It’s hard to imagine anything could put Republicans in a bind in this election cycle as much as efforts to ban abortion.
The conservative push to restrict birth control just might.
Legislation limiting access to contraceptives is in place or has been introduced in several states. Senate Republicans blocked the Right to Contraception Act, which would have enshrined the right to contraception into federal law.
The measure ed the House in 2022 when Democrats were in the majority with only eight Republicans voting for it. All 195 “no” votes were GOP .
The Supreme Court’s decision in 2022 to overturn the Roe v. Wade constitutional right to abortion created a political earthquake that continues to reverberate. A concurring opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas also kicked open the potential for a similar ruling regarding birth control.
After the ruling, moves to ban abortion in Republican states accelerated, while ballot measures safeguarding abortion rights ed in blue and red states.
Abortion was one of the reasons Republicans struggled in the 2022 midterm elections, barely gaining a House majority that was expected to be much larger. The issue may have kept the GOP from regaining a majority in the Senate.
Some of the state abortion-protection ballot measures, like the one ed in California, included access to birth control. But that part was secondary to the debate. Democrats likely will elevate the fight over birth control in the coming fall elections while continuing to blame Republicans for the increasing loss of abortion rights.
Polls have shown a strong majority of Americans access to abortion. After the court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was leaked, and before it was published, a Pew Research Center poll said 61 percent of U.S. adults believed abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
Birth control has even broader . A Gallup poll also released in June 2022 said 91 percent of American adults deemed using birth control to be “morally acceptable.” Among survey participants identified as liberals, 98 percent felt that way, while 88 percent of conservatives agreed.
A FiveThirtyEight/Ipsos poll that year detailed the percentage of Republicans who said various forms of birth control should be legal in “all or most cases:” birth control pills — 93 percent, condoms — 92 percent, IUDs — 82 percent, emergency contraception like Plan B — 62 percent.
Told that Republicans had voted against the Right to Contraception Act, 64 percent of people surveyed in a poll by Americans for Contraception said they would be less likely to Republican candidates for Congress, according to the poll.
Almost two-thirds of women aged 15 to 49 in the U.S. used some form of contraception from 2017 to 2019. according to a survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Surveys aren’t elections and it’s hard to say how much of a factor access to contraception will be in November. Much will depend on how it is used in campaigns and the degree to which it becomes a threshold issue for voters in swing districts and states.
It has Republicans scrambling, however.
House who voted against the Right to Contraception Act argued that it was merely an effort by Democrats to score political points. Some said the wording was vague and could have broad implications. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., called it a “Trojan horse for more abortions,” which Democrats rejected.
Several Republican last year introduced a bill to clarify rules for newly approved over-the-counter contraceptive pills “that provide more options and lowers costs,” according to Rep. Young Kim, a Republican from Orange County.
Democrats criticized the move as an effort to give the GOP cover as other seek to restrict birth control and abortion.
Buried in some federal and state legislation are definitions of pregnancy that say pregnancy begins at fertilization rather than implantation, according to the Independent.
“While these definitions are typically found in abortion bills, this language threatens some common forms of contraception, like IUDs and emergency contraception,” the news organization wrote. “It could also potentially stop the use of IVF entirely.”
The recent Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law was another assault on reproductive rights, potentially jeopardizing fertility treatments.
Alabama’s Republican-controlled Legislature quickly ed legislation to shield in vitro fertilization providers from civil and criminal liability.
Meanwhile, a handful of House Republicans went in the other direction last week. In a letter to President Joe Biden, they said “IVF is morally dubious and should not be subsidized by the American taxpayer.”
According to the Americans for Contraception poll, 3 out of 5 voters living in states where abortion has been banned or heavily restricted said they were concerned that birth control is next.
The Dobbs decision had a cascading effect of potential threats to reproductive and other rights because of Justice Thomas.
The court’s majority opinion stated, “Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion.”
Yet Thomas wrote that the court “should reconsider” some of its long-standing rulings, including the 1965 Griswold v. Connecticut decision that granted married couples the right to use contraceptives without government restrictions. Seven years later, the Eisenstadt v. Baird decision did the same for unmarried couples.
After Thomas’ opinion, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., called the Griswold decision “constitutionally unsound.” Republican Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., said access to contraceptives and other legal rights such as interracial marriage should be left to the states, like abortion is now.
Despite such talk from fellow Republicans, Rep. Kat Cammack of Florida ignored legal and political realities in explaining her vote against the Right to Contraception Act. She called the measure “completely unnecessary,” adding that: “In no way, shape or form is access to contraception limited or at risk of being limited.”
That’s what a lot of people said about abortion before the Dobbs decision.
What they’re saying
CalMatters reporter Jeanne Kuang (@JeanneKuang) on X.
“Story will be updated when I figure out what the hell is going on.”
