Brett Kavanaugh Is Wrong About Birth Control Being "Abortion-Inducing"

Despite Brett Kavanaugh's attempts to avoid partisan subjects— he explicitly stated on Thursday that he's "not going to get within three zip codes of a political controversy,"— the Supreme Court nominee recently referred to birth control as "abortion-inducing," which is extremely inaccurate. 

The comment came in response to Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz asking Kavanaugh about his dissent in the 2015 Priests for Life v. the US Department of Health and Human Services. The religious organization sued over the Affordable Care Act because they felt that the mandate requiring employers to provide contraceptive coverage violated their religious freedoms. 

Though the employers themselves didn't have to provide the coverage— anyone who objected to the mandate could send a form to an insurance company, passing along the responsibility — Priests for Life argued that they were still complicit. This was an issue for the group since they claimed IUDs and emergency contraception cause abortion instead of acting as birth control. 

The District of Columbia Circuit eventually sided with the Obama administration over the religious group; however, Kavanaugh dissented from the majority. 

He explained his decision on Thursday. "The question was first was this a substantial burden on their religious exercise? And it seemed to me, quite clearly, it was," Kavanaugh said. "They said filling out the form would make them complicit in the abortion-inducing drugs that they were, as a religious matter, objected to."

Again, birth control — emergency contraception included — is not abortion-inducing. Take it from Princeton University: "Using emergency contraceptive pills (also called 'morning after pills' or 'day after pills') prevents pregnancy after sex. It does not cause an abortion."

The same goes for IUDs, as The Cut reports: "There’s a chance the copper IUD might dislodge a fertilized egg, but even that’s moving the goalposts of both pregnancy and abortion." 

Kavanaugh's use of the term has alarmed many — especially pro-choice advocates. Not only was the phrase he used adopted from Priests for Life, which opposes all contraception (and, as a group, celebrated Kavanaugh's nomination), but it also seems to indicate where Kavanaugh stands on abortion. 

"Kavanaugh referred to birth control ― something more than 95 percent of women use in their lifetime ― as an ‘abortion-inducing drug,’ which is not just flat-out wrong, but is anti-woman, anti-science propaganda," Dawn Laguens, executive vice president at the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, told HuffPost. "Women have every reason to believe their health and their lives are at stake."

Laguens continued, "Let me break it down for you, Brett. Birth control is basic health care. Birth control allows women to plan their futures, participate in the economy, and ― for some women with health issues like endometriosis ― allows them to get through the day."

Numerous senators also condemned Kavanaugh.