Editor's note: Karen Finney is a political commentator for CNN. She served as a senior spokesperson and senior advisor to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016. The opinions expressed in this commentary are her own. Read more opinion pieces on CNN.
CNN —
Like millions of Americans, I've used birth control — to prevent pregnancy and to decide what's right for my health and happiness — as much as to exercise my fundamental right to control my body and my future.
And like millions of female athletes, as a collegiate rower at UCLA, I used birth control to regulate my period during competitive seasons when I needed to perform at my best.
This is a right that my mother fought for and won, and one that I've taken for granted for most of my life. But this fundamental right that I and millions of Americans have held for nearly 60 years is now in grave danger, threatened by the same extreme policies enacted by former President Donald Trump, MAGA Republicans, and their right-wing allies that led the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade two years ago.
The ruling has prompted a flurry of extreme new measures, including outright abortion bans in some states and burdensome new restrictions in others, and has prompted many of the former president's right-wing allies to double down on their decades-old efforts to attack access to contraception.
In a country where nine in 10 adults view contraception favorably, and perhaps aware that “Make America Chaste Again” is not a message to win in 2024, it's not surprising that Trump has attempted to play double-cross on reproductive freedom as well as his position on abortion, obfuscating his own record on contraception and the threat posed by the Republican Party.
The gaslighting began shortly after President Trump said in a recent television interview that he was considering restricting access to contraception and leaving that decision up to the states.
President Trump has falsely claimed on social media that he and the Republican Party do not support restricting or banning contraception — both statements are demonstrably false.
As a presidential candidate in 2016 and as a potential candidate for 2024, Trump has supported repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Repealing the ACA would affect millions of women who have access to contraception at no out-of-pocket cost through the ACA. While Trump failed to repeal the ACA, he did issue rules that would allow employers to refuse to cover contraception in their health insurance plans, weakening the ACA's contraception mandate.
The Trump administration has also cut hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for teen pregnancy prevention programs, as well as Title X funding, which is used to improve reproductive health services and access to birth control for low-income Americans, and international clinics that provide birth control and STI testing. And the Trump administration appointed conservative justices who were instrumental in overturning Roe v. Wade to the U.S. Supreme Court, another blow to Americans' reproductive freedom.
While President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have succeeded in reversing much of Trump's actions and expanding access to contraception, a second Trump term could see further restrictions introduced, including ones based on the 1873 “pro-chastity” era Comstock Law, especially if Republicans take control of Congress.
The Comstock Act made it a federal crime to mail anything that was “lewd, lascivious, lewd, filthy or lascivious” or intended for “immoral use.” Republicans have expanded this concept to include birth control. Policy proposals targeting birth control are part of Project 2025, an initiative led by the Heritage Foundation and seen by many in the GOP as a blueprint for a second term for the Trump administration.
While the Trump campaign has sought to downplay its ties to the project, former Trump administration officials, including former senior adviser Stephen Miller and former Trump Health and Human Services official Roger Severino, who are the architects of Project 2025, are integral to the effort. The plan calls for again attacking birth control through executive action, including threatening access to IUDs and emergency contraception.
Severino, who reportedly helped draft the medical portion of the document, downplayed efforts to restrict access to contraception in response to Trump's comments, saying “the idea that there is a formal, organized movement to ban contraception across the United States is completely absurd.”
But many right-wing groups, including allies of former President Trump and those involved in Project 2025, are actively working to limit, and in some cases ban, access to some types of birth control.
One such group is the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. In the 2020 election, the group launched a $52 million effort to support the reelection of then-President Donald Trump. It also spent millions supporting Republican candidates. These allied anti-abortion groups have made it clear that they expect Biden to reinstate and expand the anti-abortion policies he reversed when he took office in a second term.
Contrary to Trump's claims, Servino and others have worked to block legislation in more than 20 states over the past two years that has seen anti-contraception activists spread dangerous misinformation and blocked measures that would have guaranteed birth control rights and access to contraception, including IUDs, emergency contraception, hormonal contraception, the morning-after pill, and other methods.
In Arizona, Republican Senate Majority Leader Sonny Borrelli absurdly suggested that women could prevent birth by simply “putting an aspirin between their knees.” In Indiana, a misinformation campaign was waged that falsely labeled IUDs as “abortion pills,” meaning they could induce abortions. In Iowa, a bill was passed that falsely conflated contraception with abortion in order to block approval of over-the-counter contraceptives.
In Wisconsin, a lawmaker argued that birth control leads to “infidelity” and the “spread of sexually transmitted diseases” and is “unnatural.” And just days before Trump's comments, Virginia's Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, vetoed a state version of a contraceptive rights bill that would have protected Virginians' rights to and access to contraception, including condoms, birth control pills, IUDs and emergency contraception.
Democrats, along with reproductive rights groups, have fought many of these state efforts and have actively introduced various versions of birth control rights laws in 12 states across the country, including Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin.
Republicans have tried to soften the “misogynist” image, but earlier this month Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called out their bluff by putting a contraception rights bill up for a floor vote.
The bill would have enshrined the right to access all contraception without government interference. The bill failed with support from only two Republicans, but it forced Republicans who voted against it to show where they stand on comprehensive access to contraception. But Republicans know the stakes are high. Even former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway has warned that contraception will have a major impact on Republicans in the 2024 election.
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Democrats must continue to effectively marry reproductive rights, including abortion, contraception, and, in the wake of the Alabama state court ruling, in vitro fertilization, with a broader message of protecting the fundamental rights and freedoms that are so foundational to our democracy.
Given the broad support for contraception across the political spectrum, this issue, and efforts to legislate abortion rights and protect IVF, are expected to help boost voter turnout in support of reproductive freedom and Democrats in the 2024 presidential and subelections.
Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, voters have overwhelmingly made their voices heard at the ballot box, sending a clear message that reproductive freedom is an American value. The real agenda of Trump and the Republican Party is clear: they cannot be expected to stand with the majority of Americans who support access to contraception.
Between now and November, we must continue to demand that our politicians clarify a comprehensive position on reproductive rights, including access to abortion, IVF, and contraception. The outcome of this fall's election will literally determine the future of reproductive rights and bodily autonomy for generations to come. Will we be the ones to lose these fundamental freedoms that we have held for decades?
We cannot allow our country to go backwards.
