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contraception
Underscoring Election Stakes, Biden Admin Moves to Require Coverage of OTC Birth Control
"As Trump and his radical Republican allies restrict women's reproductive healthcare, today's action by the Biden-Harris administration shows there is a different path," said Sen. Ron Wyden.
Oct 21, 2024
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, suggested Monday that the Biden administration's newly proposed rule to expand access to over-the-counter birth control is the latest policy that underscores the stakes for reproductive justice in the 2024 election.
"While we fight to protect and expand healthcare, extremist so-called leaders are attacking reproductive freedom at every turn," said Harris.
The vice president was referring to a new rule under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) proposed by the administration to require insurers to cover all over-the-counter birth control, including the nonprescription birth control pill approved last year, emergency contraception, condoms, and spermicides.
The ACA requires health plans to cover contraception without copayments for patients, but the rule only applies to prescription birth control.
After the Food and Drug Administration approved Opill, a nonprescription birth control pill, last year, reproductive rights advocates and Democrats in Congress called on the Biden administration to make sure the pill would "meet its potential and be truly accessible."
"Federal departments must ensure that it is covered without cost-sharing and without the need for a prescription as a condition of coverage," said 48 Senate Democrats in a letter.
The Biden administration said that if the rule is finalized, it would expand access to 52 million women of reproductive age who have private health insurance.
"We should not forget that Republicans have consistently sought to undermine access to contraception and far-right extremists have even sought to limit access or even ban basic forms of contraception—this threat to our healthcare is real and serious."
"Birth control—and any kind of contraception—is just basic healthcare, and it should be covered and easy to get," said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who authored the Affordability Is Access Act to require insurers to fully cover over-the-counter birth control. "Women in America should not have to jump through hoops to make sure insurance is covering their basic reproductive healthcare needs."
"We should not forget that Republicans have consistently sought to undermine access to contraception and far-right extremists have even sought to limit access or even ban basic forms of contraception—this threat to our healthcare is real and serious," added Murray. "While Republicans continue to attack standard and necessary forms of healthcare, Democrats will continue to fight to expand access to contraception and lower healthcare costs for everyone."
When Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022 by the right-wing majority on the U.S. Supreme Court—stacked with justices appointed by former President Donald Trump, now the Republican presidential nominee—Justice Clarence Thomas said the court's finding that the "right to privacy" did not extend to abortion care could also be used to overturn a 1965 case that affirmed married couples had a right to use contraception.
Senate Republicans earlier this year blocked consideration of the Right to Contraception Act, and Trump has suggested he supports restrictions on birth control.
"As Trump and his radical Republican allies restrict women's reproductive healthcare, today's action by the Biden-Harris administration shows there is a different path: expanded access and lower costs for women's healthcare," said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) Monday. "I'm all in on the effort to ensure Americans across the country can get the reproductive healthcare they need without worrying about cost or prosecution by ideological crusaders."
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Butker’s Misogynist Views Could Be Coming to a Legislature—or a White House—Near You
The MAGA movement led by Donald Trump is coming after contraception, abortion, and no-fault divorce.
May 28, 2024
One of the highlights, or maybe lowlights, of this commencement season, happened at Benedictine College in Kansas, where Kansas City Chiefs player Harrison Butker made some unforgettable comments that quickly went viral.
Addressing women graduates, he said they were being told a “diabolical lie” about pursuing their dreams of a career, and that “the majority” of them would find their true purpose as wives and stay-at-home moms.
Butker is a kicker for the Chiefs, and women in the audience, who presumably had worked hard and paid a lot in tuition, could be forgiven if they felt like they were getting kicked around in that moment.
Americans are already losing our rights. We don’t like it. We’re deeply concerned about losing more of them.
But is Butker just one dude with some backward ideas? Is he just a fanboy for the “tradwife” craze happening on social media? (As some observers posit, it’s men, not women, who are the real audience for that content anyway.)
And why should we care what one pro athlete at one small college graduation says?
Because there’s too much evidence that Butker is not alone. His views are emblematic of not just one cultural attitude but a policy agenda that could be coming to a legislature—or even a White House—near you.
One of the best-known and most vocal antifeminists today is Nick Fuentes, who famously once said women should not work, vote, or be educated, and should wear veils in church. Fuentes has dined with Donald Trump, and his America First movement aims to infiltrate GOP infrastructure from the local level up.
Fuentes is an extremist among extremists. But he’s part of an increasingly vocal contingent promoting a vision of the past in which marriage was always between a man and a woman, where women always stayed home and cared for kids, and men always were breadwinners. In this idyllic past, there was practically no crime, domestic violence, or substance abuse.
And that’s the real “diabolical lie.”
Not only was that never how the world worked, but it was also a fantasy that caused desperation and pain for millions of people.
Another lie? That the social problems we have today are caused by the “breakup” of the so-called traditional family, which was set in motion by contraception, abortion, and no-fault divorce.
So now, the MAGA movement headed by Donald Trumpis going after all those things.
Just days ago, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) vetoed a bill to protect access to contraception. The bill was considered an important test by advocates hoping to protect contraception in other states.
At the federal level, House Republicans have twice blocked a national Right to Contraception Act, which would have codified the right to access birth control.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump is trying to walk back remarks he made saying he was “looking at” the issue of restricting access to contraceptives.
Perhaps most ominously, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has written that the court should revisit its decision establishing a right to contraception, as well as its rulings affirming same-sex marriage and relationships.
He did that at the same time the Supreme Court packed by Trump handed down its decision overturning Roe v. Wade, upending 50 years of legal abortion nationwide and setting the stage for a rash of state-level abortion bans.
