Biden WH Slams Trump-Backed Candidate Caught on Tape Saying Plan B Contraception Should Be Banned Like ‘Fentanyl’
President Joe Biden‘s White House slammed Trump-backed Republican candidate Matt DePerno over remarks in which he said Plan B emergency contraception should be banned and treated “no different than fentanyl.”
Heartland Signal obtained what it says is a recording of DePerno, who is running for Michigan state attorney general, discussing Michigan’s abortion laws and the prospect of banning emergency contraception with what sounds like an operative surreptitiously recording him.
While answering leading questions, DePerno repeatedly says that “the morning after pill” should “be banned,” at one point says he envisions it being treated “no different than fentanyl.”
CAUGHT ON TAPE: GOP Michigan attorney general nominee Matt DePerno says Plan B should be banned.
“You have to stop it at the border. It would be no different than fentanyl.” pic.twitter.com/JbqFD4d5I9
— Heartland Signal (@HeartlandSignal) September 20, 2022
Just over a year ago, Trump released a statement saying that “Super Lawyer Matthew DePerno” had earned “my Complete and Total Endorsement. He will never let you down!”
The White House denounced DePerno’s remarks in a statement from White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre:
“Another week and another extreme and backwards proposal from Republican officials that will strip women of their rights,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement provided first to the Free Press. “Make no mistake: these proposals from Republican officials expand far beyond a women’s right to choose; there are Republican officials that want to ban contraception.”
And on Wednesday morning’s edition of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, co-host Jonathan Lemire referenced DePerno while asking Jean-Pierre about what more the White House can do to “protect and offer reproductive services for women across the country.”
Jan-Pierre echoed her earlier statement in response, saying “it is an extreme extreme place where these leaders in the Republican Party are. They are taking us backwards. They’re taking away the rights that women should have, and it’s not going to stop there. The president was very clear. It’s going to go to marriage. It’s going to go to contraception, it’s going to go to privacy. And so this is something that we as Americans should understand. We should make sure that our voices are being heard loud and clear. And the president’s going to continue to call that out.”
Contraception has become a live issue ever since Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas threw the right into doubt with his concurring opinion on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, in which he said the court should “reconsider” rights in other cases, and cited Griswold v. Connecticut (1965, right of married persons to obtain contraceptives), among others.
Watch above via MSNBC.
