Opinion: Call it “Making America Chaste Again.” And that’s a losing message for the GOP in 2024

Editor’s note: Karen Finney is a CNN political commentator. She served as chief spokesperson and senior advisor to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016. The views expressed in this commentary are her own. Read more reviews at CNN.

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Like millions of Americans, I used birth control. Using birth control was as much about preventing pregnancy and making decisions about what is right for my health and well-being as it was about exercising my fundamental right to control my body and my future.

And like millions of female athletes, as a college rower at UCLA, I also used birth control to regulate my periods during our competitive season, when I needed to perform at my best. .

It’s a right that my mother fought for and that I honestly took for granted for most of my life. But this fundamental right that I and millions of Americans have had for nearly 60 years is under serious threat, threatened by the same extreme agenda espoused by former President Donald Trump, the MAGA Republicans and their right-wing allies who led the United States Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade two years ago.

In addition to the torrent of extreme new measures imposing total bans on abortion in some states and onerous new restrictions in others following the ruling, many of the former president’s right-wing allies have stepped up their efforts decades old to attack access. to contraception.

Probably recognizing that “Make America Chaste Again” is not a winning message for 2024 in a country where nine out of ten adults view contraception favorably, it is not surprising that – as with his stance on abortion – Trump continues to try to have it both ways. reproductive freedom, obscuring his record on birth control as well as the threat posed by the Republican Party.

In a recent television interview, Trump said he was considering restricting access to birth control and leaving the decision up to states. Shortly after, the gaslighting began.

Taking to social media, Trump falsely claimed that neither he nor the Republican Party supported imposing restrictions on or banning birth control. Both claims are blatantly false.

Both as a candidate in 2016 and again in 2024, Trump supported dismantling the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which would impact millions of women who have access to birth control without having to pay out of pocket thanks to the ACA. Although he failed to overturn the ACA, Trump weakened the ACA’s contraception mandate by issuing rules allowing employers to refuse to cover contraception in their health care plans.

The Trump administration also cut hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for teen pregnancy prevention programs. It cut Title X funds used for reproductive health services and to increase access to birth control for low-income Americans, as well as for international clinics that provide contraception and STD testing services. And as he likes to boast, he appointed the conservative justices to the United States Supreme Court who were instrumental in overturning Roe v. Wade – another blow to Americans’ reproductive freedoms.

While President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have successfully reversed most of Trump’s actions and expanded access to contraception, a second Trump term — particularly if Republicans control Congress — could result in additional restrictions, some even based on the “Pro Chastity” law of 1873.” Comstock Act era.

The Comstock Act made it a federal crime to mail anything “obscene, lewd, lascivious, indecent, filthy, or vile,” anything designed for “immoral use”—a concept extended to contraception by the GOP. The policy proposals targeting birth control are part of Project 2025 led by the Heritage Foundation, seen by many in the Republican Party as a model for Trump’s second term.

While Trump’s campaign team has tried to downplay any connection to the project, former Trump administration officials are integral to the effort, including former senior adviser Stephen Miller and former department official of health and social services of Trump, Roger Severino, two architects of the 2025 project. The plans call for once again attacking birth control through executive action, including threatening access to IUDs and emergency contraception.

Severino, who is credited with writing the health care section of the document, also downplayed efforts to restrict access to contraception in the wake of Trump’s comments, saying: “The idea according to that there is a formal organized movement to ban contraception across America is downright stupid. »

Yet many right-wing groups, both allies of former President Trump and involved in Project 2025, are actively working to restrict and, in some cases, ban access to certain forms of birth control.

The anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America is one such organization. During the 2020 election, the group launched a $52 million effort to support the re-election of President Donald Trump. He has also spent millions supporting Republican candidates. These allied anti-abortion groups have made clear that they expect the president to restore the anti-choice policies that were reversed by Biden when he took office and expand on them in a second mandate.

Contrary to the claims of Trump, Servino and others, over the past two years, in more than 20 states, anti-birth control efforts have helped spread dangerous misinformation and block measures that would codify the right to contraception and access to contraceptives, including IUDs. , emergency contraception, hormonal contraception, the morning after pill and other forms of contraception.

In Arizona, Republican Senate Majority Leader Sonny Borrelli absurdly suggested that women could simply hold “an aspirin between their knees” for contraception. Indiana has seen misinformation campaigns that falsely label IUDs as “abortifacients” or capable of causing abortion. In Iowa, legislation falsely conflated birth control with abortion to block approval of over-the-counter birth control pills.

In Wisconsin, a lawmaker argued that contraception leads to “infidelity,” an “overgrowth of STDs” and is “unnatural.” And just days before Trump’s comments, Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed a statewide version of the Right to Contraception Act, which would have protected Virginians’ right and access to contraception. contraception, including condoms, birth control, IUDs, and emergency contraception.

Democrats as well as reproductive rights groups have successfully fought many of these state efforts, proactively introducing versions of the Contraceptive Rights Act in 12 states across the country, including Alabama , Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada and North Carolina. , Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin.

While Republicans in Congress are trying to soften their “anti-woman” image, earlier this month, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer bluffed by passing the right to contraception.

The measure would have codified the right to access the full range of contraceptives without government interference. Having gained the support of only two Republicans, the bill failed but forced Republicans who had voted against it to demonstrate their position on full access to contraception. Yet Republicans know the stakes are high. Even former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway has warned congressional Republicans about contraception’s potential as a galvanizing issue for the 2024 electorate.

Democrats must continue to effectively connect reproductive rights – including abortion, contraception and, following a state court ruling in Alabama, IVF – to their broader message protecting the rights and fundamental freedoms so fundamental to our democracy.

Given the broad support for birth control across the political spectrum, this issue, along with efforts to codify the right to abortion and protect IVF, should help boost turnout in favor of reproductive freedom and Democrats in the 2024 presidential and general elections.

Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, voters overwhelmingly used their votes at the polls to send a clear message that reproductive freedom is an American value. The real agenda of Trump and the Republican Party is clear: They cannot be trusted to stand with the majority of Americans who support access to contraception.

Between now and November, we must continue to force politicians to articulate their comprehensive positions on reproductive rights, including access to abortion, IVF, and contraception. The outcome of the fall election will literally determine the future of reproductive rights and bodily autonomy for future generations. Will we be the ones to lose these fundamental freedoms that we have had for decades?

We cannot allow our country to go backwards.