“Why J&J, Merck back GOP opponents of birth control they’re selling”

Jonathan Salant: 

Two New Jersey companies among the biggest sellers of contraceptives have helped elect Republican governors and legislatures trying to restrict funding for birth control.

Johnson & Johnson and Merck & Co. and their trade association contributed more than $4 million from 2011 to 2016 to the Republican Governors Association and the Republican State Legislative Committee, Internal Revenue Service filings show.

Those groups helped secure GOP majorities in 14 states that from July 2015 to July 2016 tried to exclude groups such as Planned Parenthood from receiving funds for family planning or related expenditures, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research and advocacy group that supports abortion rights and access to birth control. Only court intervention prevented some of those bans from going into effect.

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