Former President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he was open to supporting regulations on contraception and that his campaign would release a policy on the issue “very soon.”
The comments, made during an interview with a Pittsburgh television station, suggested that a future Trump administration could consider imposing mandates or supporting state restrictions on highly personal decisions, such as whether women have access to birth control. .
During an interview with KDKA News, Trump was asked, “Do you support any restrictions on a person’s right to contraception?”
“We’re looking at that and I’ll have a policy on that very soon,” Trump responded, according to a video of the interview that was briefly posted online before airing and then taken down.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee was pressured to ask a follow-up question if it meant he might want to support some restrictions on contraception.
“Things really have a lot to do with the states, and some states will have different policies than others,” Trump responded, before repeating that he would launch “a very comprehensive policy” on the issue.
A Trump campaign official told the Associated Press that the former president would make an announcement about medication abortion, not contraception. He previously said he would release a policy on the use of abortion pills in a Time magazine interview published three weeks ago. This is the first time Trump has indicated he would have a policy on contraception since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the nation’s right to abortion two years ago, triggering political battles over aspects of reproductive rights, including contraception and IVF. vitro.
The campaign manager said Trump would make an announcement about the abortion pill mifepristone “in the near future” and added that he “has never advocated restrictions on contraceptives.” Video of the interview shows that Trump was asked about contraception, not medication abortion. or mifepristone.
The Biden campaign seized on the interview, accusing Trump of supporting “a ban on contraception, including the morning-after pill.”
“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 contraception.” , said Sarafina Chitika, a spokeswoman for Biden-Harris. in a statement.
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Associated Press writers Jill Colvin and Michelle L. Price in New York contributed to this report.
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