Republican strategist Juleanna Glover told NBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Wednesday that although she is “deeply pro-life, Republicans need to be less aggressive or more open-minded about contraception.”
Glover wrote an op-ed featured in the New York Times last Thursday, “Republicans Must Support Public Financing for Contraception,” urging Republican lawmakers to increase funding for contraceptives so it could decrease abortions and help the country economically.
“If you provide contraceptive services independent of costs and in particular long-acting contraceptive devices and products to women—the likelihood of abortion in their lives dramatically decreases,” Glover said on Andrea Mitchell Reports.
Reducing the number of abortions across the country, “seems to be one of the most pro-life objectives one could possibly ask for,” she concluded.
Glover talked about her hope for Republicans to take a step forward on the issue of contraceptives and close the party's gap with women, which was highlighted during the 2012 election.
“We believe that an adult woman that would like to have contraceptive services should indeed receive them, and if the federal government should step in to help ensure that happens that’s a proper role for the federal government to play independent of limited government concerns as well as personal responsibility concerns,” Glover said.
However, when asked about denying funding to Planned Parenthood because 3% of their budget is privately funded for abortion services, Glover made it abundantly clear that neither she nor her party believe federal funds “should go to abortion-providing entities.”
Glover refused to talk any more on the subject of Planned Parenthood, but said it was in the government and culture’s best interests to provide the fund needed for contraceptive availability.
“Half of all unplanned pregnancies end in abortion, and when a woman does get pregnant and she does not have adequate contraceptive care it’s because she does not have a good insurance or it’s because she doesn’t make enough money to buy her own insurance or it’s because she’s not poor enough to be on Medicaid,” she said.