Birth control next on Republicans’ ban list

Birth control is in the crosshairs of strict laws set to come into force in a series of Republican-controlled states.

Mississippi’s Governor is refusing to rule out a ban on certain forms of contraception.

Birth control methods in use for decades are in the crosshairs of strict laws set to come into force in a series of Republican-controlled states if the US Supreme Court overturns the Roe v Wade ruling guaranteeing abortion rights.

Mississippi’s Governor is refusing to rule out a ban on certain forms of contraception and a legislative committee in Idaho is planning to hold hearings on making the morning-after pill ­illegal. Experts said that the “trigger law” ready to ban abortion in Missouri would also outlaw the use of IUDs, used as contraception by one in 12 American women.

The debate about contraception erupted across America after the leak of a first draft written on behalf of a majority of ­Supreme Court judges to scrap the landmark 1973 abortion ruling as “egregiously wrong”. It was confirmed as authentic but could change before a final version is published, probably in late June or early July.

At the heart of the emerging debate about contraception in a post-Roe America, where each state makes its own abortion law, is whether the beginning of life at the moment of fertilisation is enshrined in the new legislation. If so, then the morning-after pill and IUDs would be criminalised for preventing the fertilised egg from implanting in the womb. In Louisiana, that could lead to a murder charge for the woman and medical staff under a draft law drawn up by Republicans to make abortion a homicide offence and ­define life as a fertilised egg.

Tate Reeves, the Republican Governor of Mississippi, said he believed that “life begins at conception” but avoided saying whether this meant at the ­moment of an egg’s fertilisation or when an embryo attaches to the womb.

Steve Holland, a veteran Mississippi Democrat and former state representative, said that fears of a Republican assault on further reproductive rights were not simply electioneering by his party. Some Democrats are warning that Republicans will go on to test Supreme Court rulings guaranteeing access to contraception, agreed in 1965, and same-sex marriage, agreed in 2015.

“It’s an election year next year in Mississippi. I can’t imagine what hay they’ll make of it. But in their zest and zeal to make political pottage out of this issue, I wouldn’t be surprised if women in this state don’t go and vote against every one of them,” Mr Holland said.

Brent Crane, of the Idaho House of Representatives, said he would hold hearings on legislation banning emergency contraception and abortion pills. Mr Crane said there had been ­reports of “complications” caused by morning-after pills and of abortion pills causing “health concerns for the mom” despite years of research showing the safety of both, the Idaho Statesman reported.

Yvette Lindgren of the University of Missouri-Kansas City, said doctors would be wary of treating women in the early ­stages of miscarriage if treatment involved evacuating the uterus.

The Times