patty Murray, which will make birth control widely accessible and affordable without a prescription,\u201d said Rep Ocasio-Cortez. \u201cAs this administration continues to attack bodily autonomy, we will continue to fight to ensure that people everywhere have access to reproductive care.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhen it comes to birth control, the challenge we face isn\u2019t just to stop Trump from setting up new barriers. We have to tear down the barriers that have been standing for far too long\u2014like cost,\u201d said Senator Murray. \u201cWe have to put forward our own vision for the future\u2014not just reject Trump\u2019s far-right dystopia. That\u2019s why we are re-introducing the Affordability is Access Act. This bill would require insurance to fully cover safe, over-the-counter birth control for patients. And this year we made a big update: our bill will also make sure all other FDA-approved forms of contraception are covered for patients. No fees. No hurdles. No out-of-pocket costs. This is especially important because, as of March 2024, there is an over-the counter birth control pill that women can buy at pharmacies and grocery stores. Trump has made his vision painfully clear, he wants to take women\u2019s rights away, he wants to set birth control on fire. Well, this bill is our vision as Democrats. We want to protect women\u2019s rights. And we want to protect your birth control.\u201d\n\n\u201cAs the Trump regime continues to attack reproductive freedom, fighting for contraception access has never been more important,\u201d said Senator Hirono. \u201cFDA approval of over-the-counter birth control is a major step forward, but approval alone does not guarantee access. By requiring insurance companies to cover over-the-counter contraception at no cost and without a prescription, this legislation will help to ensure women nationwide have the power to control their bodies and their lives.\u201d\n\n\u201cCongress must pass the Affordability is Access Act to expand Americans\u2019 reproductive freedoms even as this Administration tries to shrink them,\u201d said Senator Cortez Masto. \u201cBirth control has helped thousands of Nevadans and millions of Americans live healthy lives. It\u2019s past time we made sure every woman who wants it has an affordable over-the-counter option they can buy.\u201d\n\n\u201cBirth control is essential healthcare that everyone, no matter their insurance or income, should be able to get when they need it,\u201d said Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO, Planned Parenthood Federation of America. \u201cThis act is a crucial first step in removing cost barriers and expanding access to contraception. As anti-reproductive health lawmakers continue to do everything in their power to restrict access to care, we\u2019re grateful to Sen. Murray for reintroducing this bill.\u201d\n\n\u201cContraception is a fundamental part of reproductive health care and autonomy\u2014 it gives people the power to shape their own futures,\u201d said Daria Neal, Senior Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Center for Reproductive Rights. \u201cEveryone who needs contraception should be able to access and afford it. Yet the Trump Administration has repeatedly put that access at risk, from subverting the federal family planning program and ending teen pregnancy prevention grants, to letting millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded contraceptives go to waste overseas. We\u2019re grateful to Senator Murray and her colleagues for standing up for reproductive rights and supporting this critically important legislation.\u201d\n\n\u201cWith the sudden termination of AccessMatters\u2019 teen pregnancy prevention initiative, over 2,500 adolescents in Philadelphia immediately lost access to everything this program provided over the last three years \u2013 including evidence-based education programming, parent workshops, connections to local healthcare providers, assistance setting up medical appointments and accessing contraceptives, and leadership opportunities for the Youth Advisory Board,\u201d said Audrey Ann Ross, Senior Manager of Communications and Policy at AccessMatters. \u201cThis loss of access coupled with the shifts in Title X program priorities further underscore the need for policies that support access to contraceptives and sexual and reproductive health care and information. We urge Congress to pass policies like the Affordability in Access Act and to also demand that HHS immediately restore this funding so that adolescents nationwide can continue benefitting from these programs.\u201d\n\nFull text of the Affordability is Access Act is available here.