Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) attempted to clarify Republicans’ stance on contraceptives and in vitro fertilization Sunday, claiming GOP lawmakers are not against these treatments per se, but were instead opposed to other items Democrats put in recent legislation concerning these topics.
Specifically, Lankford said Senate Democrats legislation addressing contraception included language that would have undermined “what’s called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act for the first time in Congress’s history.”
“Democrats right now are saying that Republicans are against contraceptives, they’re against IVF, none of those things are true,” Lankford said on NewsNation. “And none of those things are actually being challenged.”
“They just said Republicans were against contraceptives, and they would just ignore all the other aspects of it that were built in the bill that obviously Republicans are saying that’s a bridge too far,” he added. “We’re not opposed to contraceptives. We’re not opposed to IVF. We are opposed to those areas you tucked down.”
This practice of combining unrelated bills only makes way for misinformation similar to what we see from the Left.
Access to contraception is a bipartisan matter. In fact, around 90% of people in a FiveThirtyEight poll said birth control pills should be legal in “all” or “most” cases, and 81% said the same about intrauterine devices. This is not a controversial problem. The Left should not make this its jab at Republicans. It is simply unfounded.
Lankford is right to correct this misinformation attempt by the Left, but his attempt wreaked of playing defense. The Democrats ran over Republicans in the midterm elections following the overturning of Roe v. Wade because they controlled the narrative on healthcare. Democrats were able to frame many Republicans as antihealthcare or antiwoman.
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It is time for more aggressive rhetoric from Republicans that takes the matter away from the Democrats. For instance, Lankford could have framed access to IVF as a Republican problem. If Republicans want to be the party of the family — they need to use the fact that IVF was responsible for 86,146 infants born in 2021. This matter alone could be responsible for bringing back many of the voters Republicans lost in the 2022 midterm elections.
Republicans need to workshop their messaging to women. Lankford is only an example of the problem that has led to a large majority of young women considering themselves left-leaning. There is a clear present divide between young men and women in the study, which lowers the concerns that many young people just lean left. Taking back women’s matters is a key way to win back their support.
