Cecile Richards on Vice Presidential Debate

Washington – Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, released the below statement in advance of tonight’s Vice Presidential debate:

“Tonight, the country meets Mike Pence, the public health nightmare who was the first member of Congress to try to defund Planned Parenthood. Mike Pence’s dangerous history of attacks on Planned Parenthood and reproductive care, coupled with Donald Trump’s unchecked hostility toward women, provide a terrifying preview of what life would be like for women under a Trump-Pence administration.”

“Pence’s dangerous record includes his one-man crusade to block patients from essential care at Planned Parenthood health centers, pushing a nationally condemned bill to discriminate against the LGBTQ community, putting his extreme politics ahead of science and good medicine as the state of Indiana faced an unprecedented HIV epidemic, and signing one of the most extreme abortion laws in the country, drawing criticisms even from his fellow Republicans.

“Tim Kaine is fighting alongside Hillary Clinton to bring our country together. Senator Kaine has been an ally to women while in the U.S. Senate, earning a 100% rating from Planned Parenthood Action Fund and fighting to protect patients who receive care at Planned Parenthood health centers in Virginia and across the country. With Hillary Clinton at the top of the ticket, they are running on the strongest reproductive health and rights platform in history. Planned Parenthood Action Fund is ready to fight alongside them all the way to the White House.”