Far-right MAGA candidate claims birth control is 'being forced on very young ladies'

12 September 2024

For years, Salon's Amanda Marcotte and other feminists have been warning that the Religious Right's attack on reproductive freedom goes way beyond their opposition to abortion — they are also opposed to birth control.

Now, North Carolina's far-right 2024 GOP gubernatorial nominee, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, is agreeing that birth control encourages women to be "promiscuous."

HuffPost's Jennifer Bendery reports that Robinson's anti-contraception comments were made during a conversation with an undercover Democratic operative during an August 26 "meet-and-greet" in Rockingham County, North Carolina. The operative recorded the conversation, and HuffPost has obtained a copy of the recording.

Robinson told the operative, "The only thing I don’t like about birth control is when it's being forced on very young ladies." And when the operative told him that women may be "a little bit more inclined to be promiscuous" if they use contraception, Robinson agreed and responded, "I think so. You know, those are personal opinions. But you know, working those into legislation is tricky."

Bendery debunks the anti-contraception claims coming from the Religious Right.

"Birth control does not make young women more likely to have lots of sex," the HuffPost reporter explains. "If anything, research has found that the combined hormonal birth control pill — i.e., a pill containing both estrogen and progestin — is linked to a decreased sex drive. But that is beside the point."

Bendery continues, "Women of all ages use birth control for a variety of reasons not even related to sex or preventing pregnancies, including for reducing menstrual cramps, treating heavy periods and addressing health conditions like acne, bone thinning, cysts in their ovaries or breasts, ovarian cancer and iron deficiencies."

Robinson's gubernatorial campaign has been inundated with controversy, and he has a history of inflammatory remarks — from engaging in Holocaust denial to saying that women shouldn't have been given the right to vote.

Bendery notes that Robinson once said of feminist Margaret Sanger — who played a key role in the formation of Planned Parenthood — "I'm convinced that Margaret Sanger and all of her contemporaries that followed her, they were witches, all of 'em."

A WRAL News poll released on September 10 showed Robinson, who Donald Trump has endorsed, trailing his Democratic opponent, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, by 14 percent. And a Quinnipiac University poll released a few days earlier showed Stein ahead of Robinson by 10 percent.

Read Jennifer Bendery's full HuffPost article at this link.

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