U.S. Senate candidate and state House Speaker Thom Tillis won't say if he thinks North Carolina should ban contraceptives.
North Carolina's Republican candidates for U.S. Senate believe that the state has
the right to ban contraceptives. Candidates Ted Alexander, Greg Bannon, and Heather Grant think states should be able to ban contraceptives, but claim they don't think North Carolina should actually do so. Mark Harris thinks states should be able to do so, but doesn't think any ever would. And state House Speaker Thom Tillis,
the likely frontrunner in the primary, thinks states should have the right to ban contraceptives and won't say whether he thinks North Carolina should.
So basically, it's "give us the right to take away your contraceptives ... but trust us." Let's just say that on this issue, they're out of step with the voters they hope to represent: Public Policy Polling asked voters if "the state of North Carolina should have the power to ban birth control" and 75 percent said no, with just 12 percent saying yes. Since 99 percent of all sex-having women have used birth control at some point, that 12 percent is either overwhelmingly male or contains quite a few hypocrites.
Obviously, Republican candidates who are willing to talk about the right to ban contraceptives are uniformly in favor of a fetal personhood amendment, which—oh, look at that—might lead to a ban on certain forms of birth control. Funny how that circles back, isn't it?