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After years spent setting the terms of the national debate and
wearing their opposition to reproductive rights as a badge of honor,
Republicans may finally be in a defensive crouch. Just this week, we saw
Rand Paul tell an audience in Iowa that “ almost nobody in here wants to ban birth control”
while — as Harwood noted — Republicans across the country are
struggling to make the same case. The Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby
decision may have been welcome news to the Green family, and it may have
even made Republicans feel pretty good about so-called religious
liberty, but politicizing birth control doesn’t bode well for the
party’s long-term prospects.
While Americans are about evenly divided on the case ( 49 percent disapprove of the decision while 47 approve),
their views on contraception are much more pro-contraception than
anything else. Overwhelming majorities — including among Catholics and
Republicans — think birth control is “ morally acceptable,”
which, sure, is a pretty low bar but is certainly something. But
perhaps the more relevant data point here is that a majority of
Americans, 54 percent, support the contraception mandate in the
Affordable Care Act.
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