Former President Donald J. Trump dodged a query about whether or not he backed restrictions on contraception in an interview on Tuesday, however steered he may help letting states enact them.
When requested if he supported “restrictions on an individual’s proper to contraception” in an interview with KDKA, a CBS affiliate in Pittsburgh, Mr. Trump gave a imprecise reply.
“We’re taking a look at that, and I’m going to have a coverage on that very shortly,” he mentioned. “And I feel it’s one thing that you just’ll discover attention-grabbing, and it’s one other subject that’s very attention-grabbing, however you’ll discover it, I feel, very good. I feel it’s a smart move.”
The interviewer, Jon Delano, pressed Mr. Trump on whether or not his reply steered he may help restrictions.
“You already know, issues actually do have rather a lot to do with the states, and a few states are going to have totally different coverage than others,” Mr. Trump responded.
However because the interview and the backlash to it rocketed round on Tuesday, Mr. Trump posted in all caps on social media that he would “by no means advocate imposing restrictions on contraception.” He referred to as the reviews primarily based on his interview “a Democrat fabricated lie.”
Many Republicans concern that such opposition to contraception might be poisonous for his or her celebration, which is already struggling to articulate a constant view on abortion rights. Kellyanne Conway and different distinguished Republicans have urged the celebration to advertise contraception as a method to enhance their picture amongst girls as abortion restrictions develop.
President Biden’s marketing campaign was fast to leap on Mr. Trump’s interview.
“It’s not sufficient for Trump that girls’s lives are being put in danger, medical doctors are being threatened with jail time, and excessive bans are being enacted with no exceptions for rape or incest,” a marketing campaign spokeswoman, Sarafina Chitika, mentioned in an announcement. “He desires to tear away our freedom to entry contraception too.”
Mr. Trump’s assertion on social media after the interview didn’t rule out letting states impose their very own restrictions. That leaves open the chance that Mr. Trump might decide on a stance relating to contraception just like what he lately settled on about abortion: that he wouldn’t help a federal ban, however that states ought to resolve for themselves. When requested particularly about Mr. Trump’s place on states limiting contraception, a spokesman for his marketing campaign referred again to the submit and didn’t remark additional.
Contraception is authorized throughout the nation and backed by broad, bipartisan majorities of Individuals. However considerations that Republicans may prohibit it — each conventional contraception and emergency contraception, referred to as the morning-after tablet — have risen for the reason that Supreme Courtroom overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. In a concurring opinion then, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the court docket also needs to “rethink” Griswold v. Connecticut, the 1965 ruling defending married {couples}’ proper to make use of contraception.
Democrats have launched payments in statehouses to guard a proper to contraception. On the federal stage, Home Democrats pushed by the same invoice in 2022, which solely eight Home Republicans supported; it by no means handed the Senate.
In a March ballot from KFF, a nonprofit group centered on well being coverage, slightly below half of adults mentioned they thought of the suitable to make use of contraception “a safe proper prone to stay in place.”
Lisa Lerer contributed reporting.
