Trump: Women shouldn’t need prescription for birth control

Donald Trump says women should be able to purchase birth control without a prescription.

{mosads}During his appearance on the “The Dr. Oz Show” airing Thursday, the GOP presidential nominee acknowledged that needing a prescription is a roadblock for many women, according to The Associated Press.

“I would say it should not be prescription,” Trump said on the show, adding that many women “just aren’t in a position to go get a prescription.”

Trump’s comments come as he continues to court female voters who have largely flock to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Earlier this week, he delivered a major policy speech where he called for six weeks of paid maternity leave.

Pro-abortion rights groups are pushing back on Trump’s support for over-the-counter birth control, arguing that insurance companies could drop coverage and result in women paying more out of pocket costs.

“Days after after releasing a maternity leave ‘plan’ for married women only, Trump wants to put access to birth control out of reach for millions of women by making it more expensive,” Dawn Laguens, executive vice president for Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said in a statement. “Women shouldn’t have to choose between paying for birth control or buying groceries for the month.”

NARAL Pro-choice America spokeswoman Kaylie Hanson Long had a similar message. “Furthermore, Donald Trump’s position is that health plans could deny women coverage of birth control altogether, rolling back the incredible progress in the Affordable Care Act. Out of one side of his mouth, he makes a claim that he’s helping women, but out of the other side, he’s actively working to dismantle the greatest expansion of contraceptive coverage of our time.”

The real estate mogul came under fire earlier this year when he said during an MSNBC forum that if abortion became illegal, then women who have one should face consequences. Trump later walked back those comments, saying that doctors who perform abortions should be punished.

While appearing on “The Dr. Oz Show,” Trump also released a summary from his personal physician of a recent physical. The note included his blood pressure, cholesterol and other information, and said he is in excellent health.

A day earlier, Clinton released her own doctor’s note as she recovers from pneumonia. Her personal doctor detailed her pneumonia diagnosis and said she’s responding well to the antibiotics and also declared that she’s in “excellent” health to serve as president.