After Clarence Thomas Says Contraception Ruling Needs Revisiting, Advocates Express Alarm About Threat To Birth Control Access From GOP

In 2022, the fall of Roe v. Wade ignited concerns that access to contraception may be the next target. Legislative records of many Republican lawmakers reveal that these fears are not baseless.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas advocated for a reconsideration of long-standing precedents, such as the landmark 1965 Griswold v. Connecticut decision, which granted married couples the right to use contraceptives without government interference. Thomas’s opinion poses a direct threat to contraception rights.

President Joe Biden recently announced measures aimed at reducing barriers to contraceptive access. On Twitter, Biden accused “MAGA Republicans” of attempting to restrict women in America from safe and FDA-approved contraception, even in states where women’s healthcare choices remain protected.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) challenged the president’s statement and asserted that “MAGA Republicans” are not trying to obstruct women’s access to contraceptives and that Biden shouldn’t mislead women by suggesting that abortion pills or procedures are the only means of preventing unplanned pregnancies.

However, despite Greene’s comments, members of her party have repeatedly rejected measures to seek and expand or safeguard contraceptive access.

Greene, for instance, voted against the Right to Contraception Act in 2022, along with 194 of her Republican colleagues. Only eight Republicans supported the measure, and five are no longer in office. 

Disputes over Planned Parenthood and Title X, a federal program that provides family planning services and includes publicly funded contraceptives, have been ongoing since the 1970s. Additionally, Congress has introduced bills since 2007 that seek to defund organizations providing abortions, thereby jeopardizing contraceptive access.

In 2021, Republicans rejected the Equal Access to Contraception for Veterans Act, which aimed to provide women veterans with the same access to no-cost contraception as non-veteran women. Although the bill eventually passed, 181 Republicans voted against it.

In January, Speaker Mike Johnosn and 125 House Republicans voted for a bill that could be used to ban contraception nationally. 

Misinformation regarding emergency contraceptives has become pervasive. In December 2022, the FDA released a memo that clarified that Plan B does not terminate a pregnancy. Some Republicans, however, have spread misinformation about contraception to advance their restrictive reproductive health agendas.

In specific federal and state legislations, pregnancy definitions that begin at fertilization rather than implantation have emerged. While these definitions typically appear in abortion-related bills, they concern contraceptive access as well. By defining pregnancy as beginning at fertilization, certain forms of contraception, such as emergency contraceptives or intrauterine devices (IUDs) that can prevent implantation, could be classified as abortifacients and targeted for restriction.

The battle for contraceptive access is not solely confined to legislative efforts. Religious employers, citing moral objections, have sought exemptions from providing contraceptive coverage to their employees under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The Supreme Court ruled in favor of some employers in the 2014 Burwell v. Hobby Lobby case, allowing them to deny contraceptive coverage based on religious beliefs.

These exemptions have implications for employees’ access to affordable contraception, particularly for those working in religiously affiliated organizations or institutions. It raises concerns about whether employees, especially those who do not share the same religious beliefs, should bear the burden of limited contraceptive access due to their employers’ religious exemptions.

Efforts to expand access to contraception also face opposition at the state level. Some Republican-led states have implemented or proposed restrictive measures, such as requiring parental consent for minors seeking contraception or imposing additional hurdles for healthcare providers who prescribe contraceptives.