The Heritage Foundation’s Emma Waters falsely claimed that hormonal birth control could harm the future fertility of those who use it because “birth control actually tells your body that it’s pregnant all the time.” “For women who have been on birth control for a long time, it can impact your fertility. There are cases of women who have been on birth control for a decade or more, and then they go off of it and are ready to start a family with their partner and then find that it’s a lot harder than they thought,” Waters said. “What happens is birth control actually tells your body that it’s pregnant all the time. And so rather than functioning in a normal state of the potential to become pregnant and then not, it just tells your body that it’s constantly pregnant. And so then after a decade or more of that, when you’re actually trying to get pregnant, it doesn’t work right for your body because it’s like, ‘Oh, well we’ve been in this state for a decade. You want us to do something different now?’” According to Cleveland Clinic, most hormonal birth control methods have not been found to harm future fertility. [The Heritage Foundation, Heritage Explains, 7/19/23; The Washington Post, 3/21/24; Cleveland Clinic, 1/16/23]

Alliance Defending Freedom counsel Rory Gray defended a Minnesota pharmacist who refused to dispense emergency contraception, asserting that the religious views of the pharmacist means he “cannot provide or facilitate the use of any potential abortion-causing drugs.” As CNN reported, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has clarified that emergency contraception “does not prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in the womb and does not cause an abortion.” Gray suggested that the “devout Christian” pharmacist was being denied his “constitutionally protected freedom to act consistent with his beliefs at work.” [CBS News, 3/19/24; CNN, 12/23/22]

In 2014, ADF announced that it would represent the anti-abortion group March for Life in a lawsuit over the ACA’s preventive services mandate. According to the Charlotte Lozier Institute, the mandate would force March for Life to act in contradiction to its anti-abortion mission by making it provide insurance coverage for “drugs and devices that can prevent or dislodge the implantation of a human embryo after fertilization” such as emergency contraception and IUDs. Kevin Theriot, senior counsel at the ADF, said that the group’s “legal fight for March for Life is a fight for the rights of pro-life organizations everywhere.” [Alliance Defending Freedom, 9/4/14; The Charlotte Lozier Institute, 7/18/14]

The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists has falsely claimed that “the IUD has been well documented to act after fertilization, causing embryo death” and that “IUDs clearly can cause the death of embryos both before and after implantation.” According to the Guttmacher Institute, IUDs do not cause “embryo death” after fertilization, but instead prevent implantation of a fertilized egg, which is not considered an abortion by medical standards. “A contraceptive method, by definition, prevents pregnancy by interfering with ovulation, fertilization or implantation. Abortion ends an established pregnancy, after implantation,” Guttmacher wrote. “This scientific definition of pregnancy—which reflects the fact that most fertilized eggs naturally fail to implant in the uterus—is also the legal definition, and has long been accepted by federal agencies … and by U.S. and international medical associations.” [American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, 1/15/20; Guttmacher Institute, 12/9/14]

In a 2013 NPR story, AAPLOG’s Donna Harrison falsely suggested that ella, a brand of emergency contraception, “kills embryos before they implant, and it kills embryos after they implant." Harrison, who currently leads the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine (the organization suing the FDA over mifepristone), also stated that ella’s chemical similarity to mifepristone, sometimes referred to as RU-486, means that “an equal dose of ella and RU-48 … cause equal actions.” According to ella, its pill only prevents ovulation from occurring; ella “can not cause an abortion and it will not have any effect in a case where an egg has already been fertilised.” [NPR, 2/21/13; ella, accessed 4/12/24]

A 2018 report from Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America) detailed some of the misinformation spread by AAPLOG, including the well-debunked false claim “that Plan B emergency contraception causes abortion.” The Guttmacher Institute explained in 2014 that studies produced after Plan B’s FDA approval “have led to the conclusion that [Plan B] does not cause changes to the endometrium (uterine lining) that would hamper implantation.” The FDA updated Plan B’s label to reflect this research in 2022. [Reproductive Freedom for All, accessed 4/5/24; Guttmacher Institute, 12/9/14; Reuters, 12/23/22]

