Bobby Jindal, Louisiana’s Republican governor, pens pro-birth control op-ed
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal gives a speech supporting Texas Governor and Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry at the Hotel Pattee on Jan. 2, 2012 in Perry, Iowa.
Bobby Jindal, Louisiana's Republican governor, wrote an opinion piece arguing that birth control should be sold without a prescription to anyone over 18.
Jindal penned an op-ed in Friday's Wall Street Journal supporting the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' November recommendation that birth control pills should be sold over-the-counter.
"As a conservative Republican, I believe that we have been stupid to let the Democrats demagogue the contraceptives issue and pretend, during debates about health-care insurance, that Republicans are somehow against birth control. It's a disingenuous political argument they make," wrote Jindal.
Jindal, who was among the first Republicans to criticize Romney post-election, is also one of the first of the GOP to reach out to a largely alienated female base, New York Magazine pointed out.
According to the governor's piece, contraception is "a personal matter-the government shouldn't be in the business of banning it or requiring a woman's employer to keep tabs on her use of it."
More from GlobalPost: Catholic bishops still oppose Obama birth control rule, despite change
In February, Obama's administration announced that under their health care plan, full contraception coverage would be offered by hospitals and schools with religious ties to offer, CNN reported.
That sparked backlash from religious groups, who opposed birth control on a theological basis, and caused Obama to double back and exempt some Catholic institutions from covering their employees' contraception.
"As an unapologetic pro-life Republican, I also believe that every adult (18 years old and over) who wants contraception should be able to purchase it," Jindal wrote. "But anyone who has a religious objection to contraception should not be forced by government health-care edicts to purchase it for others. And parents who believe, as I do, that their teenage children shouldn't be involved with sex at all do not deserve ridicule."
More from GlobalPost: Free birth control means fewer abortions, study says