Former President Donald Trump hinted at restricting access to contraception earlier this week, a little more than a week after Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed two laws that would have established the right to contraception in the state.
Democrats are now warning that access to birth control methods is under threat across the GOP ideological spectrum, arguing that with Trump at the helm, the Republican Party is only further siphoning reproductive rights in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in June 2002.
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Trump and several state leaders are scrambling to weigh in on abortion and contraception access, both of which are major subjects in an election year.
During an interview with KDKA-TV, a CBS affiliate in Pittsburgh, Trump stated on Tuesday that he is willing to accept contraceptive restrictions.
Later in the day, the former president insisted that he has “never and will never advocate imposing restrictions on birth control or other contraceptives,” but not before President Joe Biden’s campaign seized on his initial remarks, claiming they reflected a larger “post-Roe nightmare” that included not only abortion restrictions but also in-vitro fertilization and contraception.
Youngkin, a more moderate conservative who endorsed Trump for president in March despite previous criticism of the former president, vetoed two bills on Friday that would have protected Virginians’ access to contraception, such as condoms and IUDs, if the federal law protecting them were overturned.
In a statement following his actions last week, Youngkin stated that, while he “supports contraception access,” the two proposals would address the issue too widely without consultation from parents, healthcare providers, or communities. He had to “uphold the fundamental right of parents to make decisions concerning their children’s upbringing and care,” according to him.
Governor JB Pritzker, a Democrat from Illinois and the founder of Think Big America, a PAC that supports abortion access, commented on Youngkin’s veto.
“Glenn Youngkin’s veto is shameful but predictable—just like a former president who brags about ripping away abortion rights, a governor who promotes an abortion ban was never going to stop there,” Pritzker said in an interview with ABC News.
Think Big America gave $250,000 to Virginia Democrats a week before high-stakes state legislature elections in November 2023, which would help determine Virginia’s abortion legislation. Democrats eventually won full control of the state’s General Assembly, allowing them to oppose Youngkin’s proposed 15-week “limit” on abortion availability.
“MAGA extremists like Youngkin and Donald Trump have made it clear: they’re coming after abortion, they’re coming after contraception, they’re coming after IVF, and they’re coming after women,” Pritzker stated to ABC News.
Youngkin’s press secretary, Christian Martinez, told ABC News that Virginia’s governor supports access to contraception and IVF “without trampling on constitutional rights and religious liberties.”
“The Youngkin administration’s historic efforts are supporting maternal health so Virginians can realize their dream of building a family,” Martinez stated. “Governor Pritzker should pay attention to his own state instead of using scaremongering tactics to distract from the number of people moving away from Illinois, placing them among other states run by progressive liberals like New York and California.”
In response to Dobbs, when Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas hinted at the possibility of reconsidering other settled cases involving reproductive rights, such as Griswold v. Connecticut, a birth control access ruling, advocates for contraception protections in Virginia said they introduced the bills.
Democrats have claimed a connection between Youngkin’s actions and Trump’s policies, as well as the larger GOP goal of rescinding women’s reproductive rights.
“Youngkin’s veto of legislation protecting Virginians’ right to contraception demonstrates that he is still following Donald Trump’s disastrous playbook, doubling down on Trump’s very unpopular, anti-freedom agenda.” Trump, Glenn Youngkin, and MAGA extremists across the country seem as hellbent on ripping women’s reproductive rights as they are on losing elections,” Democratic National Committee spokesperson Jackie Bush stated in response to the governor’s actions.
KFF, a nonprofit health policy organization, published a document stating that fourteen states currently offer legal or constitutional protections for the right to contraception. These states are: California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, D.C.
California, Michigan, Ohio, and Vermont have passed constitutional rights to contraception, providing a more secure type of protection, while the remaining states have protected birth control through legislative means.
According to the KFF, over half of those states have established these protections since Roe’s decision. These include California, Michigan, Vermont, Washington, D.C., Minnesota, New Mexico, and Ohio. Only Florida and Ohio are among the states with Republican leadership.
Mabel Felix, a KFF policy analyst, and Alina Salganicoff, KFF’s senior vice president and director of women’s health policy, wrote the study on state and federal contraception policies.
They claimed Virginia was the only state they followed that blocked any birth control laws after Dobbs.
ABC News reports that four states (Maryland, Florida, South Dakota, and Colorado) have confirmed abortion or reproductive rights-related ballot initiatives on their general election ballots, and at least 12 states (including those four) may have them on their November 2024 ballots.
According to Felix and Salganicoff, the bills in Nevada and Maryland include wording related to contraception protections.
“Before Dobbs, I think most people thought that their right to contraception was guaranteed and protected,” Salganicoff told ABC News. “Justice Thomas raised several red flags for people,” Salganicoff said. That prompted some advocates and legislators to begin making greater efforts on the ground to safeguard the right to contraception.
Salganicoff stated that Trump’s remarks on contraceptive access earlier this week “have even [more] greatly given this issue more attention.”
Separately, several states are taking extra steps to improve access to birth control, such as allowing pharmacists to prescribe hormonal contraception rather than just dispense it.
On Monday, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, announced the implementation of legislation allowing pharmacists to dispense hormonal contraceptive birth control without a prescription.
“In New Jersey, we will continue to protect a woman’s right to plan her future on her own terms,” Murphy added in his statement.
“This represents a significant step forward in our efforts to increase access to reproductive health care by making birth control more accessible throughout the state.”As we see an onslaught on reproductive freedom across the country, New Jersey will remain a safe sanctuary for women to get the care they require.”
