“We’re looking at it,” President Trump said in an interview with a Pittsburgh television station. “We will be announcing a policy on that in the near future.”
One of Trump’s default responses to reporters is that he will announce a plan soon, often using the answer “two weeks” — the same as his oft-unfulfilled promise to announce a replacement for Barack Obama’s health care law within “two weeks.”
As you might imagine, Trump’s answer on birth control immediately caused an uproar. And Mr. Trump responded as only Mr. Trump could.
Just hours after opening the doors, President Trump wrote on his website Truth Social: “I have never advocated and never will advocate for limits on birth control.” I wrote.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Democrats have warned that Republicans would seek to restrict access to things like contraception and in vitro fertilization at both the state and federal level.
“They weren’t going to stop at the abortion ban,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said Tuesday.
To make their mark on Republicans, Senate Democrats may try to force a vote on a bill that would give Americans the right to birth control in June.
In 2022, House Democrats held a similar vote, but only eight Republicans voted in favor of the bill, and it was approved by a vote of 228-195.
When the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade in June 2022, Justice Clarence Thomas upheld the landmark Griswold case, the 1965 ruling that states cannot restrict married couples’ access to contraception. He also stated that he would like to reconsider.
By the time the first presidential debate takes place in Atlanta on June 27, the Supreme Court could have finished considering two abortion cases this term: one about the abortion drug mifepristone and another about Idaho’s strict abortion restrictions.
Perhaps by then, Trump will have a more concrete answer on birth control.
Jamie Dupree has covered national politics and Congress from Washington since the Reagan administration. His column appears weekly in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Check out his Capitol Hill newsletter for more information. http://jamiedupree.substack.com.
