GOP NY congressman accuses Dem of refusing to let him cosponsor contraception bill for political reasons

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A New York House Republican is accusing a Democrat colleague of refusing to let him cosponsor a pro-contraception bill, which is now leaving him open to attack ads by his election opponent. 

Rep. Marc Molinaro, R-N.Y., took to X on Monday to share emails from his staff written in June to Rep. Kathy Manning, D-N.C., asking that he be added as a cosponsor to the Right to Contraception Act, a bill she introduced to establish protections for an individual's right to access birth control and protect health care providers' ability to provide contraception.

Molinaro, a freshman House member, says his Democratic opponent in the hotly contested New York 19th District race, Josh Riley, is blasting him for not being a co-sponsor, despite his requests to co-sponsor the bill.

'MISLEADING' DEM CONTRACEPTION BILL FAILS KEY VOTE AS GOP SLAMS BROAD PROPOSAL

Rep. Marc Molinaro speaks during a news conference with members of the House Republican Conference in the Cannon Building on March 6, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

"I was the first Republican to support the Right to Contraception Act. Shame on @KathyManningNC who DENIED my MANY requests to cosponsor just so @JoshRileyUE could spin more lies in his desperate campaign built on lies. #ANewLow," Molinaro wrote. Molinaro’s staff emailed Manning on June 5 and on June 13 asking for him to be added as a cosponsor, per the screenshots. 

Manning fired back and asked Molinaro if he would sign a discharge petition launched in June which would try to force a vote on her bill. The petition would force a vote on the bill if 218 House members sign on.

"Hey Marc, does this mean you’ll sign the petition to bring my Right to Contraception Act up for a vote? Or do you not want the bill to make it to the House Floor?" Manning wrote. 

The discharge petition was launched June 4, one day before the first email from Molinaro's staff to Manning's, per Axios. At the time, Molinaro expressed openness to signing the petition but has not since signed on, according to the publication. 

"How disgusting and short-sighted. LAWS are made by welcoming Republican AND Democrat support," Molinaro shot back.

REP. MOLINARO: PRESIDENT CONTINUES TO IGNORE THIS NATIONAL SECURITY CRISIS

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks during a news conference on the Right to Contraception Act outside the U.S. Capitol on June 5. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

Molinaro's office directed Fox News Digital to his posts on X when seeking further comment. 

Manning told Fox News Digital via a statement that if Molinaro was serious about safeguarding access to all FDA-approved birth control, his first step would be to sign the petition if he wished to see the legislation make it to the House floor.

"The overwhelming majority of Americans both use and support access to contraception, yet House Republican leadership continues to block my Right to Contraception Act from reaching the House Floor for a vote," Manning said. "That’s why, in June, I introduced a petition to force the Republican-controlled House to bring my bill up for a vote, and I invited my Republican colleagues who claim to support the right to contraception to join me in signing it."

"Yet, more than four months later, despite repeated invitations to my colleagues across the aisle, not a single House Republican has signed my petition to force Congress to vote on my Right to Contraception Act."

In June, the Senate voted 51-39 against moving the legislation forward. The bill needed to garner 60 votes in order to move forward in the upper chamber. The bill’s language says it "sets out statutory protections for an individual's right to access and a health care provider's right to provide contraception and related information." 

Molinaro said Monday he supports a woman’s right to an abortion and opposes a national ban on abortion.

"My position is this," Molinaro said in a meeting with the Cortland Standard editorial board, the publication reports.  

"I believe the decision to have an abortion should be the woman’s and her physician’s."

North Carolina Rep. Kathy Manning speaks during a rally of Jewish voters for Vice President Kamala Harris at the Sheet Metal Workers Local 80 in Southfield, Michigan, on Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (Dominic Gwinn/Middle East Images/Middle East Images via AFP)

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Riley has accused Molinaro of voting "13 times to restrict access to abortion."

"The 13 votes are a lie, just a lie. They were procedural votes," Molinaro told the Cortland Standard. "I led the bipartisan commission to fund the expansion of access to women’s healthcare," he said.

Molinaro told the outlet that half the votes were bills where the language was inserted into bills on a different topic. The other half, he said, is to maintain the existing standard of access, which is that federal money does not fund abortions.

Meanwhile, Molinaro became one of the first GOP members of Congress to support the Access to Family Building Act. Democrats introduced the legislation defending in vitro fertilization treatment and holding frozen embryos to the same legal standard as children under state law.