Conservative strategists want to make the Republican Party a champion for contraception, Politico reports:
Kellyanne Conway is going to Capitol Hill on Wednesday with a message for Republicans: promote contraception or risk defeat in 2024.
The former senior counselor and campaign manager for President Donald Trump is part of a group set to brief Republicans on how they might get ahead of Democrats’ attacks that the GOP is anti-woman by talking more about protecting contraception and less about banning abortion.
The visit comes as GOP presidential and congressional candidates have struggled to craft a salient message on the fallout from the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
The plan is to get Republicans to advance what they’re for and not against. Ostensibly, supporting access to contraceptive drugs will make Republicans for women:
“Republicans are like your uncle, who really loves you and loves the women in his family, but he’s bad about showing it,” Higgins said in an interview. “It’s just not in their natural vocabulary. And we’re trying to help them learn how to make this be more part of their vocabulary and tell them that they need to talk about these things that their constituents all support, and be more visible and vocal.”
With mounting evidence that birth control can cause depression, heart attacks, anxiety, blood clots, stunted fertility, and embryonic deaths, conservatives can’t champion both harmful contraception and women. Greater access to birth control can also increase the abortion rate, our Alexandra DeSanctis told the Daily Signal, “because it leads to more unplanned pregnancies.”
Post-Roe strategies depend on the pro-life movement’s original message: that pro-life is pro-women. The most common forms of contraception are female sterilization and hormonal pills, both of which have awful health ramifications. Doctors and pharmaceutical companies say hormonal birth control can remedy health problems that are often unrelated to sexual activity; cramps, irregular cycles, and acne. In some cases, it can. In all cases, hormonal birth control creates an artificial menstrual cycle that completely disrupts natural hormone production and rarely addresses the root cause of health concerns.
Republican strategists nevertheless present contraception as a healthier and more popular way to prevent life so abortive measures needn’t. But does that approach promote the sanctity of life — at all?
As the party that stood against abortion because it was so obviously the right thing to do for both women and children, the pro-life movement should address legitimate ethical and medical skepticism over birth control. Contraceptive access is not obviously a winning issue, not for women, and certainly not for a post-Roe generation that claims to act on principle. The hype around hormonal birth control might also correct itself, which the GOP should be aware of this before it blindly embraces widespread use of contraceptives. Women who were prescribed birth control when they were younger are now ditching the pill.
Give women ample warning about the side-effects of birth control, and don’t pretend that hormonal birth control is necessarily good. Protect and present only the safest of contraceptives, and make natural family planning resources accessible. Any of these alternatives are better than the full-throttle embrace of contraceptives Conway submitted on Wednesday. Sure, her approach might get Republicans a few votes. At what cost?
Will GOP Strategists Pivot away from Women, Post-Roe?
3
0
14.12.2023
Conservative strategists want to make the Republican Party a champion for contraception, Politico reports:
Kellyanne Conway is going to Capitol Hill on Wednesday with a message for Republicans: promote contraception or risk defeat in 2024.
The former senior counselor and campaign manager for President Donald Trump is part of a group set to brief Republicans on how they might get ahead of Democrats’ attacks that the GOP is anti-woman by talking more about protecting contraception and less about banning abortion.
The visit comes as GOP presidential and congressional candidates have struggled to craft a salient message on the fallout from the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
The plan is to get Republicans to advance what they’re for and not against. Ostensibly, supporting access to contraceptive drugs will make Republicans for........
© National Review
visit website
login
who are we?
contact us
qosheapp
Toi Staff
Gideon Levy
Belen Fernandez
Rami G Khouri
Mort Laitner
Donald Low
Ali Fathollah-Nejad
Nikkei Editorial
