Trump’s musing on birth control restrictions is a red flag in post-Roe reality | Opinion

When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in a concurrent opinion that his colleagues also “should reconsider” other rulings that codified rights to access contraception, among others.

At the time, I wrote a column about the possibility that the constitutional protections for birth control access could be overturned. I said, “This dystopian, ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ scenario isn’t just liberal hyperbole.”

In the past two years, we have dodged that other bullet to reproductive rights. But, in vague remarks this week, former President Donald Trump suggested he might look into restricting access to contraception if he returns to the White House.

“We’re looking at that,” Trump told reporters. “Things really do have a lot to do with the states, and some states are going to have different policies than others.”

It feels absurd that even conservative states could outlaw or restrict contraception, which is not nearly as controversial as abortion and is used widely by women across the political spectrum. On the other hand, who would’ve thought that, more than 50 years after Roe v. Wade codified the right to an abortion, Florida would enact one of the nation’s strictest abortion bans?

Trump, probably to avoid turning off suburban women voters, walked back those remarks quickly, writing on social media he would “never advocate imposing restrictions on birth control,” the New York Times reported.

Trump is known for saying whatever he thinks voters want to hear. His latest remarks shouldn’t allay anyone’s fears.

I’m not ready to run for the hills just yet, but the reluctance by some Republicans to get on the right side of this issue is concerning. Republican governors vetoed bills to protect access to birth control in Virginia and Nevada, and Republicans in 12 state legislatures have blocked Democratic bills to protect that right, the 19th reported. Even before the overturning of Roe v. Wade, states like Texas stopped paying for emergency contraception (aka “Plan B”) via their Medicaid programs.

There is a widespread misconception that emergency birth control stops a pregnancy and that IUDs prevent the implantation of a fertilized egg into the uterus (they don’t), according to KFF, an independent healthcare policy nonprofit. That misinformation, coupled with the language of some abortion bans in states like Tennessee, may already be used to limit access to contraceptives, KFF says.

Democrats are trying to get Senate Republicans on the record opposing the protection of contraception. They want to fast track a vote on “The Right to Contraception Act.” With a closely divided Senate, the legislation is expected to fail because many Republicans oppose it, the New York Times reported.

The vote is clearly an election-year ploy to help Democrats keep control of the U.S. Senate. But Democrats had 50 years to codify Roe v. Wade into federal law and missed that opportunity before the Supreme Court reversed the ruling.

And why can’t Republicans be vocal in their support for birth control? Supporting that right should not be such a polarizing topic.

The irony is that we hear a lot about female contraceptives and pregnancies, but little attention is devoted to debating male vasectomies or male sexual performance drugs like Viagra.

It feels as if the point is to penalize women for their sexuality. We shouldn’t have sex if we don’t wish to get pregnant. If we do have sex, then we should face the consequences and risk an unwanted pregnancy.

In 2012, Rush Limbaugh, the late talk radio host revered by conservatives, called a college student a “slut” after she testified before Congress in support of employer-provided health insurance plans covering birth control at religious institutions.

“What is she, 30 years old? Thirty years old, student at Georgetown Law who admits to having so much sex she can’t afford it,” Limbaugh said at the time.

He later apologized after a national uproar. Today, lawmakers in charge of making decisions about reproductive rights are careful not to use words that stigmatize women. But even when the slightest possibility of contraceptive access being curtailed exists, we must wonder what the animus behind it is.

It’s hard to imagine that, in this country of freedoms, elected leaders could go as far as doing that. I rather just stop imagining.