A 2023 piece from the right-wing magazine The American Conservative argued that there is “an undeniable connection between free-and-easy birth control and the unraveling of American order.” Reacting to news of the FDA green-lighting the first contraceptive pill allowed to be sold over the counter, the author fearmongered, “The FDA’s move here will make children, trafficking victims, and anyone else with limited agency more available for sex than ever before.” It also cited the contraception-protecting the Supreme Court decision protecting contraception in Griswold v. Connecticut as an example of “which terrible SCOTUS precedent should be overturned next.” [The American Conservative, 7/15/23]

Another piece from the magazine warned readers, “Don’t believe it when people say Plan B isn’t abortifacient.” The piece said the medication’s prevention of a fertilized egg implanting in the uterus is akin to abortion “for people who believe life begins at conception.” [The American Conservative, 12/8/11]

In an opinion piece for The Washington Times, American Cornerstone Institute’s founder and former Trump official Ben Carson called the Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Supreme Court decision that allows employers to decline to cover contraception on religious grounds “fortunate.” Carson praised the court, writing that the court majority “still thinks that religious beliefs and personal choice have a valid place in American society,” and argued, “Legally requiring the side opposed to a form of birth control to be financially responsible for its distribution to any employee who wants it is distinctly un-American and abusive to the concept of freedom of religion.” [The Washington Times, 7/8/14]

An article published by the American Family Association falsely conflated contraceptive methods like the IUD and Plan B pill as “abortifacients.” The article hit science educator Bill Nye for supposedly suggesting he “thinks fertilized eggs aren’t humans,” noting that his “argument that personhood begins at the point of implantation … would serve as an argument to support the use of abortifacients (pills, like Plan B morning-after pill, or devices like the IUD – designed to stop a fertilized egg from attaching to the womb).” [American Family Association, 2/19/18; Guttmacher Institute, 12/9/14]

NPR's Terry Gross said then-conservative radio host Bryan Fischer advocated for making “contraception available only to married couples” during his time as director of issues analysis for the American Family Association. In an article he wrote for U.S. News & World Report, Fischer said Plan B’s over-the-counter availability has “created a predator’s paradise,” claiming that “a predator, thanks to this dangerous decision, can now take advantage of a vulnerable teenage girl and then send her into the local Walgreen's to cover his own criminal tracks.” Fischer has been credited for shifting Republican Party officials, particularly Mitt Romney during his 2012 presidential run, further right on issues like contraception, which were previously seen as uncontroversial. [NPR, 6/14/12; U.S. News & World Report, 5/3/13]

America First Legal in March celebrated “a massive victory in our lawsuit against the Biden admin for attempting to provide birth control to minor children without parental consent.” America First Legal provided counsel for a parent who argued that the availability of birth control to minors through the federal program Title X “nullifies his right to consent to his children's medical care, infringing on his state-created right.” [Twitter/X, 3/15/24;
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, Deanda v. Becerra, accessed 3/12/24]

America First Legal provided counsel in a lawsuit that challenges the ACA provision guaranteeing insured Americans’ access to preventive services without a copay. The plaintiffs represented by America First Legal argued that the ACA’s contraceptive mandate goes against their religious beliefs because it includes medications enabling “homosexual behavior, drug use, or sexual activity outside of marriage between one man and one woman.” [NPR, 8/9/22; Protect Our Care, 3/31/23]

American Legislative Exchange Council said the ACA’s contraceptive mandate “dilutes [the] fundamental right” to “religious profession and worship.” [American Legislative Exchange Council, 11/13/15]

American Principles Project President Terry Schilling raised concern over the possibility of the Biden administration requiring anti-abortion employers provide contraception in their health coverage plans. Fox News reported that the Biden administration is considering repealing a moral exception to the coverage rule but maintaining a religious exemption. Schilling “said it is unclear how far the Biden administration would be able to use its proposed rule against organizations who oppose contraception on moral grounds as opposed to religious grounds” and quoted him saying, “It is frightening to consider how this rhetorical loophole could and likely will be abused.” [Fox News, 1/31/23]

