WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski wouldn’t say whether she would support a House bill passed Thursday that would legalize birth control rights, but said she is working on different legislation to protect those rights.

After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, there has been an effort to protect women’s birth control, and Justice Clarence Thomas has signaled that the decision protecting birth control and same-sex marriage is likely to continue.

The House of Representatives passed the birth control bill 228-195 on Thursday, with eight Republicans voting yes. Like Murkowski, Sen. Dan Sullivan also took no position on the House contraception bill.

Alaska’s two Republican senators also won’t say where they stand. On a House bill protecting same-sex marriage. However, Murkowski has said she supports marriage equality, and Sullivan has said he respects previous Supreme Court decisions upholding same-sex marriage rights.

Murkowski said she supports birth control rights. According to the Supreme Court in Griswold v. She said she is working with a bipartisan group of senators to introduce separate legislation that would protect Connecticut’s right to birth control. Birth control, a spokeswoman said.

In an interview this week, I think it’s to be expected and believed that most women in this country will say, ‘We fought those battles, and we won those.’

“When I see it, I will comment,” Sullivan said in an interview at the Capitol on Thursday, saying he had not seen the abortion rights bill.

“The senator is waiting to see what the majority leader puts on the floor,” Sullivan spokesman Ben Ditderich said in a statement later. Generally supports access to contraception.

Dietderich also said, “Right now, the senator is focused on the high food and energy prices that are hurting all Alaska families and is standing up to the Biden administration’s relentless efforts to shut down our state and our economy.”

Murkowski supports abortion rights. However, abortion rights advocates have recently come under fire for voting to confirm two of Trump’s nominees who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, conservative Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett. When the draft opinion was released in May, Murkowski told reporters that the decision “maintained my confidence in the court at this time.”

[Murkowski reflects on Supreme Court votes, with abortion a key issue in Alaska’s U.S. Senate race]

The House passed legislation last week to protect abortion rights. Murkowski did not support the House bill. The senator introduced her own, narrower, abortion bill in February, but it did not advance.

The House of Representatives passed the Respect for Marriage Act in a bipartisan vote of 267-157 on Wednesday. All House Democrats and 47 House Republicans voted to allow states to recognize same-sex marriage and repeal a 1996 law defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

National attention is focused on whether Senate Republicans will vote yes if the bill makes it to the Senate floor. Sens. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, introduced companion legislation in the Senate on Tuesday.

It’s especially the eyes of moderate Republicans like Murkowski, who support marriage equality and have a history of supporting bipartisan measures.

Murkowski spoke to Baldwin about the bill “because she knows I’ve been a supporter of marriage equality for a long time.”

“I’m ready to see what they put in their legislation,” she said. “It’s relatively straightforward, I think it’s good.”

Asked if she would support the bill if it were the same as the House bill, Murkowski said, “I had homework to do, but I think I’ve made it clear that I’ve supported marriage equality for years.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D.N.Y.

“We are working to get the necessary Senate Republican support to pass this,” he said in a floor speech. The bill needs 60 Senate votes to defeat a filibuster.

Sullivan did not say how he would vote.

“The senator is reviewing the legislation passed by the House and is waiting to see what the Majority Leader puts on the floor,” Dietderich said in a written statement. press release. “As previously stated, we respect the court’s decision in Oberfell and Hodges.”