After Coming for Contraception, How Much Further Will GOP Anti-Abortion Extremists Go? 

Yesterday, the overwhelming majority of MAGA Senate Republicans present blocked Democrats’ Right to Contraception Act, the latest in their ongoing crusade against women’s reproductive care. From Senate Republicans to House Republicans and their leader Donald Trump, voters deserve to know just how far the extreme MAGA GOP will go to rip away access to reproductive health care — even when the majority of Americans disagree with them.

Every Republican who voted to block the Right to Contraception Act owes their constituents answers to these questions: 

1. Do you stand by the state-level attacks on contraception that your vote to block the Right to Contraception Act leaves the door open for?

The Oklahoman: “An Oklahoma bill seeks to place further restrictions on abortion in the state, prompting questions from lawmakers about whether the bill would ban emergency contraceptives, like ‘the morning-after pill’ and IUDs.

“Authored by Rep. Kevin West, R-Moore, the bill would allow lawsuits for those who help women obtain abortions and would allow the state to identify women who obtain them. It also targets contraceptives that induce an abortion or prevent the implantation of a fertilized egg.”

Associated Press: “Louisiana lawmakers advance bill to reclassify abortion drugs, worrying doctors” 

Associated Press: “Earlier this month, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, vetoed bills from the Democratic-controlled Legislature that would have protected the right to contraception.”

Associated Press: “In Wisconsin, Democrats introduced a bill that was intended to protect contraception access last year, but it never got so much as a hearing in either the GOP-controlled state Assembly or state Senate before the two-year session ended in March. Senate Democrats tried to pull the bill from committee in February and force a floor vote, but all the chamber’s 22 Republicans voted against the move.”

2. You’re now on the record voting against protecting access to birth control. What do you have to say to the 80% of voters across party lines who support the right to contraception?

TIME: “So far, congressional Republicans have indeed declined to protect contraception access. Despite polling showing that 80% of Americans say protecting this access is ‘deeply important’ to them, nearly every Republican in the House voted against a 2022 bill to protect it. And 126 House Republicans are cosponsors of the Life Begins at Conception Act, which would imbue a fertilized egg with full “personhood” rights even before implantation, which means before a pregnancy has actually begun. Critics say such a law could outlaw in vitro fertilization – and, if some in the anti-abortion movement succeed in redefining some forms of contraception as abortion, several forms of contraception, too.”

And voters deserve a straight answer to these questions as MAGA Republicans continue to push an extreme and deeply unpopular anti-abortion agenda: 

1. Do you stand by Trump supporting states’ ability to prosecute women for receiving reproductive health care? 

Trump: “There has to be some form of punishment [for women who have an abortion].”

Interviewer: “Are you comfortable if states decide to punish women who access abortions after the procedure is banned?” 

[…]

Trump: “Again, that’s going to be—I don’t have to be comfortable or uncomfortable. The states are going to make that decision. The states are going to have to be comfortable or uncomfortable, not me.”

[…]

Interviewer: “Prosecuting women for getting abortions after the ban. But are you comfortable with it?” 

Trump: “The states are going to say. It’s irrelevant whether I’m comfortable or not. It’s totally irrelevant, because the states are going to make those decisions.” 

2. Are you, like Trump, supportive of letting states monitor pregnant women to make sure they don’t get abortions? 

HuffPost: “Trump Is Fine With States Monitoring Pregnant Women So They Don’t Get Abortions”

“Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said states with abortion bans should be free to monitor pregnant women to make sure they don’t terminate their pregnancies, suggesting that would be in line with his newfound position of leaving abortion rights up to the states.”

3. Would you continue to rip away access to safe and effective forms of medication abortion (which also help with miscarriage management, as well as stopping hemorrhaging, inducing labor, and even treating stomach ulcers)? 

The 19th News: “Republican-led states are trying to crack down on abortion medication”

4. Are you okay with women having to be airlifted to nearby states to receive reproductive health care?

NBC News: “Since Jan. 5, when the Supreme Court lifted an injunction that had shielded doctors providing emergency care, six pregnant patients at St. Luke’s have had to be airlifted out of Idaho, according to Dr. Jim Souza, the chief physician executive for St. Luke’s. Last year, the system saw only one such transfer, he said.”