\n\nUnder the Affordable Care Act, all private health insurance plans are required to fully cover \u2014 without copays or out-of-pocket costs \u2014 prescribed U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved, granted, or cleared methods of contraception. The Affordability is Access Act would change this to apply to over-the-counter birth control that women can get without a prescription. The Affordability is Access Act would also maintain the FDA\u2019s sole authority to determine the safety and efficacy of drugs and make them available over the counter without a prescription, and ensure retailers provide contraception without a prescription. The legislation states that any retailer that stocks contraception that the FDA has approved, granted, or cleared without a prescription may not interfere with a consumer\u2019s access to or purchase of such contraception.\n\nThe House bill is co-sponsored by Reps. Barragan, Brown, Brownley, Carbajal, Carter (LA), Casten, Chu, Clarke, Conaway, Crockett, Friedman, Garcia (IL), Goldman (NY), Gomez, Johnson (GA), Lee (PA), McClellan, McIver, Meng, Mullin, Norton, Pingree, Quigley, Scanlon, Stansbury, Tlaib, Tokuda, Torres (NY), Underwood, Watson Coleman, Williams (GA), and Wilson (FL).\n\nThe Senate bill is co-sponsored by Senators Murray (D-WA), Cortez Masto (D-NV), Hirono (D-HI), Baldwin (D-WI), Bennet (D-CO), Blumenthal (D-CT), Booker (D-NJ), Cantwell (D-WA), Duckworth (D-IL), Fetterman (D-PA), Gallego (D-AZ), Gillibrand (D-NY), Hassan (D-NH), Heinrich (D-NM), Hickenlooper (D-CO), Kaine (D-VA), Klobuchar (D-MN), Markey (D-MA), Merkley (D-OR), Padilla (D-CA), Reed (D-RI), Rosen (D-NV), Sanders (D-VT), Schatz (D-HI), Schiff (D-CA), Shaheen (D-NH), Smith (D-MN), Van Hollen (D-MD), Warner (D-VA), Warren (D-MA), Whitehouse (D-RI), and Wyden (D-OR).\n\nThe bill is endorsed by: Contraceptive Access Initiative (CAI), National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association (NFPRHA), American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Upstream USA, Reproductive Health Access Project, Physicians for Reproductive Health, National Partnership for Women & Families, Healthy Teen Network, Jacobs Institute of Women\u2019s Health, Reproductive Freedom for All, Power to Decide, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, The Center for Biological Diversity, National Council of Jewish Women, Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, National Women\u2019s Law Center Action Fund, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, Advocates for Youth, In Our Own Voice: National Black Women\u2019s Reproductive Justice Agenda, AIDS United, National Asian Pacific American Women\u2019s Forum, National Network of Abortion Funds, Center for Reproductive Rights, National Organization for Women (NOW), Religious Community for Reproductive Choice, The Guttmacher Institute, Population Connection Action Fund, American College of Nurse Mid-Wives, and Ibis Reproductive Health.\n\nIn her time serving in Congress, Rep. Pressley has fought persistently to protect and advance reproductive justice and ensure fundamental life-saving reproductive health care for all.\n\nIn July 2026, alongside Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA), and Representatives Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ), Diana DeGette (D-CO), and Jamie Raskin (D-MD), led more than 250 Senate and House Democrats in filing an amicus brief to the Fifth Circuit in Louisiana v. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) focused on pushing back against Louisiana\u2019s attempt to reinstate the in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone.\n\nIn July 2026, in recognition of the 250th anniversary of American independence and the work still to be done to create a nation that lives up to the founding ideals of liberty and justice for all, Rep. Pressley, alongside Representatives Lateefah Simon and Sydney Kamlager-Dove, introduced the America 250 Reproductive Justice Resolution.\n\nIn June 2026, in marking the fourth anniversary of the devastating Dobbs decision, Rep. Pressley uplifted and engaged families impacted by Republicans attacks on abortion care and issued a call to action to restore and expand access to abortion care, birth control, IVF, and true reproductive freedom.\n\nIn June 2026, during a speech on the House floor, Rep. Pressley commanded a moment of silence to honor those who have died because they were denied essential abortion care.\n\nIn June 2026, Rep. Pressley led a press conference with House Democratic Leadership to mark the fourth anniversary of the devastating Supreme Court Dobbs decision and offer her vision of seeing true reproductive justice realized and essential reproductive healthcare protected and expanded.