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First They Came for Abortion, Now They’re (Secretly) Coming for Birth Control
Birth control is incredibly popular. Over 99% of sexually active women have used birth control at some point in their life and over 80% of people support guaranteeing the right to contraception. Despite this widespread support, some people—from extremist politicians to reality TV stars—are still attacking birth control. Some want to ban certain methods of birth control, while others want to mislead people into wrongly believing that birth control is harmful. Opponents try to hide these attacks because they know birth control is so popular, but we won’t let them go unnoticed. That is why we published an updated report cataloguing all these outrageous, hidden attacks on birth control. We must call out these attacks so we can continue to fight back: in state houses, in courts, and in Congress.
In the nearly three years since the Supreme Court lawlessly took away people’s constitutional right to abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, opponents of reproductive rights have continued a barrage of attacks. Twelve states now ban all abortions, and seven states ban most abortions. People fighting against reproductive rights have even launched attacks on IVF. Justice Thomas used his concurring opinion in Dobbs to put everyone on notice that birth control is not safe from these same attacks. When Justice Thomas called the right to birth control into question, he outlined for anti-birth control extremists the roadmap to dismantling Griswold, the landmark Supreme Court opinion that recognized the Constitutional right to birth control, in a footnote. And that’s exactly what opponents are doing—they’re using the anti-abortion playbook to attack birth control. They are trying to chip away at our rights in the margins where they think we aren’t looking.
Since Dobbs, some hospitals stopped dispensing emergency contraception for fear it would run afoul of abortion bans, policymakers have openly stated they were open to banning contraception, courts have limited minors’ access to birth control, and legislatures have restricted coverage for certain types of birth control like IUDs (intrauterine devices). Opponents keep going back to the tired (and false) refrain that birth control causes abortions or is harmful to health. These lies surface everywhere from state houses to TikTok. The facts are: birth control is not abortion and birth control pills are safer than aspirin.
The attacks are relentless. In the short time between writing and publishing this updated report, a state legislator in Tennessee has introduced a new bill that would restrict access to birth control across the state. The intent to restrict access to birth control is not obvious from the text of the bill, titled the “Medical Ethics Defense Act.” Advocates who are tracking legislation to make others aware of attacks on birth control might not know the attack on birth control contained within the bill. But the author of the bill has made its purpose very clear: he boasted in an interview that the law could be used to allow pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions for birth control. This is just one more example of legislators trying to hide their attacks on the ever-popular birth control.
Additionally, in the time between writing and publishing this report, the Trump Administration announced it is withholding $27.5 million in grants to Title X clinics. Title X is the only source of federal funding for family planning and provides services to millions of people every year. When Trump attacked Title X clinics during his first administration, millions of people lost access to family planning services like birth control care, and Title X clinics are often the only source of health care for the patients they serve.
Given birth control’s popularity, you would think legislators would want to enshrine the right to birth control to protect it from an activist Supreme Court and make it more accessible to those who want it. However, efforts to pass legislation to codify the right to birth control have repeatedly failed in Congress and in states across the country.
Voters have made one thing very clear since Dobbs: they support access to reproductive health care. Seven states have passed ballot initiatives that protect the right to abortion, and the Florida ballot initiative protecting abortion, supported by the majority of voters, would be law if it hadn’t required a supermajority to pass. When reproductive rights are on the line, people will show up and make their support clear. Birth control is incredibly popular, and politicians know that voters want their right to birth control protected, not attacked. That’s why extremist lawmakers are trying to restrict birth control in the shadows. We will continue to shine a spotlight on these attacks so legislators can’t get away with this and so people have access to the birth control they want.