In a piece about college campuses beginning to dispense the Plan B pill via vending machines, Schilling claimed that “we’ve been teaching kids that the worst possible sexually transmitted disease” is “pregnancy, as if the worst thing in the world anyone could get as a surprise is a baby.” Schilling argued, “Most of us weren’t planned, and some of us weren’t even wanted, but these factors don’t change the status of our human dignity.” [Washington Examiner, 6/6/23]

In 2012, The New York Times wrote that Charmaine Yoest, then-president and CEO of Americans United for Life, “believes that embryos have legal rights and opposes birth control, like the IUD, that she thinks ‘has life-ending properties.’” The Times also reported that Yoest does not support increasing access to contraceptives as a means of reducing abortion rates. [The New York Times Magazine, 11/2/12]

In 2015, Reuters quoted then-Americans United for Life staff counsel Mailee Smith as saying “IUDs are a life-ending device.” Reuters reported that Americans United for Life supported a “religious challenge to contraceptives coverage under President Barack Obama's healthcare law” and that Smith argued, “The focus of these cases is that requiring any life-ending drug is in violation of the Religious Freedom Act.” [Reuters, 12/1/15]

In a profile of the organization, The Washington Post described Americans United for Life’s attorneys as aiming “to be a resource for state legislatures on seemingly every issue under the ‘pro-life’ banner: access to abortion, contraception, stem cell research, bioethics, assisted suicide and end-of-life decisions.” [The Washington Post, 5/31/19]

Last year, the California Family Council released an article arguing that the FDA is “playing games with women’s health” by saying that Plan B “cannot cause abortions.” The piece read, “Women deserve to know exactly what a drug they are taking is capable of. Some women may innocently think they’re not ending a human life, but merely preventing ovulation.” [California Family Council, 1/4/23]

In a 2014 essay for Crisis Magazine, Center for Family and Human Rights President Austin Ruse wrote, “Contraception is one of the great scourges not just of our time but of all time.” Ruse described his decades-long experience “fighting contraception” and fearmongered about a “few hundred stories about the evils of contraception.” [Crisis Magazine, 2/28/14]

Writing for The Federalist, Center for Renewing America policy director Paige Hauser identified “the advent of the birth control pill and the legalization of abortion” as “major fault lines,” along with no-fault divorce, in stoking the sexual revolution in a piece titled “Mike Johnson is right: No-fault divorce destroys kids, sex, and society.” [The Federalist, 11/13/23]

In 2020, the Claremont Institute’s Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence filed an amicus brief in support of a Catholic organization attempting to reverse a court decision that would require the group to provide birth control to employees. Claremont’s John Eastman and Tom Caso wrote in the brief that the First Amendment “reflects the founding generation’s view that the duty one owes to the Creator is both prior to and higher than any duty owed to government.” [The Claremont Institute, 3/12/20]

An article from the Claremont Institute condemned a sex education video shown at a middle school in Idaho, complaining that presentations about contraception “included information about the abortifacient Plan B.” [The Claremont Institute, 1/19/23]

A recent article published by the Claremont Institute criticized Plan B, saying a “deep and widespread misunderstanding of pregnancy risk, ovulation, and overall fertility” has led the public to change its view of the medication “from a last resort in true emergencies into a ‘better safe than sorry’ precautionary measure.” The author also chastised “the transformation of Plan B into a TikTok accessory or a vending-machine trinket.” [The Claremont Institute, 2/20/24]

In 2019, Concerned Women for America issued a call to action condemning a piece of state legislation that would make birth control available over the counter at pharmacies in Iowa. An op-ed released by the organization criticized contraception, drawing attention to “potentially long-lasting detrimental health effects,” and suggested that the “collateral damage of SF 513 [the legislation] could be women’s health.” [Concerned Women for America, 3/31/19]

CWA attacked a mandate in the ACA requiring employers to provide employees with contraception-covering health plans as “bureaucratic overreach” and stated, “The Obama Administration failed to respect the conscience rights of religious employers.” [Concerned Women for America, 11/15/18]

The Discovery Institute published a piece titled “Birth control pretext for destroying religious liberty.” In it, Wesley J. Smith, senior fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism, argued against the ACA's contraceptive mandate, arguing that “once a legal precedent is established, one day there could be a free abortion rule, a free IVF rule, or a free sex-change operation rule.” [Discovery Institute, 4/1/23]

