Jacky Eubanks has a fire in her belly, Donald Trump’s endorsement under her belt and the eradication of birth control on her mind. A week ago no one had heard of Eubanks, a recent college graduate who is running for a Michigan state senate seat with Trump’s seal of approval. Now the Gen Z-ealot is all over the news because of a recent interview with a Christian organisation called Church Militant, in which she promised to vote to make birth control illegal should the opportunity arise.
“I think [birth control] gives people the false sense of security that they can have consequence-free sex, and that’s not true and that’s not correct,” Eubanks told Church Militant. “Sex ought to be between one man and one woman in the confines of marriage.” Perhaps she ought to tell her hero Trump that? Because it may have slipped his mind.
It would be nice to dismiss Eubanks as just a bit of an extremist whose fringe views, while worrying, will never enshrine themselves into law. However, emboldened by the progress they’ve made undermining abortion rights, an increasing number of rightwingers seem to be setting their sights on contraception. Earlier this month, for example, the Republican governor of Mississippi refused to rule out the possibility his state might ban certain forms of birth control. Meanwhile, Louisiana recently passed a bill saying “personhood” begins at the point of fertilisation, which some experts believe could be used to criminalise emergency contraception and intrauterine devices. An Idaho Republican lawmaker also just gave a TV interview in which he entertained the idea of banning some forms of birth control.
It’s 2022: surely the US couldn’t go so far backwards as to outlaw contraception? Alas, the idea isn’t as far-fetched as it may seem.
Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
