''Nope. Zero,'' the president said to the speaker. Mr. Boehner tried again. ''Nope. Zero,'' Mr. Obama repeated. ''John, this is it.''
At one crucial moment in the game of chicken over a looming shutdown of the United States government, President Obama and the House speaker, John A. Boehner, faced off in the Oval Office. Mr. Boehner, a Republican heavily outnumbered in the room by Democrats, was demanding a provision to restrict financing to Planned Parenthood and other groups that provide abortions. Mr. Obama would not budge. (New York Times, 04/10/2011)
Barack Obama
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About Barack Obama
Since taking the oath of office, President Obama has been a champion of women’s health. He proposed and signed into law the new health care law, which has advanced women’s health more than at any other point since Medicare and Medicaid were signed into law in the 1960s.
The historic Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act singularly increases health care access for millions of women and ends discrimination based on “pre-existing conditions,” such as breast cancer and pregnancy, and where women have been routinely charged higher premiums than men.
President Obama has fought to protect women's right to choose, supports comprehensive sex education to keep our young people healthy and safe, and understands the importance of investing in prevention programs such as family planning services and lifesaving breast cancer screenings.
In fact, the president worked to increase women’s access to family planning services under Medicaid by including a commonsense state waiver in his proposed budget. And with one stroke of his pen, President Obama overturned the global gag rule, so once again millions of women around the world can have access to critical reproductive health care services.
He also initiated a program and granted 75 million dollars annually for evidenced-based sex education and teen pregnancy prevention, in contrast to the failed abstinence-only policies spearheaded by the previous administration.
And President Obama has stood up for women’s health even when it was targeted by the other side.
In spring 2011, our country faced a government shutdown over the budget. As a condition to ending the stalemate, House Speaker John Boehner twice proposed ending funding for Planned Parenthood to provide health services. President Obama had two words: “Nope. Zero.”
He didn’t do what was easy; he did what was right. That’s why it matters to have a president who cares about women, and their health and security.
There is no higher priority for Planned Parenthood Action Fund than re-electing President Obama. As anti-women’s health advocates attack him on a daily basis, the call to fight back has never been more urgent.
President Obama has fought for us, now we must fight to ensure that our greatest ally can continue to advance women’s health.
"For too long, international family planning assistance has been used as a political wedge issue, the subject of a back and forth debate that has served only to divide us. I have no desire to continue this stale and fruitless debate. It is time that we end the politicization of this issue. In the coming weeks, my Administration will initiate a fresh conversation on family planning, working to find areas of common ground to best meet the needs of women and families at home and around the world.” (White House, 1/24/09)
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