Tag: Women’s Health

Kelly Ayotte’s War On Women’s Health

Kelly Ayotte voted six times as a United States Senator to defund Planned Parenthood and the critical services the organization provides for nearly 13,000 New Hampshire residents. Ayotte’s opposition to Title X funding for Planned Parenthood of Northern New England was based–at least in part–on the deceptively edited and widely discredited videos produced by David Daleiden. Following the release of Daleiden’s deceptive videos, Ayotte claimed that Planned Parenthood “harvests babies’ body parts,” but this claim has been proved to be entirely false.

After the attack on a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic–with the attacker motivated in part by the false claims of Planned Parenthood selling baby parts–Senator Ayotte voted against a measure which would have provided funds for security at women’s health clinics.

Kelly Ayotte tries to paint herself as pro-women, but her record demonstrates that this couldn’t be further form the truth. […]

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Zika Spreads; Rubio Balks

“Florida officials on Friday announced the first local spread of Zika virus through infected mosquitoes in the continental United States,” according to the Washington Post, but Marco Rubio still can’t seem to influence Republican obstructionism on Zika funding.

Sure, Rubio sent a letter calling for currently available funds to be spent more quickly, but that’s just posturing. Rubio has talked a big game on Zika funding since at least April, but he’s yet to get any results. Instead, Florida’s now has 383 Zika cases on the books — including 55 cases involving pregnant women.

Florida voters deserve better than an absentee senator who’s made a career of hardline partisanship but remains so ineffective that he can’t even convince his fellow Party of Trump obstructionists to address a looming public health crisis.

Ignoring Rubio, Speaker Paul Ryan and congressional Republicans have instead cynically purposed their already-underfunded Zika measure as an attack on […]

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Rubio’s Zika Hearing Is Too Little, Way Too Late

Marco Rubio’s hearing on the Zika epidemic today is much too little, way too late. Rubio and Washington Republicans held funding for addressing the disease hostage for months, playing politics with women’s health by trying to defund Planned Parenthood instead of tackling Zika head on.

In Florida alone, there have been 183 Zika cases reported, 40 of those pregnant women — that number is expected to grow as mosquito season reaches its peak. Rubio’s attention to Zika is a sham and entirely politically motivated. 

The ever absent senator skipped committee hearing after committee hearing even before he declared for president. Floridians already gave him a chance. On Zika and many more issues, Rubio and the GOP have proven they can’t lead and are ineffective at governing. Now when they should be working to a compromise to allocate the necessary funding for the Zika crisis, Washington Republicans including Rubio are about to take […]

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Trump Pledges To Appoint Anti-Choice Supreme Court Justices

On Fox News last night, Donald Trump talked about overturning Roe v. Wade and said he would appoint anti-abortion justices to the Supreme Court.

Trump’s anti-choice message was made clearest when host Bill O’Reilly asked him how he’d promote anti-abortion values:

“[T]he biggest way you can protect it is through the Supreme Court and putting people on the court…by electing me president…It could be as many as five judges that are appointed.“

Donald Trump’s plan to appoint justices who’d support outlawing abortion fits right in with his recent assertion that “there has to be some form of punishment” for women who seek abortions.

Here’s a recap of today’s coverage of Trump’s discussion about overturning Roe v. Wade:

USA Today: Trump: My SCOTUS nominee may try to overturn Roe v. Wade

Huffington Post: Donald Trump Promises To Appoint Anti-Abortion Justices To Supreme Court

MSNBC: Trump’s promise: ‘I will appoint judges that will be […]

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Presumptive GOP Nominee Donald Trump Still Unfit To Be Commander In Chief

American Bridge President Jessica Mackler released the following statement on presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump’s wins tonight:

“Even as the GOP establishment has rallied behind Donald Trump over the last week, he’s continued to prove himself a danger to our country. Trump is as unfit as ever to be commander in chief and his candidacy continues to be a national embarrassment.”

