Former President Donald Trump backed down from a previous statement that he was “looking at” restrictions on contraceptives, but he may be eyeing changes to insurance that could make birth control harder to get and more expensive.
The Project 2025 blueprint, a conservative plan to reshape the federal government to advance the Republican agenda, has set out several conservative ideas regarding birth control that have been floated as policies Trump could implement during a second term. A new Politico report outlined the movement’s goals when it comes to limiting access to contraception.
Project 2025 outlines a list of conservative wants, including changing which forms of birth control insurance companies must cover under Obamacare, such as emergency contraception.
“The notion that there’s a formal organized movement to ban contraception across America is downright silly,” said Roger Severino, a former Trump administration official who drafted the healthcare section of Project 2025. “I don’t know how that idea came about. But it strikes me as political posturing in the wake of the Dobbs decision to try to mislead people into thinking everything is up for grabs having to do with sex. It’s fearmongering.”
The blueprint also proposes companies no longer cover male condoms, saying federal health officials “should not incorporate exclusively male contraceptive methods into guidelines that specify they encompass only women’s services.”
“Instead of a mandate of a particular potentially abortifacient drug, it should be opt-in instead of opt-out,” Severino said. “Mandates are a difficult thing to impose on the American people, especially when you have something as fraught as issues of potential loss of life.”
Earlier this month, when asked by KDKA in Pittsburgh if he supported restrictions on contraception, Trump answered that “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,” adding that the plan would be released “soon.”
He quickly walked back the statement.
“I HAVE NEVER, AND WILL NEVER ADVOCATE IMPOSING RESTRICTIONS ON BIRTH CONTROL, or other contraceptives,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
President Joe Biden’s campaign was quick to harp on the statement.
“Women across the country are already suffering from Donald Trump’s post-Roe nightmare, and if he wins a second term, it’s clear he wants to go even further by restricting access to birth control and emergency contraceptives,” Biden campaign spokeswoman Sarafina Chitika said in a statement.
During his presidency, Trump made it harder to get birth control for some by allowing employers to opt out of covering birth control. In 2019, his administration also overhauled a portion of the federal Title X program, which provides free and subsidized birth control, sexually transmitted disease screenings, breast cancer screenings, and similar services to millions of low-income people.
In 2016, before Trump took office, more than 4 million people relied on those services from Title X.
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The blueprint said Trump should urgently reinstate restrictions on Title X and require participating clinics to “provide information to customers about the importance of marriage” and “focus on better education around fertility awareness.”
The Trump campaign told the Washington Examiner that Project 2025 is not an official plan for a second Trump term.