Trump doesn’t rule out contraception restrictions

Former President Donald Trump continues to equivocate on the question of abortion, birth control and other reproductive rights, as a recent local television station interview showed.

During a television interview with the Pittsburgh-based KDKA station on Tuesday, Trump was asked if he would support any contraceptive bans. The former president — who’s been resistant to taking a strong position on reproductive healthcare due to the unpopularity of restrictions — provided little clarity on the matter. 

“We’re looking at that, and I’m going to have a policy on that very shortly and I think it’s something that you’ll find interesting,” Trump told John Delano of the CBS affiliate station in a clip posted by President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign.

Trump says he supports allowing bans on contraception, including the morning after pill pic.twitter.com/X21XteFEFr

— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) May 21, 2024

Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Trump has been wary of calling for federal bans on abortion or contraceptives. Rather, he’s stressed the need for states to decide on such matters. However, when Arizona Republicans attempted to revitalize an ancient state law that would have been a complete abortion ban, he said such politics went “too far.”

(It is also important to note that Project 2025, a policy outline for a future Trump administration by the right-wing Heritage Foundation, has said “abortion pills pose the single greatest threat to unborn children in a post-Roe world” and wants to Trump to instruct the FDA to “reverse its approval” of said drugs.)  

Conversely, Trump has been eager to take credit for the Supreme Court’s ruling, which proved especially popular with his base. “We did something that everybody said couldn’t be done: We got rid of Roe v Wade…” he added during the Pittsburgh interview. 

Trump has also made it a point to instead demonize pro-abortion positions. On the campaign trail, he has said that Democrats support the non-existent “post-birth abortion.” 

“If the radical Democrat extremists get their way,” Trump said at a New Jersey rally last Saturday. “They will have a federal law — an abortion in the eighth and ninth month, and even executing the baby after birth.”