Nothing about this seems particularly controversial. Trump’s words were nonspecific and handwavey, with hints of federalism, but they became yet another way to ding the widely-reviled candidate. (“Trump Opens Door to Birth Control Restrictions, Then Tries to Close It,” reads a New York Times headline; “Trump Says He’s ‘Looking At’ Restricting Contraception Access,” reads one from Rolling Stone.) All of this comes on the heels of an effort by Democrats in the Senate to pass the Right to Contraception Act, which the Times describes as a ploy to “[force] G.O.P. lawmakers to go on the record with their opposition to policies with broad bipartisan support.”

Extremist base? “The truth is that Republicans and Donald Trump’s extremist base don’t want the Right to Contraception Act to pass,” said Sen. Edward Markey (D–Mass.) on Tuesday. “That’s going to be very clear to voters in the fall.” But Senate Republicans have blocked this bill in the past (when it was proposed by Markey, who wanted it to pass quickly without debate or a vote), “arguing that the bill’s definition of contraceptives could be interpreted to include pills that induce abortion.” That’s very different than wanting to ban basic hormonal birth control, which is what headlines and grandstanding senators would have you believe.

Meanwhile, some senators—Alabama’s Katie Britt and Texas’ Ted Cruz—are attempting to make states ineligible for Medicaid funding from the federal government if they ban in vitro fertilization (IVF), which scrambles the attempted narrative a bit. (“IVF is incredibly pro-family,” Cruz said this week.)

Still, to take Markey’s comments at face value, it’s worth asking: Who are these purported extremists? Do they actually exist in large numbers?

Per 2016 polling, about 4 percent of Americans see contraception as morally wrong. The greatest opposition tends to come from Catholics, but even among Catholics who attend Mass weekly (guilty as charged), only 13 percent say contraception is morally wrong—and that doesn’t even mean they support a ban on the practice. (Some 20 percent of people ID themselves as Catholics nationwide, per 2024 polling, with only 28 percent of them attending Mass weekly—not a group that looks positioned to amass much political power, in other words.)

Many women want the ability to use the pill, implants, and IUDs. But it’s also worth noting that another form of birth control is commonly used: condoms! Which you can get via DoorDash, Amazon Prime (one-day delivery), pharmacies, or grocery stores. You can even use a subscription service for posh “vegan-friendly” condoms “designed without harmful chemicals and triple tested for safety” (the product is cheekily called “rise” which feels stupid and classy all at once, just like so many millennial-targeted direct-to-consumer brands).

Even if Republicans were seeking to ban the birth control pill en masse or hassle doctors who insert IUDs—which they’re not—we’re far from a sex dystopia. Democrats are trying to tie the birth control issue to the abortion one, acting like Republicans broadly have a problem with both, when reality is actually…better for their case (and worse for their campaign strategy). Most Republicans oppose abortion, which they see as the killing of an unborn child, but do not oppose the prevention of pregnancies, which they see as something that stops abortions from happening.

Galaxy-brain take: It’s really the Food and Drug Administration, not radical Republicans, which has been standing in the way of birth control access for many years now but is just now beginning to approve over-the-counter hormonal contraceptives.