Cecile Richards Statement on GOP Calls to Write In Pence
For Immediate Release: Oct. 8, 2016
“For over a year, the Republican standard-bearer, Donald Trump, has aggressively and unapologetically targeted people in America with violent, sexist, racist, hateful speech, including calling Mexicans ‘rapists,’ women ‘pigs’ and ‘dogs,’ telling Black people they are ‘living in hell,’ and proposing to ban all Muslims from entering our country. Through it all, Republican Senators like Kelly Ayotte – who called Trump a ‘role model’ last week – and Joe Heck maintained their support for Trump and are only now changing course. They are switching from a man who condones sexual assault to Mike Pence, a man who made his career crusading against women, including trying to redefine rape and criminalize abortion, and leading the Republican party’s charge to defund Planned Parenthood.
“Trading Trump’s violent language for Pence’s devastating policy proposals is a horrifying substitution. Donald Trump and Mike Pence have been partners in the same agenda – and that's what we have to reject.”