The vote was 56-43 to move ahead on the measure, short of the 60 votes necessary to proceed.

Democrats sponsored the election-year bill to reverse last month’s Supreme Court ruling that closely held businesses with religious objections could deny coverage under President Barack Obama’s health care law.

Republicans called the bill a political stunt aimed at helping vulnerable Democratic incumbents in the elections.

Indeed, Democrats have seized on the birth control issue as they look ahead to November with hopes of energizing voters, especially women, to preserve the party’s Senate majority. Democrats must defend more seats, and Republicans are upbeat about their prospects of gaining the six necessary to secure control, especially in GOP-leaning Southern states.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., who is in a competitive re-election contest, summed up her party’s argument on the issue.

“A woman’s health care decision should be made with her doctor, with her family, with her faith, not by her employer with her employer’s faith,” Shaheen said in a Senate speech.

But Republicans said that the Democratic effort was merely a move to boost struggling incumbents and that both parties support a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions.

National statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that more than 99 percent of women ages 15 to 44 who have had sexual intercourse have used at least one form of contraception.

Uploaded by Chelsea Leonard.