Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Do about 90 percent of Americans support access to contraception?

People at a press conference. One has a sign that reads "Contraception is health care."

Supporters hold signs as Sen. Tammy Duckworth speaks during a news conference on the Right to Contraception Act in D.C. on June 5.

Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images

This fact brief was originally published by Wisconsin Watch. Read the original here. Fact briefs are published by newsrooms in the Gigafact network, and republished by The Fulcrum. Visit Gigafact to learn more.

Do about 90 percent of Americans support access to contraception?

Yes.

Some 91 percent of registered voters said in a national poll released June 11, 2024, that birth control should be legal (73 percent said they feel strongly, 18 percent said somewhat strongly).


When the question was asked about contraception, support was 84 (percent 69 percent strongly, 15 percent somewhat).

Liberal pollster Navigator did the poll, but other surveys found similar results.

The nonpartisan Pew Research Center reported June 6 that 79 percent of registered voters said widespread access to birth control is good for society.

Gallup reported in June 2023 that 88 percent of Americans said birth control is morally acceptable.

In a 2022 FiveThirtyEight poll, about 90 percent of Americans said condoms and birth control pills should be legal in all or most cases, and 81 percent said the same of intrauterine devices.

The 90 percent claim was made in a June 5 interview by Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.). She is running for re-election in November against Republican Eric Hovde.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

Navigator Abortion and Contraception: A Guide for Advocates

Pew Research Center Gender, family, reproductive issues and the 2024 election

Gallup Fewer in U.S. Say Same-Sex Relations Morally Acceptable

FiveThirtyEight How Americans Feel About Abortion And Contraception

MSNBC 'Trump's friends just blocked the right to contraception': Dems torch GOP over Senate vote

Read More

The Real Shutdown: Congress’s Surrender of Power
white concrete dome museum

The Real Shutdown: Congress’s Surrender of Power

Introduction: The Real Shutdown Inside Congress

Marjorie Taylor Greene has surprised many by questioning her party’s shutdown strategy, making her seem more pragmatic than GOP leaders. On this issue, she is right: the federal government is dark, and the clock is running down. Whether or not this becomes the longest shutdown in U.S. history, the damage is already done.

Earlier shutdowns—Clinton’s fight with Gingrich in 1995, Obama’s battle with House Republicans in 2013, Trump’s 2018 border wall standoff—were disruptive but contained. Agencies furloughed workers, parks closed, markets wobbled, and then the government reopened, usually with a compromise. What makes this shutdown different is what’s at stake: not just funding, but Congress’s very capacity to function as a coequal branch of government.

Keep ReadingShow less
Despite infighting, Democrats can still unite around one common goal

President Donald Trump is a unifying issue for Democrats and Republicans. Above, he speaks during a meeting with President of Argentina Javier Milei in the Cabinet Room at the White House on Oct. 14, 2025, in Washington, D.C.

(Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images/TNS)

Despite infighting, Democrats can still unite around one common goal

The only thing the parties can agree on is that Donald Trump is the central issue of our time.

Let’s start with a recent headline: “It’s 2025, and Democrats Are Still Running Against Trump.”

Keep ReadingShow less
‘Inhumane’: Immigration enforcement targets noncriminal immigrants from all walks of life

Madison Pestana hugs a pillow wrapped in one of her husband’s shirts. Juan Pestana was detained in May over an expired visa, despite having a pending green card application. He is one of many noncriminals who have been ensnared in the Trump administration’s plans for mass deportations.

(Photo by Lorenzo Gomez/News21)

‘Inhumane’: Immigration enforcement targets noncriminal immigrants from all walks of life

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — When Juan and Madison Pestana went on their first date in 2023, Juan vowed to always keep a bouquet of fresh flowers on the kitchen table. For nearly two years, he did exactly that.

Their love story was a whirlwind: She was an introverted medical student who grew up in Wendell, North Carolina, and he was a charismatic construction business owner from Caracas, Venezuela.

Keep ReadingShow less
Who’s Hungry? When Accounting Rules Decide Who Eats
apples and bananas in brown cardboard box
Photo by Maria Lin Kim on Unsplash

Who’s Hungry? When Accounting Rules Decide Who Eats

With the government shutdown still in place, a fight over the future of food assistance is unfolding in Washington, D.C.

As part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025, Congress approved sweeping changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, affecting about 42 million Americans per month.

Keep ReadingShow less