Another piece from Smith reads, “To a disturbing degree, healthcare public policy is becoming a means of imposing a secularist, anti–sanctity-of-life ideology on all of society.” Smith lamented what he called a “culture of death” in the medical field and mentioned “studies that indicate” Plan B “might act as an abortifacient.” [Discovery Institute, 7/22/16]

In response to a House bill offering federal birth control protections, an Eagle Forum blog claimed that “the left has expanded the term ‘contraception’ to include abortion-inducing drugs.” The Right to Contraception Act (H.R. 8373) “forces all medical professionals to dispense contraceptive drugs regardless of their beliefs,” the blog said, adding, “Now, the left has expanded the term ‘contraception’ to include abortion-inducing drugs. Pills such as RU-486, Plan B, and mifepristone were only created within the last few decades to terminate a pregnancy.” According to Scientific American, when the Supreme Court failed to defer to the medical standard that pregnancy begins after implantation it gave anti-choice legislatures the ability to legally declare contraception methods like Plan B abortifacients. [Eagle Forum, 7/21/22; Scientific American, 6/8/22]

In 2012, Eagle Forum founder and anti-feminist activist Phyllis Schlafly called the ACA's contraception mandate “draconian.” “If the Obama Administration's contraceptive mandate remains intact, then liberals will continue to demand that Americans pay for objectionable items and services that are not really medical care,” Schlafly said. “We call on all Americans to urge President Obama to back down from this draconian mandate.” [Eagle Forum, 3/1/12]

Writing for an anti-abortion journal, Ethics and Public Policy Center fellow Alexandra DeSanctis characterized oral contraception as a “supposed panacea” that medical professionals prescribe “with little concern for its many side effects.” “Those who draw attention to the negative effects of birth control are typically dismissed as at best over-zealous religious conservatives or at worst crusaders to ban birth control,” she wrote, adding, “But within the past decade, conversation has begun to shift, and it seems as if a new generation might be waking up to the harms of both the sexual revolution and the pill that enabled it.” [Human Law Review, 9/7/23]

Ethics and Public Policy Center fellow David Gortler wrote a Newsweek column titled “Over-the-counter birth control pills won’t improve America’s public health.” In the article, Gortler also argued that “no prescription-grade hormone has ever been proposed as a long-term, daily, OTC product” and tied the use of birth control to various types of cancer and mental health disorders. “If approved by the FDA, making hormonal contraceptives available without medical supervision will be another in a list of recent unscientific federal public health decisions,” Gortler claimed. [Newsweek, 6/29/23]

The Family Policy Alliance has amplified claims that the ACA’s contraception mandate forced religious organizations to cover “abortion-inducing drugs.” “When the Obama Administration attempted to force nuns to provide contraception and Christian-owned company Hobby Lobby to cover abortion-inducing drugs, it became clear that more work needed to be done in the area of religious freedom,” the group’s website reads. [Family Policy Alliance, accessed 4/3/24]

FPA has also expressed support for organizations that had “deep moral concerns” about providing contraceptive care in employer-issued insurance plans. In March 2023, the organization launched an initiative to fight the Biden administration’s enforcement of the ACA’s contraception mandate, claiming that the rule “completely undermines the moral fabric of many faithful organizations, including overtly pro-life groups, that serve women, children, and the public.” [Family Policy Alliance, 3/30/23]

The Family Research Council amplified Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) claim that birth control pills can “cause abortions.” The organization also claimed that emergency contraception pills like Plan B and ella can induce abortions. “Not all forms of birth control cause abortions. However, some do, including the notorious ‘morning-after pill’ Plan B and a newer, lesser-known FDA-approved drug called Ella (also known as ulipristal acetate or Ella-One)," an FRC blog read. “The FDA misleadingly labels Ella a more effective ‘Emergency Contraception.’ Like Plan B, Ella can cause an abortion by preventing a fertilized egg (embryo) from implanting in the uterus.” [Family Research Council, 10/15/20; ella, accessed 4/12/24]

