Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he was open to supporting regulations on contraception and that his campaign would release a policy on the issue ''very shortly,'' comments that he later said were misinterpreted.
The comments, made during an interview with a Pittsburgh television station, suggested that a future Trump administration might consider imposing mandates or supporting state restrictions on such highly personal decisions as whether women can have access to birth control. During an interview with KDKA News, Trump was asked, ''Do you support any restrictions on a person's right to contraception?''
''We're looking at that and I'm going to have a policy on that very shortly,'' Trump responded, according to a video of the interview that was briefly posted online before it was supposed to air, then taken down.
The likely Republican presidential nominee was pressed in a follow-up question if that meant he may want to support some restrictions on contraception.
''Things really do have a lot to do with the states, and some states are going to have different policy than others," Trump responded, before repeating that he would be releasing ''a very comprehensive policy'' on the issue.
This is the first time Trump has suggested he would have a policy on contraception since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a national right to abortion two years ago, touching off political battles about aspects of reproductive rights, including contraception and in vitro fertilization.
Responding later to media reports of his interview, Trump said on his social media platform Truth Social that he ''has never and will never'' advocate for restricting birth control and other contraceptives. Even so, the Biden campaign was quick to seize on the interview.
''Women across the country are already suffering from Donald Trump's post-Roe nightmare, and if he wins a second term, it's clear he wants to go even further by restricting access to birth control and emergency contraceptives," Biden-Harris spokesperson Sarafina Chitika said in a statement.