Planned Parenthood Action Fund Condemns Offensive Joe Heck Radio Ads Targeting Latino Community

For Immediate Release: May 31, 2016

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Las Vegas, NV — Yesterday, a Super PAC supporting Nevada Republican Senate Candidate Joe Heck targeted the Latino community with race-baiting Spanish language radio ads that demonize the services many women turn to Planned Parenthood for daily.

 

Statement from Rosita Castillo, Nevada Advocates for Planned Parenthood Affiliates, Promotora:

 

“This ad is not only offensive and insulting, it has no basis in reality. Does Joe Heck think that African American and Latina women are somehow less capable of making their own personal health care decisions than other women?

 

“As a Promotora educating the community on sexual and reproductive health care, I hear from the Latino community on a daily basis. The vast majority of Latinas in Nevada believe that decisions about women’s health care should be left to a woman and her doctor in consultation with her faith and her family — not by politicians. Joe Heck’s attacks on women's health care and access to safe, legal abortion are a direct attack on our community and we will not stand for it.

 

“Joe Heck’s attacks on women's health and safe, legal abortion aren't new. But using race-baiting to further an ideological attack on women is a new low. This is yet another example of the extreme lengths Joe Heck and his Super PAC donors will go to ban access to abortion in Nevada. It’s truly a shame that a doctor, who should understand the very real barriers that Latina and African American women face when trying to access high-quality preventive and reproductive health care in Nevada, would pander so clearly to a small faction of anti-abortion extremists.”

 

Background: Joe Heck is dangerous for Nevada women

 

• Joe Heck has voted EIGHT times to block patients from care at  Planned Parenthood.

 

• Joe Heck called thedeeply unpopularHobby Lobby Supreme Court decision – which gave bosses the ability to deny their employees birth control – a “reasonable decision”.

 

• Joe Heck said that the ACA's birth control benefit, which has ensured that more than 55 million women have access to no-copay birth control, had "nothing to do" with women's health.

 

• Joe Heck voted against considering the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would address the gender pay gap. On average, women in Nevada are paid 85 cents for every dollar that men make. Even more frustrating is that African American women make just 65 cents, and Latinas only make 52 cents for every dollar paid to men.

 

• As a state Senator, Heck voted against funding for a rape crisis center and domestic violence prevention program. His campaign’s excuse was that he didn’t have time to read the bill.

 

Background: Latino Support for Abortion

 

• The vast majority of Latino voters believe women should have the right to make their own decisions about having an abortion even if they do not agree themselves, according to a recent poll commissioned by NLIRH.

 

• In addition, 69 percent of Latino voters said they believe abortion should remain legal regardless of whether church leaders oppose it.

 

• The poll finds that most Latinos still aren't aware of the state laws restricting abortion access that have been passed over the last few years. When they learned about the laws, however, 65 percent of the Latino voters surveyed in Spanish said they thought the state laws were a step in the wrong direction.