Quote of the Day: GOP threats to birth control are made up, says Ted Cruz

At a town hall event in Iowa, presidential candidate Ted Cruz responded to a question about making contraception available to women by calling Hillary Clinton the “condom police” and dismissing Republican attacks on reproductive rights as “made up nonsense.” 

“Last I checked we don’t have a rubber shortage in America. When I was in college we had a machine in the bathroom, you put 50 cents in and voila! So yes, anyone who wants contraceptives can access them, but it’s an utterly made-up nonsense issue… So what do you do? You go, ‘Ah, ha! Condom police. I’m gonna make up a completely made-up threat and try to scare a bunch of folks into thinking someone’s going to steal their birth control.”

While I’m glad that Ted Cruz had everything he needed to avoid making more Ted Cruzes, this comment is painfully ironic given his history of supporting “personhood” legislation – laws which define fertilized eggs and fetuses as people with legal protections. Condoms represent such a small fraction of the contraceptives and services human beings need in order to be healthy, and political attacks, increasing harassment and even violence on clinics are making it more and more difficult for people to access the reproductive health care they need.

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