Birth Control: The New Third Rail of U.S. Politics

July 28, 2014

By Joe Rothstein
Editor, EINNews.com

They used to call efforts to undercut Social Security “the third rail” of American politics.

But we may see a new contender for that title in the 2014 election campaigns: birth control.

The Republicans are edging ever closer to being considered the anti-birth control party. And that could prove a far deadlier embrace than the one the GOP suffered when President George W. Bush campaigned to privatize Social Security.

Here’s why you don’t want to be caught politically on the wrong side of birth control: polls routinely show virtually unanimous support for it. Even 80% of Catholics respond that birth control is morally correct.

Wrapping birth control around religion doesn’t change attitudes very much. In June, a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll found only 35% agreeing with contention that employers could exclude certain contraceptives from workers’ insurance coverage based on their religious beliefs.

And, of course, a few days after that poll was conducted, the Supreme Court ruled that employers could do just that---impose their religious beliefs on their workers in the narrow instance of birth control.

It should be noted that employers still can’t impose their religious beliefs on workers in any other way—just reproductive rights. And that’s where the issue gets dangerous for the Republicans.

The question of women’s (and girls') rights to legal abortions has divided Americans since Roe v Wade. And that continuing divide has opened another: the gender gap. Legal abortion rights may not be the only reason that women most often vote Democratic, but it is central to it. Republicans already are suspect on the question of women’s reproductive rights.

Now, toss in a threat to birth control and you have a very volatile brew. It doesn’t help that the Supreme Court’s birth control ruling came on a 5-4 decision--five men appointed by Republican presidents against 3 women justices and Justice Stephen Breyer.

This decision and its inevitable aftermath in other upcoming high visibility decisions from other courts is not trivial or academic for many women. A Hart Research survey by Planned Parenthood found that one in three women have struggled to pay the cost of prescription birth control at some point in their lives. This is particularly true for young adult women, half of whom admitted in the survey that they feared unintended pregnancy when they could not afford consistent use of birth control.

Since it was a provision of the Affordable Care Act that the high court struck down, the Republican base naturally cheered---as they would cheer anything that sniffs of anti-Obama. But the Republican pros immediately recognized the political danger of having abortion, an issue they can handle, morph into birth control, an issue they most definitely can’t.

Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell immediately rounded up two women Republican senators and offered legislation trying to put his party on record as being in favor of both access to contraception and religious freedom. Then, he and his fellow GOP senators blocked a measure that would have overturned the Supreme Court’s anti-birth control decision. It’s not easy, straddling this divide.

A few days after the Hobby Lobby ruling that exempts corporations from providing certain birth control coverage to employees, the court stretched its opinion to potentially cover non-profit organizations as well. That sets up months of high visibility cases and rulings in lower courts and a revisit to the Supreme Court of the birth control ruling itself. An estimated 50 more cases are in the legal pipeline

The birth control issue is here to stay, and with it a mad scramble by Republicans to convince their base that they agree with the religious argument, while at the same time convincing the 90% of Americans who consider birth control an inalienable right that the party is not speaking for the 10% who don’t.

Sex has been a difficult topic for Republicans in recent years. Going all-in on making abortion illegal has cost the party the support of single women especially. Telling women to stay home, mind the kids and return to Leave It To Beaver America hasn’t helped, either.

But nothing, nothing, will kill off support for the GOP faster than being perceived as anti-birth control. And that’s exactly the direction where submission to radical policy is taking them.

(Joe Rothstein can be contacted at joe@einnews.com)