FRC's Mary Szoch: “Birth control has led to the objectification of women — to women being used as mere tools for men’s gratification.” Birth control “has also led to the devaluing, and even hatred of, the natural consequence of sex — children,” Szoch continued in a quote posted to FRC’s X account. [Twitter/X, 1/6/24]

In 2013, First Liberty Institute filed a federal lawsuit against CVS Pharmacy for terminating a Texas nurse practitioner who sought “a religious accommodation from prescribing any medication that could intentionally end the development or life of an unborn child.” [First Liberty Institute, 1/11/23]

First Liberty Institute has stated its opposition to contraceptive care access and abortion on the basis of religious freedom and in 2014 filed a lawsuit on behalf of two nonprofit ministries seeking an exemption from the ACA’s contraception mandate. In a case summary on its website, the nonprofit legal firm argued that the mandate was forcing “nonprofit ministries to violate their conscience and provide insurance coverage for abortion-inducting drugs.” [First Liberty Institute, accessed 4/3/24]

In an amicus brief filed to the Supreme Court, the foundation alleged, citing Justice Clarence Thomas, that “modern abortion advocacy arose out of the birth control movement, which was ‘developed alongside the American eugenics movement.’” [U.S. Supreme Court, Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Brief of Amicus Curiae, accessed 4/3/24; U.S. Supreme Court, Box v. Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky, Inc., 5/28/19]

The Heartland Institute’s Ashley Bateman fearmongered about the safety of hormonal contraceptives, claiming that they have been found to act as a “chemical abortifacient” by “[preventing] implantation of a fertilized egg.” [The Federalist, 7/21/23; Guttmacher Institute, 12/9/14]

Independent Women’s Forum’s Hadley Heath Manning on birth control: “Despite its benefits to society, and particularly to women, widespread use of contraception has in my view come with a cost, facilitating a culture of cheap sex.” “This, along with the relatively high typical-use failure rates of the most traditionally popular forms of birth control, has disproportionately harmed women,” Heath Manning wrote in a New York Times guest essay. She did not mention that birth control’s effectiveness is directly tied to correct use of the medication. [The New York Times, 9/13/14, 6/24/23]

The IWF filed amicus briefs to the Supreme Court that sided with religious groups’ efforts to oppose the ACA’s contraception mandate. [Ms., 8/17/24]

Th Intercollegiate Studies Institute published a book review asserting that “the sexual free-for-all made possible by abortion (and perhaps contraception) harms both men and women.” The review also states that widespread access to abortion and contraceptive care has “turned sex into a kind of sport, detached from its natural consequences of pregnancy, childbirth, and (one hopes) family life.” [Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 5/30/23]

The Dr. James Dobson Family Institute sought an exemption to the ACA's contraceptive mandate, arguing that it violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. [Alliance Defending Freedom, 3/28/19]

Liberty University sought an exemption from the ACA's contraception mandate, arguing that the mandate was a violation of its religious freedoms. [United Press International, 12/2/13]

Media Research Center defended a group that spread misinformation about birth control pills on TikTok. After TikTok removed posts from a group marketing a “detox vitamin regime” to “wean” oneself off hormonal birth control, Media Research Center speculated that the platform was shilling for the pharmaceutical industry and its various ploys to exploit women. “Think about it, women needing to detox from a drug [oral birth control] may make them stay on it longer to avoid having to wean themselves off,” the site wrote. “That brings in more money for big pharma. Similarly, when women are on ‘the pill,’ they could become more depressed, then boom, more money for anti-depressants and therapies. Women may fall in love with less masculine men, which makes society weaker. Women may not be able to get pregnant on their own as a result of the drug, so ... more money goes to IVF.” [NewsBusters, 3/27/24; Cleveland Clinic, 7/7/22]

Media Research Center on National Network of Abortion Funds passing out emergency contraceptives at an Olivia Rodrigo concert: “If you don’t think this is a blatant and targeted attack to not only brainwash young girls into thinking abortion is normal and casual but also to continue killing babies, your eyes must be shut.” [NewsBusters, 3/15/24]