\n\nIn June 2026, Rep. Pressley joined impacted individuals and abortion storytellers to initiate a powerful day of action for the fourth anniversary of the devastating Dobbs decision, offering a message of resilient community support and a commitment to ensure abortion care is treated as the fundamental human right it is. Video is available here.\n\nOn the anniversary of the Dobbs decision, Rep. Pressley introduced the Abortion Justice Act, sweeping, intersectional legislation to address access to abortion care and put forth a comprehensive vision of a just America where abortion care is readily available\u2014without stigma, shame or systemic barriers\u2014for all who seek it, regardless of zip code, immigration status, income, or background.\n\nRep. Pressley is a lead co-sponsor of the Women\u2019s Health Protection Act (WHPA), bicameral federal legislation to guarantee equal access to abortion care, everywhere.\n\nRep. Pressley is also a lead co-sponsor of the EACH Act, bold legislation to repeal the Hyde Amendment and help guarantee abortion coverage\u2014regardless of how a patient gets their health insurance.\n\nShortly before the Supreme Court\u2019s overturning of Roe v. Wade, Rep. Pressley led a group of her Black women colleagues in writing to President Biden urging him to declare a public health emergency amid the unprecedented threats to abortion rights nationwide.\n\nRep. Pressley condemned the Supreme Court\u2019s leaked draft opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade., and implored the Senate to protect abortion rights and slammed the white supremacist roots of anti-abortion efforts.\n\nRep. Pressley has been outspoken in demanding justice for Adriana Smith, a 30-year-old pregnant mother who was declared brain dead in February and was forced to remain on life support due to Georgia\u2019s abortion ban. In June 2025, Rep. Pressley delivered an impassioned floor speech in which she underscored that Adriana\u2019s case is far too common in the unjust history of denying Black women their dignity, humanity, and right to bodily autonomy \u2013 and that GOP abortion bans such as Georgia\u2019s deepen this pain and bar critical healthcare freedom. Rep. Pressley issued a statement after Adriana\u2019s infant son Chance was delivered via emergency Cesarean section and Adriana was taken off life support.\n\nIn May 2026, Pressley and her colleagues led 250 House and Senate Democrats in filing an amicus brief to the Supreme Court urging them to overturn a Fifth Circuit decision that would upend the FDA approval process and restrict access to mifepristone.\n\nOn August 18, 2025, Rep. Pressley issued a statement applauding the passage of the updated Shield Act in Massachusetts, signed into law by Governor Maura Healey this month. The expanded Shield Act strengthens legal protections for people seeking reproductive and gender-affirming care in Massachusetts.\n\nOn July 3, 2025, Rep. Pressley issued a statement on the final passage of Republicans\u2019 Big, Ugly Bill that will rip healthcare and food assistance away from millions of people, including in Massachusetts, push reproductive healthcare further out of reach nationwide, and fuel Trump\u2019s unlawful mass deportation agenda.\n\nOn July 1, 2025, Rep. Pressley filed an amendment to Republicans\u2019 Big, Ugly Bill to protect and expand reproductive healthcare.\n\nOn June 26, 2025, Rep. Pressley issued a statement on the harmful Medina v. Planned Parenthood ruling, the Supreme Court\u2019s decision to allow South Carolina to bar Medicaid patients from receiving healthcare services at Planned Parenthood.\n\nOn June 24, 2025, Rep. Pressley joined House Democratic Leadership for a press conference to mark the somber anniversary and renew her calls for comprehensive legislation to protect abortion care and expand access to reproductive healthcare.\n\nOn June 23, 2025, Rep. Pressley and the women of the Massachusetts delegation, Whip Katherine Clark (MA-05), Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Rep. Lori Trahan (MA-03) joined Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts President Dominique Lee for a press conference in solidarity with Planned Parenthood as they collectively fight to stop Republicans\u2019 latest attack on reproductive freedom in the GOP\u2019s Big, Ugly Bill.\n\nIn June 2025, Rep. Pressley demanded justice for Adriana Smith, a 30-year-old pregnant mother who was declared brain dead in February and was forced to remain on life support due to Georgia\u2019s abortion ban.\n\nOn May 29, 2025, Rep. Pressley reintroduced a resolution demanding equitable access to reproductive and sexual healthcare for people with disabilities, and designating a day in May as \u201cDisability Reproductive Equity Day.