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July 13, 2023 03:29 PM UTC

Don't You Even, Cory Gardner

  • 12 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

As the Washington Post reports, the Food and Drug Administration has approved the first-ever oral contraceptive available without a doctor’s prescription. Making oral contraceptives available over the counter builds on the 2010 Affordable Care Act’s provision that eliminated insurance copays for the medication:

Federal regulators Thursday approved the first over-the-counter birth control pill available in the United States, a milestone in decades-long efforts to make oral contraceptives easier to obtain, especially by teenagers and women who don’t regularly see a doctor.

The Food and Drug Administration’s approval of Opill, made by the consumer health giant Perrigo, comes six decades after daily birth control pills were introduced in the United States, drastically changing the lives of countless women and American society. And it means the country will join about 100 other nations that allow the sale of nonprescription birth control pills…

In Colorado politics, the issue of over-the-counter birth control became a major bone of contention in the 2014 U.S. Senate race, when Republican candidate Cory Gardner promoted the issue as a foil against critics of his career-long opposition to abortion rights. Gardner for years supported the state-level “Personhood” abortion ban ballot measures, the strict language of which would have outlawed common forms of birth control in addition to prohibiting abortion “from the moment of conception,” and was the cosponsor of federal legislation in Congress with similarly vague and broad wording.

When today’s decision was announced, Gardner popped up on social media to harvest unearned goodwill:

What’s the problem with Cory Gardner celebrating a policy change he’s been paying lip service to since 2014, you ask? It’s not the policy itself, which few on the left will complain about–but why the change became timely:

Health experts, citing the pill’s lengthy record of safety and effectiveness, have pushed for a nonprescription pill for years, but their campaign took on new urgency after the Supreme Court last year struck down the fundamental right to abortion established by Roe v. Wade. [Pols emphasis]

In 2014, Gardner hid behind support for over-the-counter birth control to muddy up his opposition to abortion rights. In 2023, Gardner wants credit for over-the-counter birth control after the three Supreme Court Justices Gardner put in office for life accomplished Gardner’s long-sought goal of eliminating the federal right to an abortion. And if Justice Clarence Thomas gets his way, the right to contraception is next.

With all of this in mind, over-the-counter birth control is not Cory Gardner’s victory to celebrate. In the post-Roe world, this is just an attempt to minimize the much greater damage to reproductive rights Gardner helped bring about.

At long last, Cory Gardner, thanks for nothing.

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12 thoughts on “Don’t You Even, Cory Gardner”

    2. I should think he is more interested in the Senate, honestly. His influence would be watered down in the House.

      I think those who know Cory will agree…there is no more dedicated servant of the interests of Big Money than our former senator. Big Oil…Big Ag…Big Pharma..Big whatever. Cory is likely to be under intense pressure to re-enter the fray. He will certainly oblige, mostly to regain some lost political gravitas (I imagine he has all the money he needs, but maybe he is just running low on government cheese at his house), but I'm figuring there is an ego component, as well.

      We will see if he launches a smear campaign against Bennett any time soon. I think, for the "establishment" GOPers, it is all hands on deck, we will see which "principled conservatives" step up to the plate.

      1. 2024 — Gardner now appears to have "moved on." Among his gigs:

        • chair of the National Action Victory Fund, a PAC that raises money for Republican candidates
        • joined the Crypto Council for Innovation Expands Leadership Team
        • joined the board of advisers of national lobbying giant Michael Best Strategies,
        • South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) has hired former Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner and longtime Republican operative Rob Collins to co-chair a super PAC

        Anyone know what else he's doing?

  3. Ugh, I was hoping he would stay under the rock he crawled under, never to be seen again. His false persona as the sunny optimist was false. He is a disgusting, disingenuous, racist, misogynist dirtbag.

  6. Relax, everyone. I don't think we have to worry about Con Man Cory making a comeback.

    He's not going to move into CD 8 and try to win the GOP nomination because: (a) he would likely lose to one of the crazies, (b) he would have to sell himself as one of the crazies in order to get nominated (se DeSantis, Ron) only to make himself unelectable in the general election, and (c) most importantly of all, he's making too much money in his current gig. 

  7. A reminder that the (weak) Republican push for OTC contraceptives was to remove them from required insurance coverage, making them more expensive and less universally available. Sure, OTC access is okay for some fraction of people not insured today under Obamacare or other insurance, but the approved pill is not for all women, and in the end it still serves as the foot in the door to lowering access one step at a time.

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