What We're Reading - September 5
Spread the word
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Good morning, everyone! It’s a busy and exciting day here as we’re looking forward to another round of women’s health heroes taking the stage at tonight’s convention. Who are we most excited to see? None other than our own Cecile Richards, who is expected to speak around 8 p.m. tonight. We’ll have all that and more later, but in the meantime check out what we’re reading this morning…
A profile of our fearless leader, Cecile Richards. “Planned Parenthood [Action Fund]’s Cecile Richards Takes Center Stage in Charlotte” – “Richards, the daughter of that state’s former governor, Ann Richards, is in a position to give marching orders, and tonight she’ll be speaking at the Democratic National Convention, where plenty of her family’s history has been shared over the years. Her mother gave the keynote address in 1988 and Richards spoke briefly two decades later, celebrating Planned Parenthood[Action Fund]’s second-ever endorsement of a presidential candidate, Barack Obama. This year, Richards intends to go bolder judging from her conversations with staff about it on the [Women are Watching] bus. She aims to draw a picture for a national audience of what an America without Planned Parenthood would look like. "If you want to see what a Romney presidency might be like, look at Texas,' says Richards, referring to the system that was rated ‘worst in the nation’ under Republican Governor in a federal study this year, and where women seeking an abortion are required to undergo a vaginal ultrasound.”
Advocating for women’s health at the Democratic National Convention. “Planned Parenthood [Action Fund] Launches ‘Yes, We Plan’ Effort At DNC” – “CHARLOTTE — You see them everywhere on the streets surrounding the Democratic National Convention here: legions of women sporting bright pink ’Yes, We Plan’ T-shirts, featuring an image of a pack of birth control pills. It’s a not-so-subtle reminder that Planned Parenthood is here in a big, big way. Once an area of political agreement among many members of both parties, Planned Parenthood [Action Fund] has emerged as one of the defining partisan divides of the 2012 cycle. Both sides have aggressively courted the female vote. Republicans want to strip Planned Parenthood of all government support, reasoning that federal money is a government endorsement of abortion (though abortions represent a mere fraction of the group’s health services). Democrats and women’s health advocates say that eliminating the government dollars that go to the group as part of programs aimed at increasing access to birth control and breast cancer screenings will severely restrict preventative care for women, especially among the poor.”
Lots of talk about women’s health and access to affordable health care at the DNC. “Democrats in Charlotte take on women’s health” – “There may have been little mention of the ‘war on women,’ but a battle over women’s health care was raging during the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night. The battle lines were obvious — everything from a prime-time slot for one of the nation’s most prominent abortion rights activists to a video flashback of a Democratic icon, Sen. Ted Kennedy, battling Mitt Romney over his views on ‘choice.’ Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, led the charge against Republicans, telling the crowd: ‘I am proud to say that the Democratic Party believes that women have the right to choose a safe, legal abortion with dignity and with privacy.’ Keenan said Democrats support access to contraception, oppose mandatory ultrasound laws and ‘believe that rape is rape.’ ‘We believe that a woman should make health care decisions with her family, her doctor and her God,’ she continued. ‘And we believe that there is no room for politicians — especially politicians who don’t know how women’s bodies work.’”