\u201d\n\nOn May 21, 2025, Rep. Pressley delivered a powerful speech on the House Floor in which she slammed Republicans\u2019 reconciliation bill that would slash Medicaid, which is necessary to ensuring safe, healthy reproductive care and maternal health nationwide.\n\nOn April 3, 2025, Rep. Pressley, alongside Reps. DeGette, Chu, Leger Fern\u00e1ndez, Fletcher, Davids, Williams, sent a letter signed by 162 Members urging Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to restore all appropriated funding for Title X providers and coordinate an urgent meeting on the matter.\n\nOn April 2, 2025, Rep. Pressley rallied with Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), colleagues, and advocates outside the U.S. Supreme Court for Medicaid patients\u2019 ability to access routine care at Planned Parenthood health centers.\n\nOn March 5, 2025, Rep. Pressley and the Reproductive Freedom Caucus issued a statement condemning Donald Trump\u2019s plans to drop the U.S. government\u2019s case against Idaho\u2019s violation of Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) protections for emergency abortion care.\n\nIn January 2025, Rep. Pressley gave an impassioned speech condemning H.R. 21, Republicans\u2019 cruel anti-abortion bill that criminalizes providers and denies families care.\n\nIn January 2025, Rep. Pressley was announced as Co-Chair of the Reproductive Freedom Caucus for the 119th Congress.\n\nIn October 2024, Rep. Pressley issued a statement on Josseli Barnica, who died on Sept. 3, 2021 after being denied emergency abortion care in Texas as she suffered a miscarriage.\n\nIn September 2024, in a House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee Hearing, Rep. Pressley highlighted the harmful and deadly impact of abortion bans in America to date, and outlined in detail the shameful circumstances under which Amber Nicole Thurman died after being denied necessary abortion care in Georgia.\n\nIn May 2024, Rep. Pressley issued a statement on a Louisiana bill that would classify medication abortion drugs mifepristone and misoprostol as controlled substances.\n\nIn April 2024, at a House Oversight Committee hearing, Rep. Pressley played \u201cFact or Fiction\u201d with Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Robert Califf to emphasize the safety and efficacy of medication abortion drug mifepristone.\n\nShortly before the Supreme Court\u2019s overturning of Roe v. Wade, Rep. Pressley led a group of her Black women colleagues in writing to President Biden urging him to declare a public health emergency amid the unprecedented threats to abortion rights nationwide.\n\nRep. Pressley condemned the Supreme Court\u2019s leaked draft opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade., and implored the Senate to protect abortion rights and slammed the white supremacist roots of anti-abortion efforts.\n\nIn August 2023, Rep. Pressley issued a statement on the Fifth Circuit Court decision in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA.\n\nIn July 2023, Rep. Pressley, alongside Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Rep. Cori Bush (MO-01), and Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), reintroduced the Reproductive Health Care Accessibility Act, legislation to help people with disabilities\u2014who face discrimination and extra barriers when seeking care\u2014get better access to reproductive health care and the informed care they need to control their own reproductive lives.\n\nIn July 2023, Rep. Pressley applauded the Food and Drug Administration\u2019s (FDA) approval of over-the-counter birth control.\n\nIn May 2023, Rep. Pressley applauded the FDA Advisory Committee\u2019s unanimous, 17-0 vote to recommend the approval of the first-ever application for over-the-counter birth control. She and Senator Murray also held a press conference applauding the decision and urging the FDA to approval over-the-counter birth control without delay.\n\nIn May 2023, Rep. Pressley, along with Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) and Ami Bera, MD (CA-06) and Senators Mazie Hirono (D-HI) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), reintroduced their bicameral Affordability is Access Act to ensure that once the FDA determines an over-the-counter birth control option to be safe, insurers fully cover over-the-counter birth control without any fees or out-of-pocket costs.\n\nIn April 2023, Rep. Pressley issued a statement condemning the Texas court ruling on mifepristone, and discussed the Texas case in a recent floor speech in which she affirmed medication abortion as routine medical care and access to mifepristone as essential. She later joined Governor Maura Healey, Senator Elizabth Warren (D-MA), and local leaders in announcing action to protect Mifepristone in Massachusetts.