In the U.S. Senate there have been a number of anti-women’s health votes the past few weeks. Thankfully, each of the votes has had some Republican support for women’s health and rights, and Senator Kirk has stood strong on all of the anti-women’s health votes.
As a Republican, I am proud of Senator Mark Kirk for standing up and voting for what is best for the women of Illinois. Senator Mark Kirk stood up to the agenda of those politicians opposed to women’s health and voted against the latest attacks to defund Planned Parenthood and ban abortion at 20 weeks.
Sen. Kirk’s pro-women’s health position reflects the views of the majority of voters.
As a Republican I support our Party’s founding principles of smaller and smarter government with commonsense approaches to both spending and other important issues, including reproductive health.
Those same principals are why I support Planned Parenthood and the work they do in our community and across America. Investments in family planning programs, including the basic health services that Planned Parenthood provides every day to people are commonsense investments in the health and economic success of our country. “Defunding” Planned Parenthood would threaten access to health care for 2.7 million women, men and young people nationwide.
Senator Kirk continued to stand strong by voting against a 20-week abortion ban. Abortion later in pregnancy is very rare — nearly 99 percent of abortions in the U.S. occur before 21 weeks — and often happens under complex circumstances. Because these laws prevent doctors from giving their patients the best health care possible, leading medical organizations (like Physicians for Reproductive Health and the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) condemn them — as do the American people: When Americans understand the real-world impact of this extreme ban, a solid 60 percent of voters oppose it, and a strong majority of voters — Republicans (62 percent), Democrats (78 percent), and Independents (71 percent) — say this is the wrong issue for Congress and their state legislators to be spending time on.
Illinois is fortunate to have a strong senator who will vote for what is best for our country. Senator Kirk understands that this shouldn’t be about politics but about women’s health and we applaud him for that.
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