BIRTH CONTROL, ABORTION
Could the GOP Rebrand to Champion Birth Control?
Idea is a weak effort to counter backlash to anti-abortion bans
Kellyanne Conway, the political strategist who managed Donald Trump’s winning presidential campaign, suggests that the GOP would gain voters by encouraging access to birth control.
Not likely.
The party’s current push against birth control and for extreme abortion bans make it a hard to accept that it would support any reproductive rights. Several conservative women groups have already called the idea a political sellout of the belief that life begins at conception. They also argue that birth control leads to more casual sex, unplanned pregnancies and abortions.
A recent survey by Conway’s consulting firm found that three of four independents and 66 percent of pro-lifers support contraceptives. Making the products cheaper and more accessible could appeal to young voters “in the prime of their years and choosing to conceive or not conceive,” Conway told Politico.
Forty-seven percent of Republicans and 49 percent of conservative women surveyed said they would vote for a candidate in another party to ensure access to birth control.
