'We will continue to fight': Contraceptive companies remain hopeful after House passes bill
A day after the House passed a bill that would protect Americans’ right to contraceptives, biotech execs say they will keep fighting for better access to novel birth control products.
The big question now is whether the legislation will survive the Senate floor.
The House voted 228-195 on Thursday to pass a law that would ensure the right to obtain and provide contraceptives. It would also allow patients, providers and federal or state governments to bring civil suits against states or officials that violate the law.
The move comes weeks after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and Justice Clarence Thomas indicated in his opinion that the Court should reconsider other precedents, including one 1965 decision that assured the right to contraceptives.
Eight Republican representatives joined Democrats in support of the contraceptive bill, while some Senate Republicans have indicated they’re on the fence. However, there’s a chance the Senate won’t vote until after summer recess, which begins Aug. 5.

“It’s absolutely an outstanding step,” Daré Bioscience CEO Sabrina Johnson said on Friday of the House vote.
Her company’s vaginal ring, Ovaprene, is about to enter a Phase III trial this year. “I would love for it to pass in the Senate, but I think realistically, given that there were only eight Republicans that supported it in the House, I think that it’s going to be a heavy lift,” she added.
Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN) spoke in support of the bill on the House floor on Thursday, arguing that “an extreme GOP, an extreme Supreme Court, they want to take away your freedom and your control over your own lives.”
“It is absolutely necessary that we take action today,” she said.
Some Republican senators have indicated they’re leaning toward a yes vote, including Susan Collins (R-ME) who told the Washington Post that she would “most likely” offer support. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) told the Post she was working on bipartisan legislation to codify abortion and perhaps contraception rights.

“What I’m pleased about is that we’re really trying to be proactive, and we recognize that if we aren’t fierce about this — but I mean fierce — we’re going to actually create implications for half of our population that are going to be dire,” said Saundra Pelletier, CEO of Evofem, which markets a non-hormonal contraceptive gel called Phexxi.
“We have to get up, suit ourselves in our armor, because this was too easy to have things taken away,” she said of the Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
Before the Supreme Court’s decision, Evofem struggled to get coverage for Phexxi. Now insurers are starting to listen, Pelletier said. Payers cover 75% percent of product claims, up from 55% a year ago.
“We just all believe in the same issues,” including making a broad range of contraceptives available and affordable to women, said Agile Therapeutics CEO Al Altomari. Agile markets its birth control patch Twirla as a lower dose and more convenient option for women. “We’re already walking the walk … We will continue to fight.”