Ted Cruz Receives Backlash For Calling Birth Control ‘Abortion-Inducing Drugs’ During Amy Coney Barrett Hearings

Senator Ted Cruz from Texas is once again facing extensive backlash online after his reference to a case about birth control and religious liberty during the Amy Coney Barrett confirmation hearings, where he doubled-down on his argument that birth control pills are “abortion-inducing” drugs.

During Day two of the hearings, which are being done to confirm Barrett to the Supreme Court, Cruz took to the floor during his segment, where he sought to discredit previous comments and testimony made by Democratic Senators. As he discussed the assumed threat on religious liberty, he made reference to the Supreme Court case of The Little Sisters of the Poor Saint Peter and Paul Home v. Pennsylvania, where he once again referred to birth control as an abortion-inducing drug.

“It also extends to religious liberty. The Little Sisters of the Poor, our Catholic Convent of nuns, who take oaths of poverty, who devote their lives to caring for the sick, caring for the needy, caring for the elderly, and the Obama administration litigated against the little sisters of the poor, seeking to fine them in order to force them to pay for abortion-inducing drugs among others,” he said at the hearing.

The case Cruz referred to involved The Little Sisters of the Poor seeking exemption from part of the Affordable Care Act which mandated healthcare plans for employees to provide coverage for all contraceptive methods that had been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, including birth control pills and other forms of contraception. The Supreme Court later ruled that organizations could opt out of providing such care for religious and moral reasons.

Following Cruz’s comments now, which many believe was a reference to birth control options like Plan B, Planned Parenthood and several others took to Twitter to swiftly criticize his reference, reiterating that birth control didn’t cause abortions, but rather prevented pregnancy from even happening.

Others quickly took to social media to also urge others to vote because of the threat they felt Cruz and President Donald Trump posed on women’s rights, with some also sharing figures showing that less restrictive measures on birth control and abortion during Barack Obama’s administration actually led to a decrease in abortions overall.

Many other women started using the hashtag #ThanksPlannedParenthood in response to Cruz’s comments and the organization calling him out, referencing issues they had in the past which the organization helped them take care of.

The backlash came due to Cruz being known for comments about contraceptive health and women’s rights, specifically when it comes to abortions, and his efforts to try and have Roe v. Wade overturned. In fact, he also faced backlash in September, as he pushed forth an effort with other Republican Senators to have the drug Mifeprex declared as dangerous because pregnancy was not a “life-threatening illness.” Women and men took to social media in droves with stories about pregnancies that became life-threatening—with conditions such as pre-eclampsia, chorioamnionitis, HELLP Syndrome and ectopic pregnancies mentioned.

The drug Mifeprex is used to end a pregnancy in the early stages, which is defined as one that is within 70 days or less since the first day of the last menstrual period.

Barrett’s position on issues like Roe v. Wade has been prominent as the Senate pushes her confirmation ahead of the election, with many concerned that her conservative stance would help tilt the Supreme Court stance on not only that topic but cases involving LGBT rights and the Affordable Care Act as well.