A 2012 National Center for Public Policy Research blog argued that the ACA's contraception mandate was “unconstitutional” and “defies the religious liberty predicate that this nation is founded upon.” The blog also asserted that the mandate “threatens our long-held belief that all Americans may worship and serve God free from governmental interference.” [National Center for Public Policy Research, 2/1/12]

Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, said IUDs and birth control pills should not be legal. During a 2017 interview with MSNBC host Joy Reid, Hawkins claimed that IUDs “put women at risk and they kill children.” According to The Washington Post, fearmongering by anti-choice organizations has caused an increase in patients coming to doctors believing misconceptions about the safety of birth control, despite the low prevalence of rare adverse side effects. [Reveal News, 10/8/22; The Washington Post, 3/21/24]

On its website, SFLA falsely claims that some forms of birth control — including birth control pills, IUDs, and emergency contraceptives — are “abortifacient.” The organization has also amplified the debunked claim that Plan B, a pill used to prevent ovulation from occurring, is “capable of ending the life of a conceived human.” [Students for Life of America, accessed 4/2/24, accessed 4/2/24; CNBC, 12/24/22; Guttmacher Institute, 12/9/14]

Dr. Ingrid Skop, director of medical affairs at Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America’s research arm, claimed that a birth control drug called Opill was an “abortifacient” — it is not — and she was tapped by the state of Texas to be an “expert witness” in a lawsuit filed by Texas women denied abortions due to the state’s abortion bans. [ABC News, 7/20/23; Ms. Magazine, 8/17/23; Guttmacher Institute, 12/9/14]

In 2016, an SBA-PLA spokesperson confirmed that the organization opposed certain forms of contraception, including IUD coils and the morning after pill. According to The Telegraph, Susan B. Anthony List, the lobbying branch of SBA-PLA, is “opposed to some kinds of birth control – namely, IUD coils and the morning after pill – because in both instances, there’s a chance they could prevent a fertilised egg from implanting. It’s a strict reading of Roman Catholic teaching that would make many practising Catholics uncomfortable.” [The Telegraph, 9/26/16]

A 2014 press release from the organization suggested that “IUDs and so-called ‘morning after pills’ have been shown to occasionally prevent newly created embryos from implanting in the uterine wall, therefore facilitating early abortion.” The statement decried “the most popular emergency contraceptives,” claiming they “can cause the death of embryos.” [Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, 1/16/14; Guttmacher Institute, 12/9/14]

Tea Party Patriots’ website on its opposition to the ACA's contraception mandate: “This is about everyone’s right to practice their religion without the government stepping in and telling them what to do.” In 2014, the group organized a rally in front of the Supreme Court to voice its support for craft supplies chain Hobby Lobby, the company that took its fight for a religious exemption from the ACA’s contraception mandate to the court. Co-opting the language used by reproductive rights activists, the Tea Party Patriots called the event the “Freedom of Choice” rally. [Mother Jones, 3/25/14]

A policy analyst associated with the Texas Public Policy Foundation voiced opposition to the ACA's contraceptive mandate, arguing that it was an “attempt to narrow the definition of religious liberty.” The Texas Public Policy Foundation described the mandate as “an attempt to narrow the definition of religious liberty, and if successful would further confine dissent over these kinds of issues to houses of worship, effectively banning it from the public square.” [Politico, 7/23/2013; First Things, 2/14/13]

Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk: “Birth control, like, really screws up female brains, by the way.” He continued: “Every single one of you need to make sure that your loved ones are not on birth control. It increases depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation.” Kirk seemed to blame birth control for women being less conservative. “Abortion’s obviously part of it, but they’ve been sold a lie through culture, through media, through even some of their parents that you basically have to go pursue this corporate trajectory, and that men are always the problem, and suppress your biological impulses,” he said. Kirk also claimed that birth control “creates very angry and bitter young ladies and young women.” [The Arizona Republic, 3/3/24]

Turning Point USA host Alex Clark has repeatedly spread misinformation about the safety of birth control, describing it as “poison.” Clark has also fearmongered about birth control causing cancer and has argued that birth control can “induce an abortion” and cause fertility issues. [Media Matters, 2/14/23]