Donald Trump was forced to formally come out in support of birth control on Tuesday, only a few hours after suggesting that restrictions on contraceptives should be left up to the states.
Trump took to Truth Social to clean up some of the mess Tuesday morning’s statements wrought.
“I HAVE NEVER, AND WILL NEVER ADVOCATE IMPOSING RESTRICTIONS ON BIRTH CONTROL, or other contraceptives,” wrote Trump. The former president blamed Democratic “MISINFORMATION/DISINFORMATION” for the confusion—though his previous comments certainly did not help clear things up.
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Earlier that day, Trump had appeared in an exclusive interview with the local CBS station in Pittsburgh, KDA, during which he spoke with anchor Jon Delano about state restrictions on abortion and other reproductive rights.
“Do you support any restrictions on a person’s right to contraception?” Delano asked at one point.
“Well, we’re looking at that and I’m going to have a policy on that very shortly. And I think it’s something that you’ll find interesting. And I’d see—it’s another issue that’s very interesting,” Trump replied. “But you will, you will find it, I think, very smart. I think it’s a smart decision, but we’ll be releasing it very soon.”
When Delano incredulously asked if the president was referring to birth control like the “morning after pill,” Trump doubled down.
“We are also, you know, things really do have a lot to do with the states. And some states are going to have different policies than others,” he said, promising he’d release the policy within a week.
Trump has continued to reference states rights to avoid making a definitive statement on a slate of reproductive rights issues. He has repeatedly teased his policy on mifepristone, an abortion pill, but he has yet to deliver a concrete statement on the matter.
“I have some pretty strong views on [mifepristone]. And I’ll be releasing it over the next week,” he told Time over a month ago.
