Less than 3% of Republicans plan to hold town halls during their attacks on our health and rights.
ppaction reblogged
A Republican for Planned Parenthood Weighs in on the First GOP Debates
By Kim Smith, Republican Outreach Manager for Planned Parenthood Action Fund
Last night’s debates reconfirmed that the Republican presidential candidates are not friends to women’s health. Over and over again, we witnessed candidates who oppose abortion (even in the case of rape and incest), support personhood legislation (which could outlaw certain forms of birth control), and support defunding Planned Parenthood (which would, of course, cut millions of women off from basic, reproductive health care).
What is so frustrating is that I am a Republican. I am a Republican who believes in my party’s founding principles of smaller and smarter government. Many Republicans like me have seen our party co-opted by an extreme minority and turned into something we no longer recognize. Unfortunately, it has evolved into an intolerant group of politicians who have no qualms using the power of government to deny women the ability to attain comprehensive health care and reproductive freedom.
Despite three national polls in two weeks that show the majority of American voters stand with Planned Parenthood — as well as veto threats by President Obama and a Senate vote to defund Planned Parenthood that failed — the GOP candidates continue to battle over who can be the most extreme when it comes to restricting women’s access to reproductive health care.
Unfortunately, last night’s attacks against women’s health are not new. In 2012, Mitt Romney’s anti-women’s health views and calls to defund Planned Parenthood drove the biggest gender gap in recorded history.
Romney’s loss is a lesson for candidates in 2016: Dismiss and demean women at your peril. You cannot win a national election by restricting access to birth control, defunding Planned Parenthood and ending access to safe and legal abortion.
Bottom line: Promising to restrict women’s health issues are not the way for Republicans to win elections and build the big tent our party was so famous for in the past.
From equal pay to birth control access, we think these guys need a reminder: If you say one (blatantly false) thing and do the exact opposite, which do you think people are going to pay more attention to?
Anti-reproductive health candidates in races across the country have come up with what they think is a brilliant new plan to distract voters from an unpopular fact: they've all spent years attacking people's access to birth control, and this new empty gesture only puts it further out of reach for millions of Americans. Share the real truth: Taking away no-copay birth control doesn't cost people less — it costs them more. A LOT more.
BREAKING: House Republicans just took the 50th vote to repeal or undermine the Affordable Care Act. That means taking away the huge benefits that Americans are already enjoying—and taking away coverage from millions. (It also means they're still attacking this law, instead of working on issues Americans really care about—like immigration reform, fair pay, voting rights, the economy...)
Jokes aside, we don't think it's much to be proud of.
Did you catch it? In the GOP's official response to President Obama's State of the Union address, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers said her party "trusts people to make their own decisions"—just hours after that same party passed a bill that interferes in the private health decisions of millions of Americans. We've said it before, and we'll say it again: These politicians can say all they want, but we're paying more attention to what they do.
Meet the (all male) politicians who, once again, are doing whatever they can to restrict women's ability to access the health care they need.