Less than 24 hours after signing a bill to defund Planned Parenthood in Ohio, John Kasich took to the campaign trail this morning and thanked the “women who left their kitchens” to go campaign for him when he ran for state Senate in Ohio. To clarify – Kasich first ran for the Ohio Senate in the late 1970s, not the early 1950s.
Kasich’s comments aren’t surprising given his dismal record on women’s issues. But as Kasich catches heat for his remarks this morning, it’s important to remember that every single GOP presidential candidate has supported policies that would turn back the clock on women’s health. Kasich’s remarks this morning provide a stark reminder that the GOP has become the Party of Trump, and even the so-called “moderate” candidate holds the most extreme views on women’s health:
- Donald Trump said he would defund Planned Parenthood, referring to the women’s health organization as “an abortion factory.”
- After the shooting at a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs, Trump talked about the falsified Center for Medical Progress videos. He said, “There is a tremendous group of people that think it’s terrible all of the videos that they’ve seen with some of these people from Planned Parenthood talking about it like you’re selling parts to a car.”
- Ted Cruz supports a personhood amendment that could ban abortions, even in cases of rape or incest, and potentially go so far as to ban common forms of birth control.
- Cruz adamantly opposed the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate, claiming it constituted the government “using brute force to force people to pay for abortion-inducing drugs of others.”
- Cruz described the Center for Medical Progress’s misleading Planned Parenthood videos as“[showing] the face of evil” and appearing to “demonstrate an ongoing pattern of criminal conduct.”
- Marco Rubio opposes abortion even in cases of rape or incest. When asked about exceptions, Rubio said, “I believe and I’ve always advocated that life begins at conception.”
- In 2012, Rubio introduced a bill that would let employers refuse to cover contraceptives in their health insurance plans. In response to the bill, a Tampa Bay Times editorial blasted the senator saying the bill showed Rubio believed “women… should be subject to a religious agenda as a condition of their employment.”
- Ben Carson has equated abortion to “human sacrifice” in ancient civilizations, and even suggested that the country needs to “re-educate women,” in order to stop abortions.
- As governor of Ohio, John Kasich signed a bill that banned abortions after 20 weeks including no exceptions for cases of rape or incest. Kasich has “signed and supported some of the most stringent anti-abortion legislation in the country.”
Published: Feb 22, 2016