What do we know about Newt Gingrich?
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We haven’t been paying too much attention to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's presidential run - after the $500,000 Tiffany’s debt, the cruise to the Greek islands just as the presidential race was getting started, and his statement that Paul Ryan’s radical budget was in fact too radical - most thought he didn’t have a chance.
That appears to have changed by virtue of Gingrich launching into the lead or statistical tie with two new polls.
While Gingrich hasn’t yet reached “chump” status, we do think it’s worth shining a little light on his record when it comes to women’s health:
- Gingrich signed the Susan B. Anthony List pledge to appoint only anti-choice judges (they talk about “constitutional restraint” but that’s what they really mean), anti-women’s health cabinet members for the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services and National Institutes of Health (!)
- Gingrich supports outlawing abortions and prosecuting doctors who perform them.
- Weeks after the fight had been lost, Gingrich called on the House to continue pushing to defund Planned Parenthood. "This is a good fight…I think that Planned Parenthood should be defunded.”
- Gingrich supports an Ohio bill that would ban abortion as early as six weeks—before many women even know they are pregnant.
Gingrich’s “aggressive strategy to defend life” apparently doesn’t extend to women – he also calls for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, which would take away health care from millions of women (and families) to whom it will give access.
