A comment from Trump and GOP actions in the states put contraceptive access in the 2024 spotlight

CHICAGO (AP) — Republican lawmakers in states across the U.S. have been rejecting Democrats’ efforts to protect or expand access to birth control, an issue Democrats are promoting as a major issue in this year’s elections along with abortion and other reproductive rights concerns.

Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, pushed the issue into the political spotlight this week when he said in an interview that he was open to supporting restrictions on contraception before he reversed course and said he “has never and never will” advocate to restrict access to birth control. He went further in the post on his social media platform, saying “I do not support a ban on birth control, and neither will the Republican Party.”

But recent moves in governor’s offices and state legislatures across the country tell a more complicated story about Republicans’ stances on contraception amid what reproductive rights advocates warn is a slow chipping away of access.

“Contraception is not as straightforward an issue for the GOP as Trump’s statement suggests,” said Mary Ruth Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California, Davis School of Law and a leading abortion politics scholar. “That’s why a lot of right-to-contraception bills have been failing in both Congress and the states. Contraception is more contested than most people understand it to be.”

<bsp-list-loadmore data-module="" class=«PageListStandardB» data-gtm-region=«READ MORE» data-gtm-topic=«No Value» data-show-loadmore=«true» data-gtm-modulestyle=«List B»> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> READ MORE </bsp-custom-headline> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> Trump says he is open to restrictions on contraception before backing away from