Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he did not support restricting birth control after saying earlier in the day he was “looking at” contraceptives when asked if he supported any restrictions to the right to contraception.
“I HAVE NEVER, AND WILL NEVER ADVOCATE IMPOSING RESTRICTIONS ON BIRTH CONTROL, or other contraceptives,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “I DO NOT SUPPORT A BAN ON BIRTH CONTROL, AND NEITHER WILL THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!”
Trump’s post comes after the Biden campaign seized on comments the former president made in an interview with Pittsburgh TV station KDKA-TV when asked if he supported restricting access to contraception.
“We’re looking at that, and I’m going to have a policy on that very shortly and I think it’s something that you’ll find interesting,” Trump said.
When pressed on whether his answer suggested he supported some restrictions on contraceptives, Trump said, “Things really do have a lot to do with the states and some states are going to have different policies than others. But I’m coming out within a week or so with a very comprehensive policy.”
The Biden campaign quickly jumped on Trump’s comments, posting clips of the interview on social media and releasing a statement saying Trump “wants to rip away our freedom to access birth control.”
“Women across the country are already suffering from Donald Trump’s post-Roe nightmare, and if he wins a second term, it’s clear he wants to go even further by restricting access to birth control and emergency contraceptives. It’s not enough for Trump that women’s lives are being put at risk, doctors are being threatened with jail time, and extreme bans are being enacted with no exceptions for rape or incest. He wants to rip away our freedom to access birth control too,” Biden campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chitika said in a statement.
“While Trump works overtime to roll back the clock and rip away women’s freedoms, President Biden and Vice President Harris are fighting nonstop to protect access to birth control and women’s right to make their own personal health care decisions,” she continued.
Legal access to birth control is popular among most Americans. Ninety percent of women ages 18 to 64 have used contraception at some point in their reproductive years, and about three-quarters have used more than one contraceptive method throughout their lifetime, according to a study by KFF, a nonprofit health polling, research and journalism organization. A FiveThirtyEight/Ipsos poll conducted in 2022 found 89% of Americans support mostly or completely legal access to birth control pills and 71% support access to emergency contraception like Plan B.
Reproductive rights have been a dominating election issue since the Supreme Court eliminated the constitutional right to an abortion by overturning Roe v. Wade in the summer of 2022. Trump frequently touts his role in the elimination of federal abortion protections, which followed his appointment of three Supreme Court justices who voted with the conservative majority in the decision to overturn Roe. But he has said that Republicans “still have to win elections” and has pointed out that many GOP candidates who took hard-line stances on abortion post-Roe went on to lose their elections.
