Michigan Elects Reproductive Health Care Champions Sen. Debbie Stabenow and Gretchen Whitmer 

Lansing, MI – Michigan voters made their voices heard today as they voted to re-elect U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and to send Gretchen Whitmer to Lansing as their next governor. These women are tried and true reproductive health and rights champions. The people of Michigan can count on them to continue to protect people’s access to affordable health care and fight against the attacks that threaten that care.

Statement from Dawn Laguens, Executive Vice President, Planned Parenthood Action Fund:

This is a huge victory for women in Michigan. Sen. Stabenow is a unwavering champion for Planned Parenthood patients, and we congratulate her on her decisive win. She will continue to fight to protect access to affordable health care, birth control, and safe, legal abortion. Sen. Stabenow ran on a promise to continue to protect access to reproductive health care, and Michiganders can count on her keep it. She has fought tirelessly for Michigan, helping to block attempts by the Trump-Pence administration to take health care away from millions and ‘defund’ Planned Parenthood. Today, voters in Michigan made their voices heard: Protecting women’s health is a winning issue.

Statement from Lori Carpentier, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Michigan:

They tried to come for our health care, and we said no. They tried to come for our birth control, and we said no. They tried to come for our LGBT neighbors, for our immigrant friends, for families who just wanted a chance at a safer life, and we said no. Make no mistake: these results are a deafening rebuke of the conservative agenda that’s been harming Michigan’s women, families and teens for the last eight years. Planned Parenthood Advocates of Michigan and our 400,000 active supporters are ready to work alongside Gretchen Whitmer to make health care easier to access and more affordable for anyone who needs it. This is a great day for Michigan, and we are thrilled that the women of Michigan finally have a leader who understands them, who believes them, and who will represent them.

Planned Parenthood Votes together with Planned Parenthood advocacy and political organizations across the country  ran their largest midterm electoral program in history this year. In Michigan, Planned Parenthood Votes and MI Planned Parenthood Votes  joined the Win Justice coalition –– a multi-million dollar program in conjunction with Color of Change PAC, Center for Community Change Action, SEIU, and local political organizations. This program focused onmobilizing infrequent midterm voters, mostly young people and people of color, in three key states –– Florida, Michigan Nevada. In Michigan, the Win Justice coalition knocked on over 1.3 million of doors, made over 89,000 phone calls, and sent over 557,000 text messages to engage and mobilize infrequent midterm voters across 13 counties in Michigan.

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Planned Parenthood Action Fund is an independent, nonpartisan, not-for-profit membership organization formed as the advocacy and political arm of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. The Action Fund engages in educational, advocacy and electoral activity, including grassroots organizing, legislative advocacy, and voter education.

Planned Parenthood Votes advocates for candidates that support reproductive health care and rights, and is an independent expenditure political committee registered with the Federal Election Commission.