Republicans are talking a lot about birth control lately. What’s happening is a lot of Republicans say they support birth control.
Republican women are trying to pass these laws that they say we’ll protect it. But the laws do nothing.
You’ll notice that many Republican candidates will mention birth control and talk about how much they support it. But they are lying.
While they say they support birth control, they enact policies banning it.
Republicans are redefining certain forms of contraception as abortions to ban them. This allows them to say, we’re not banning birth control or abortions.
When they say they support it, they are not talking about the morning-after pill. They are not talking about hormonal birth control pills or IUDs. They think those things are abortions.
The Multimillion Dollar Gag Rule
They are going to make it impossible for the places that women go to get care in anti-choice states.
What they’re doing is they are running real doctors and clinics out of town. We know that OB-GYNs are leaving anti-choice states.
Maternity wards are shutting down. Abortion clinics were often the only places in communities where people could get birth control or prenatal care.
Those places are shutting down, and Republicans are replacing them with crisis pregnancy centers. Anti-abortion centers that lie to women about their health.
They’re saying it’s okay that those real health professionals are leaving. We’re gonna replace them. We care about women and babies, so we will replace them and fund them with tens of millions of dollars.
Massive Increases In Funding
In Tennessee, they went from giving $3 million a year to $20 million. In Texas, $5 million every two years to $100 million. These places are anti-abortion centers, and they are religiously affiliated.
They are creating maternal and reproductive health deserts. Then, professional healthcare providers will be replaced with religious organizations.
Religious organizations that are not only anti-abortion but anti-birth control.
They can’t prescribe it because they don’t have real doctors at these places. Their policies say you cannot discuss it.
You’re not allowed to refer people to a place where they can get birth control. The only way to talk about it is to talk about how bad it is.
They lie about it. Say it’s abortion. Say it harms women.
Filling The Healthcare Gap
These are the places that Republicans are saying are going to fill that healthcare gap. Republicans are picking these places because they’re anti-birth control.
In Louisiana, for example, the law says you have to affiliate with one of these three networks to get funding. Those three networks say we don’t prescribe birth control and we will not refer anyone to a place where they can get it.
In Texas, they’re even more explicit. The Texas law says in order to get funding, you cannot refer anyone to birth control or talk about it.
What Republicans are doing is spending tens of millions of dollars to force real doctors out. Then, put fake doctors in who aren’t allowed to talk about birth control.
They’re also restricting telehealth, so you can’t even get on a call with a doctor to get birth control somewhere else.
They are making it so that the only places people can go for care are places that will lie to them about it and never give it to them.
People think there will be a law that says birth control is illegal, but there won’t. Republicans are more sneaky than that.
The Chipping Away Process
How it’s going to happen is this slow chipping-away process.
You do not need a law that says birth control is illegal if you ensure that there are no places where women can get it or have anyone talk to them about it.
When you hear Republicans talking about how they support it and how they support women, and we’re putting money into pro-women clinics, people need to hold them to account.
Reporters need to ask them, what about the fact that these places refuse to refer anyone for birth control?
What about the fact that these places are anti-contraception?
You say you are for contraception, but you’re throwing millions and millions of dollars into places that deliberately lead women away from it.
Read the full piece in Jessica Valenti’s Substack newsletter.