Watch “The Trump Doctrine,” featuring the low-lights of Trump’s dangerous and amateurish foreign policy agenda, here:

Watch “Trump’s Harsh Minimum Wage Reality,” on Trump’s consistent opposition to a minimum wage increase, here:

Watch “Trump’s Losing Hand,” an overview of Trump’s misogynistic rhetoric and anti-women policy agenda, here:

Watch “Republicanos Hispanos No Apoyan A Trump,” featuring Latino Republicans who don’t support Trump, here:

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Trump and Bill O’Reilly Talk Overturning Roe v Wade on Fox News

Donald Trump went on Fox News with Bill O’Reilly tonight where they talked overturning Roe v. Wade and Trump pledged to appoint anti-choice Supreme Court Justices, claiming that electing him is the biggest way anti-choice voters can advance their agenda.

Trump recently said “there has to be some form of punishment” for women seeking abortion.

Watch Trump talking about overturning Roe v. Wade here:

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GOP Florida Senate Field Wrong On Women’s Health

This week Florida Governor Rick Scott’s and Republican legislators were rebuffed and the state will not be allowed to block federal funding to Planned Parenthood and other women’s health care providers.

“Planned Parenthood saves women’s lives every day,” said American Bridge President Jessica Mackler. “But Florida’s Governor and Republican Senate candidates would rather play politics than worry about affordable birth control or women’s health. Floridian women deserve better.”

Background:

In March 2016 Florida Governor Rick Scott Signed A Bill That Defunded Planned Parenthood

Governor Scott Signed One Of The Strongest Anti-Abortion-Rights Laws In The Country, Which Included Stripping State Funding For Planned Parenthood. According to The Hill, “Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) has signed one of the strongest anti-abortion-rights laws in the country, setting off what is likely to be a lengthy legal battle. Scott signed the closely watched legislation this weekend, just one day before it would have automatically became law. The bill strips state funding from Planned […]

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Trump Supporter John Kasich Is No Moderate

John Kasich this morning intends to juxtapose “Two Paths” for America; his, of “optimism,” and Donald Trump’s “path to darkness.” Kasich seems to think he has a lofty and pure moral standing over Trump just because he hasn’t repugnantly mocked another candidate’s wife on Twitter.

Good for him — but John Kasich is no better than Donald Trump. Kasich’s “zero chance” quip ruling out a run as Trump’s VP means nothing. Because so long as John Kasich refuses to revoke his support for Trump as the GOP nominee, Kasich is enabling Trump and his xenophobia and misogyny.

John Kasich continues to tolerate and accept Trump at his worst rhetorically, and he’s just as right-wing as Trump when it comes to policy:

Extreme anti-choice positions: As governor of Ohio, Kasich has “signed and supported some of the most stringent anti-abortion legislation in the country.” Kasich signed 16 antiabortion measures between 2011 and 2015, including a […]

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Anti-Choice Group Backs Anti-Choice Extremist Cruz Over Equally Anti-Choice Trump

Ted Cruz supports overturning Roe v. Wade and banning all abortions, even in cases of rape or incest, so it’s no surprise he just got endorsed by hardline anti-choice National Right to Life’s political action committee.

Cruz was last week quick to criticize Trump over his egregious support for “some form of punishment” for women who have abortions. But the truth is Cruz’s extreme anti-women’s health views are no less radical  than Trump’s own — or those of the Republican Party, more generally.

“[W]e shouldn’t be talking about punishing women; we should affirm their dignity,” said Cruz. But just like Trump, Cruz wants to outlaw abortion — and he’d do so without exceptions for rape or incest.

Cruz is as extreme as Trump on women’s health — if not worse. Like John Kasich, Trump, and much the rest of the Republican Party, Cruz is hellbent on overturning Roe v. Wade and defunding Planned […]

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GOP “Silent” As Trump Admits The Party’s Extreme Anti-Women’s Health Agenda

Donald Trump explicitly verbalized decades of Republican anti-choice dog whistles yesterday when he abhorrently endorsed not just overturning Roe v. Wade and banning abortion, but also the extreme idea that there “has to be some form of punishment” for women seeking abortions.

It was shocking to hear Trump confess the Republican agenda outright, but his more honest brand of rhetoric is fully compatible with the anti-choice and anti-women’s health policies that Republicans — including John Kasich, Ted Cruz, and just about any GOP senator you can think of — have been advocating for years.

That’s why the GOP was “silent” yesterday.

Trump wasn’t artful in his characterization of his and the Republican Party’s extreme, anti-women’s health platform, but there’s no denying Republicans agree with Trump’s view that women shouldn’t have the autonomy to make their own health decisions or access to a full range of health care options.

Read more here.

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