Trump Opens Door to Birth Control Restrictions, Then Tries to Close It

Former President Donald J. Trump dodged a question about whether he backed restrictions on birth control in an interview on Tuesday, but suggested he might support letting states enact them.

When asked if he supported “restrictions on a person’s right to contraception” in an interview with KDKA, a CBS affiliate in Pittsburgh, Mr. Trump gave a vague answer.

“We’re looking at that, and I’m going to have a policy on that very shortly,” he said. “And I think it’s something that you’ll find interesting, and it’s another issue that’s very interesting, but you will find it, I think, very smart. I think it’s a smart decision.”

The interviewer, Jon Delano, pressed Mr. Trump on whether his answer suggested he might support restrictions.

“You know, things really do have a lot to do with the states, and some states are going to have different policy than others,” Mr. Trump responded.

But as the interview and the backlash to it rocketed around on Tuesday, Mr. Trump posted in all caps on social media that he would “never advocate imposing restrictions on birth control.” He called the reports based on his interview “a Democrat fabricated lie.”

Many Republicans fear that such opposition to contraception could be toxic for their party, which is already struggling to articulate a consistent view on abortion rights. Kellyanne Conway and other prominent Republicans have urged the party to promote contraception as a way to improve their image among women as abortion restrictions expand.

President Biden’s campaign was quick to jump on Mr. Trump’s interview.

“It’s not enough for Trump that women’s lives are being put at risk, doctors are being threatened with jail time, and extreme bans are being enacted with no exceptions for rape or incest,” a campaign spokeswoman, Sarafina Chitika, said in a statement. “He wants to rip away our freedom to access birth control too.”

Mr. Trump’s statement on social media after the interview did not rule out letting states impose their own restrictions. That leaves open the possibility that Mr. Trump could settle on a stance regarding birth control similar to what he recently settled on about abortion: that he would not support a federal ban, but that states should decide for themselves. When asked specifically about Mr. Trump’s position on states limiting birth control, a spokesman for his campaign referred back to the post and did not comment further.

Contraception is legal across the country and backed by broad, bipartisan majorities of Americans. But concerns that Republicans might restrict it — both traditional birth control and emergency contraception, known as the morning-after pill — have risen since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. In a concurring opinion then, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the court should also “reconsider” Griswold v. Connecticut, the 1965 ruling protecting married couples’ right to use contraception.

Democrats have introduced bills in statehouses to protect a right to contraception. At the federal level, House Democrats pushed through a similar bill in 2022, which only eight House Republicans supported; it never passed the Senate.

In a March poll from KFF, a nonprofit organization focused on health policy, just under half of adults said they considered the right to use contraception “a secure right likely to remain in place.”

Lisa Lerer contributed reporting.