\n\nIn March 2023, Rep. Pressley, along with Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Reps. Schakowsky, Lee, DeGette, Torres and Strickland, reintroduced the Abortion is Healthcare Everywhere Act harmful and discriminatory Helms Amendment and expand abortion access globally.\n\nIn March 2023, Rep. Pressley and Senator Hirono led their colleagues in reintroducing a bicameral congressional resolution honoring abortion providers and clinic staff.\n\nIn March 2023, Rep. Pressley delivered a speech in which she discussed the pending court case in Texas, which aims to restrict access to medication abortion across the entire nation. In her remarks, Rep. Pressley affirmed medication abortion as routine medical care, and accessibility to the abortion pill mifepristone as essential.\n\nIn September 2021, Rep. Pressley issued a statement condemning the Supreme Court\u2019s inaction on SB-8, Texas\u2019 restrictive abortion law. Later that month, she participated in a House Oversight Committee hearing to examine the threat posed by abortion bans and underscored the urgency of the Senate passing the Women\u2019s Health Protection Act.\n\nIn April 2021, Rep. Pressley, along with Congresswomen Barbara Lee (CA-13), Diana DeGette (CO-01) and Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), led a group of 131 Democratic members in reintroducing the Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance Act or the EACH Act, which would repeal the Hyde Amendment and ensure that all people, regardless of income, insurance or zip code, can make personal reproductive health care decisions without interference from politicians. She re-Introduced the legislation In January 2023.\n\nRep. Pressley has led calls in Congress for the FDA to remove medically unnecessary restrictions on the medication abortion drug mifepristone, and applauded the FDA\u2019s action in January 2023 to allow retail pharmacies to dispense abortion medication pills.\n\nAs Chair of the Pro-Choice Caucus\u2019s Abortion Rights and Access Task Force, Congresswoman Pressley led the fight to repeal the Hyde Amendments from annual Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies appropriations bills and in July 2020 published a Medium post on the importance of doing so. She applauded the removal of the Hyde Amendment in President Biden\u2019s FY2022 budget.\n\nIn May 2020, she led more than 155 Members of Congress in calling on House Democratic leadership to ensure that any future COVID-19 relief packages rejected Republican efforts to use the public health crisis to diminish abortion access.\n\nIn August 2021, Rep. Pressley, Oversight Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, and Pro-Choice Caucus Co-Chairs Reps. Diana DeGette and Barbara Lee led more than 70 of their House Democratic colleagues in introducing a resolution in support of equitable, science-based policies governing access to medication abortion care.\n\nIn January 2023, Rep. Pressley introduced a resolution to condemn all forms of political violence in the U.S., regardless of its target or intent. That same day, she delivered a powerful speech on the House floor slamming Republicans\u2019 harmful, misleading anti-abortion resolution.\n\nIn September 2022, Rep. Pressley hosted U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra at the Codman Square Health Center in Dorchester for a convening on their work to address the Black maternal health crisis and the criminalization of abortion care in states across the nation following the harmful U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health.\n\nIn May 2019, she led more than 100 colleagues in introducing H.Con.Res.40, a resolution reaffirming the House of Representative\u2019s support for Roe v. Wade.\n\nIn June 2019, Rep. Pressley introduced H.R. 3296, the Affordability is Access Act, to make oral contraception available without a prescription.\n\nIn September 2016, as a member of the Boston City Council, Pressley championed a resolution calling on Congress and President Obama to repeal the Hyde Amendment and reinstate insurance coverage for abortion services.\n\n###", 1, "2026-09-29T11:07:12Z", "2026-09-29T11:08:49Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://pressley.house.gov/2026/09/24/pressley-murray-colleagues-reintroduce-bill-to-expand-coverage-of-birth-control-and-sound-alarm-on-trumps-relentless-attacks-on-contraception-family-planning/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9525693021714687, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}