Planned Parenthood Celebrates Mills’ Historic Victory
For Immediate Release: Nov. 14, 2018 (Updated: Nov. 8, 2018, 3:47 p.m.)
Following Janet Mills’ historic victory as the first woman elected governor of Maine, Planned Parenthood Maine Action Fund released the following statement:
Nicole Clegg, Vice President of Public Policy
“Janet Mills has been a champion for women’s rights and reproductive rights throughout her career and an outspoken advocate for Planned Parenthood and our patients. Tonight, Maine voters overwhelmingly selected Janet Mills to protect their access to affordable health care---including sexual and reproductive health care.”
With increased attention in the gubernatorial campaign on access to abortion it’s important to remember voters support safe and legal abortion and do not want Roe v. Wade to be overturned and that anti-abortion policies are likely hurting Republicans electorally.
Recent research shows that 50 percent of voters are more likely to vote for a candidate who supports women having the right to abortion while fewer than 20 percent want a candidate who is against women having the right to an abortion
When the Planned Parenthood Maine Action Fund PAC endorsed Janet Mills for governor Planned Parenthood supporters shared their reasons for supporting Mills:
-
Marissa Laramie, a student at the University of New England, spoke about her and Mills’ shared belief in the importance of access to affordable health care and called on her peers and high schoolers who are or will be 18 to get involved in this election: “It’s up to us to elect leaders like Janet Mills who will protect our rights. But she can’t do it alone. Just as we need her, she needs us. She needs us to register to vote, to find our polling places, and to make a plan to vote, either by absentee ballot or on election day.”
- Sara Gilfenbaum, a Planned Parenthood supporter, shared her experience obtaining a safe and legal abortion and her fears that Shawn Moody, an opponent of abortion and reproductive rights, would turn back the clock: “Unlike Shawn Moody, Janet understands that politicians don’t belong in our doctors’ offices. The decision to end a pregnancy, choose adoption, or become a parent is a decision for you to make.”
###