Planned Parenthood CEO: It’s an “Exciting Thing” to Hear Women “Tell Their Abortion Stories”

Opinion   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Oct 6, 2016   |   12:59PM   |   Washington, DC

On the campaign trail for Hillary Clinton, Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards told an Iowa crowd on Wednesday that she is “excited” to see so many women trying to normalize abortion by telling their stories.

Recently, abortion activists, including Richards and Hillary Clinton, have abandoned their rhetoric that abortion should be “safe, legal and rare.” The movement, along with the Democratic Party, has become solidly and openly pro-abortion. Through story-telling campaigns and other measures, abortion activists are working hard to convince Americans that aborting an unborn baby is normal, good and necessary for women to succeed.

Richards told the Daily Iowan on Wednesday:

For too many years, certainly for my generation, all issues about sex and sexuality were stigmatized. Abortion was, homosexuality was. And the exciting thing to me now is that young people are telling their stories and they are living out loud. More women are telling their abortion stories, and I told mine.  I think once we get out of the shadows, and I think the LGBT movement has led the way in this, it normalizes what should be an open and honest conversation.

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Clinton, Richards and other abortion supporters not only want Americans to accept abortion on demand, they also want taxpayers to pay for them. Abortion activists are working hard to repeal the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits direct taxpayer funding for abortions in Medicaid. Clinton promised that she would work to repeal Hyde if elected.

Even more important to the Planned Parenthood CEO is the next president’s power to nominate judges to the U.S. Supreme Court. The next person who wins the White House could have the power to nominate up to four judges to the high court and influence its decisions on abortion law for decades. Planned Parenthood does not want to see that power in the hands of Donald Trump, who promised to appoint pro-life judges to the high court.

Richards told the newspaper:

I think one of the biggest things that’s on the line is actually Roe vs. Wade and the Supreme Court. Donald Trump and Mike Pence have said they would appoint justices that would overturn Roe. Mike Pence has a very long career of trying to end safe and legal abortion and Donald Trump has said we should punish women who’ve had abortions, and of course they’ve come out to completely defund Planned Parenthood— which means that millions of folks who count on us for healthcare through public programs could no longer come to Planned Parenthood for preventive care like cancer screenings and family planning. So those issues are certainly on the ballot.

In contrast, Clinton promised abortion activists that she would appoint judges who will uphold Roe v. Wade and abortion on demand up until birth.

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