This endorsement follows the national Planned Parenthood Action Fund endorsement of Secretary Clinton, marking the first time in the organization’s 100 year history that it has endorsed a candidate in a presidential primary.
Statement from Sarah Stoesz, President of the Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota Action Fund:
"Planned Parenthood will not take a back seat in this election, there’s too much at stake. It’s clear that reproductive health and rights are on the ballot in 2016. Every single Republican has pledged to block patients from accessing essential care at our clinics, to ban abortion, and roll back insurance coverage for birth control.
In our region, 65,000 people rely on Planned Parenthood each year for essential, life-saving care. In this election, the health care for millions—particularly young women and men, communities of color, low-income women, and the LGBT community, all of whom are hit the hardest by these recent attacks on reproductive health care—is at stake.
Secretary Clinton has been a steadfast champion her whole career, fighting to not only protect but also expand access to reproductive health care across the country and the world. As her decades-long legislative and advocacy record shows, she has made access to health care a driving issue throughout her political career. There is no greater champion."
Women’s health and Planned Parenthood are already front and center in the 2016 Presidential Race, with every single GOP candidate pushing dangerous policies that would block patients from accessing care at Planned Parenthood, which would disproportionately impact low-income women and women of color; ban safe, legal abortion; and roll back insurance coverage of birth control. In Congress and statehouses across the country women’s health is under attack.
In this region the legislatures in North Dakota and South Dakota, have been relentless in attacking women’s health, especially access to safe and legal abortion. They’ve made South Dakota, in particular, the most difficult state in the nation to access abortion. In Minnesota, where there are also lawmakers who want to roll back progress on women’s health, we have to stand strong.
Millions of Americans rely on Planned Parenthood for essential reproductive health care, millions of women access birth control through their health insurance, and nearly one-third of women will have an abortion in her lifetime. Every single Republican candidate has pledged to eliminate all three. Secretary Clinton has helped move the country forward on these issues—as First Lady, as Senator, as Secretary of State—and will keep moving the country forward as President.
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Founded in 1992, the Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota Action Fund is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit organization. As the political arm of PPMNS, we mobilize supporters of all parties to defend and increase access to family planning services and fact based, medically accurate sexuality education. We work to inspire and engage citizens to take up the cause of reproductive health and rights through education, electoral activity, grassroots organizing and legislative advocacy.
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