Planned Parenthood Action Fund Says GOP Platform Is "Mitt Romney’s Agenda Every Bit as Much as It’s Todd Akin’s Agenda"
For Immediate Release: Jan. 27, 2013
WASHINGTON – Planned Parenthood Action Fund President Cecile Richards released the following statement on the Republican Party’s platform, in the wake of remarks from Rep. Todd Akin and Rep. Steve King.
“The appalling and ignorant remarks from Todd Akin and Steve King are a window into the Republican Party leadership’s dangerous agenda for women’s health, which was cemented in the platform approved today.
“This isn’t about one or two members of Congress – it’s part and parcel of what we’ve seen all year from Congress, state legislatures, and candidates for office, including Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.
“The Republican Party platform approved today is Mitt Romney’s agenda every bit as much as it’s Todd Akin’s agenda. It shows a fundamental disregard for women and women’s health.
“The Romney/Ryan platform is completely out of touch with most Americans, who consistently support access to safe and legal abortion. Americans – including the majority of mainstream Republicans – understand that politics have no place in a woman’s personal medical decisions. Those should be left to her, her family, and her doctor.”
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have vowed to overturn Roe v. Wade, have said they support extreme “personhood” measures that would give full constitutional rights to fertilized eggs, have vowed to defund Planned Parenthood’s preventive care including cancer screenings and birth control, and have promised to shut down the nation’s family planning program that more than five million people a year rely on for birth control, cancer screenings, and other care.