Pro-Choice Group’s Ad Claims GOP Senate Candidate Will Cause Condom Shortage
Today, NARAL Pro-Choice America began a media campaign against Colorado Senate candidate Cory Gardner (R), with the claim that he was against birth control. Specifically, that Gardner’s pill-banning ways would cause a condom shortage.
For instance, here’s the radio ad, with dialogue such as this:
WOMAN: So, everyone’s sold out of condoms! How did this happen?
GUY: Cory Gardner banned birth control. And now it’s all on us guys, and you can’t find a condom anywhere. Sweet pea, Cory denies science.
And then here’s the more blatant ad that’s going to run online:
The ads are slightly inaccurate, in that Gardner believes the Pill should be available over-the-counter. As proof, here is an excerpt from an op-ed he authored in the Denver Post, entitled “Women should be able to buy the pill without a prescription”:
The least loved institution in America today is the U.S. Senate, and one of the reasons it is reviled is a zero-sum approach to women’s medical care. It’s time we changed that and adopt modern policies that make sense instead of using women’s medical issues as an election-year power play. One of the most rational ways for Washington to break this gridlock is to approve oral contraception for over-the-counter purchases by adults.
That’s not to say that his positions on reproductive issues are ones NARAL would love: His suggestion is wildly different from the current status quo (free birth control coverage under Obamacare). And yes, his plan for OTC birth control may be more expensive than under Obamacare, on which Politifact dinged him. His abortion position centers largely around personhood.
But Cory Gardner is definitely not banning the pill outright — a fact that pokes holes in the nevermind.
(But really, guys, you should be buying condoms anyways, because that’s just smart for everyone involved.)
[h/t The Hill]
[Image via screenshot]
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