Divorce is on the table, too. A number of MAGA politicians want to turn back the clock to the days before no-fault divorce, including several members of Congress and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, now a Trump campaign surrogate.
So while some argue that Butker should be ignored, that he’s just one ultrareligious guy giving a speech at an ultrareligious college, there’s a reason that his remarks struck a nerve among so many.
Americans are already losing our rights. We don’t like it. We’re deeply concerned about losing more of them.
And that’s legitimate. Donald Trump, a former president whose administration rolled back civil and human rights, is running again. His legacy is felt every day, including at the Supreme Court, which continues its cascade of harmful decisions.
There’s a good chance a second Trump term, run according to a Project 2025 blueprint that prescribes a “biblical” worldview to guide the federal government, would be worse.
So yes, in this environment it’s hard to shrug it off when you hear remarks like Butker’s. There are far too many people seeking power who think just like him.
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Trump Tries to Backtrack After Signaling Support for Limits on Birth Control
"Donald Trump has repeatedly promised that state Republicans will have a blank check to pass extreme laws attacking every facet of reproductive care," one critic noted.
May 21, 2024
Reproductive freedom continues to dominate this year's contest for the White House and former U.S. President Donald Trump made clear Tuesday morning that his election would threaten access to not only abortion care but also contraceptives—even though the Republican later tried to walk back his remarks.
"Do you support any restrictions on a person's right to contraception?" Jon Delano at the Pittsburgh station KDKA asked Trump, who is expected to face Democratic President Joe Biden in November.
Trump responded: "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... You will find it, I think, very smart. I think it's a smart decision. But we'll be releasing it very soon."
After Delano pointed out that Trump's response suggests he may support some restrictions, such as on the morning-after pill, the GOP candidate said that "things really do have a lot to do with the states, and some states are gonna have different policies than others. But I'm coming out, within a week or so, with a very comprehensive policy."
Politicoreported that Trump's campaign didn't respond to its request for comment and "KDKA declined to confirm... when the interview was recorded, but the Biden campaign released video of the exchange on Tuesday."
After the video started garnering attention, Trump said on his social media platform: "I HAVE NEVER, AND WILL NEVER ADVOCATE IMPOSING RESTRICTIONS ON BIRTH CONTROL, or other contraceptives. This is a Democrat fabricated lie, MISINFORMATION/DISINFORMATION, because they have nothing else to run on except FAILURE, POVERTY, AND DEATH. I DO NOT SUPPORT A BAN ON BIRTH CONTROL, AND NEITHER WILL THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!"
Trump has attempted to campaign on both sides of the reproductive freedom fight. Sometimes he has highlighted his role reversing the landmark abortion rights ruling Roe v. Wade: He appointed three of the six right-wing U.S. Supreme Court justices behind the majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.
Since that 2022 decision, the GOP has ramped up attacks on abortion rights, enacting total bans in 14 states and signaling support for federal restrictions. At times, Trump has tried to distance himself from laws he recognizes as a political risk while also saying last month that he would let states monitor pregnancies and prosecute anyone who violates an abortion ban.
Many warn Republicans won't stop at abortion. Jill Filipovic reported Monday for Time that "the obvious question is, what's next? Is contraception access also on the line? Many activists, lawyers, historians, and politicians who favor abortion rights and contraception access say yes."
The progressive advocacy group Stand Up America said Tuesday that "in the past few days, Trump floated the idea of a three-term presidency, posted a video calling for a 'unified Reich' if reelected, and said he's looking at restricting access to birth control. Take his words seriously. Trump is a major threat to our freedoms and democracy."
Democrats are seizing opportunites to spotlight Republican attacks on reproductive freedom in campaign messages.
Noting Trump's comments to KDKA, Sarafina Chitika, a spokesperson for Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign, said Tuesday that "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," Chitika added. "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 healthcare decisions."
The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC), which works to elect party members at the state level, also responded to Trump's interview with Delano.
"In 2024, the battle for power in the states has never been more crucial. Donald Trump has repeatedly promised that state Republicans will have a blank check to pass extreme laws attacking every facet of reproductive care, from undermining contraception and birth control access to denying abortion care," said DLCC national press secretary Sam Paisley. "To fully stop Trump's MAGA agenda, we must invest in building Democratic power in the states."
"State elections this year will determine the future of reproductive rights, and it has never been more important to elect Democratic majorities to state legislatures who will champion our rights, not legislate them away. This is our best defense against MAGA extremists hellbent on dragging states into the past," Paisley argued. "The DLCC is rallying to build Democratic power across the country, especially as we reach this crisis point around the fight for fundamental freedoms. It is no exaggeration to say this is the most important year in state legislative history."
In addition to supporting candidates at all levels who will defend and expand reproductive freedom, abortion rights advocates are working to advance ballot measures that will safeguard access to care in states including Arizona, Florida, Montana, and Nevada.
"Trump's strategy is clear: Sow chaos and uncertainty on his unpopular positions and ride a wave of misinformation back to the White House. One day he hints at draconian policies, the next he might backtrack, but his core intent remains the same," said Indivisible chief campaigns officer Sarah Dohl. "He is a textbook narcissist who prioritizes his interests over the freedom of the American people.
"In contrast, Joe Biden has consistently promised to protect our reproductive rights," she added. "He is committed to signing federal abortion protections into law and vetoing any national abortion ban. From Arizona to Florida and beyond, Indivisible will make sure every voter knows exactly where Trump stands when they head to the ballot box in November—because our health, our choices, and our freedom are on the line."
This post has been updated with comment from Indivisible.
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