Republican Leaders Cannot Walk Away From Their Own Anti-Woman Agenda

For Immediate Release: Oct. 14, 2016

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Washington DC — Republican party leadership and vulnerable candidates are reeling in the wake of accusations of sexual assault against Donald Trump. Yet as they try to distance themselves from the candidate at the top of the ticket, there’s one inconvenient fact standing in the way: These are the same politicians who have spent years doing all they can to attack women’s basic health and rights.

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

“Outrage at Trump’s behavior rings hollow when it comes from politicians who built their careers pushing policies straight out of Donald Trump’s locker room. Their hypocrisy stinks worse than dirty gym socks. These politicians may want to wash their hands of Trump, but they cannot wash away their record of attacking women’s basic right to health care. Americans rejected that anti-women agenda in 2012, and they will do so again this November. Politicians who refuse to stand with women will pay a price for it at the ballot box.”

This isn’t a new lesson for Republican leadership:

• In 2012, after a loss with a historic gender gap, the RNC commissioned an autopsy report that looked at, among other things, just why the party had alienated a majority of women voters. It found “There is growing unrest within the community of Republican women frustrated by the Party's negative image among women.”

• In 2014, a report by Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS and the conservative American Action Network, titled “Republicans and Women Voters: Huge Challenges, Real Opportunities,” was leaked. Among its conclusions were that Republicans “fail to speak to women in the different circumstances in which they live,” that female voters see the GOP as “intolerant,” “lacking in compassion” and “stuck in the past,” that women are “barely receptive” to Republican’ policies, and the party does “especially poorly” with women in the Northeast and Midwest.

Yet, despite those lessons, Congress, under the leadership of Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan and John Boehner, have spent years continuing to attack women’s health care. In the past year and a half alone, they voted 24 times to restrict women’s access to health care — and nine of those votes would have specifically prevented low-income patients from accessing health care at Planned Parenthood health centers. In 2013, party leadership in the House even tried to block renewal of the Violence Against Women Act.

These are the politicians who have adopted one of the most extreme platforms in the history of the party, looking to ban abortion outright and even, for the first time in history, calling to defund Planned Parenthood in the platform itself.

Background: Vulnerable Republican candidates have been legislating attacks on women for years

New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte:

• Sen. Kelly Ayotte voted six times to block care at Planned Parenthood health centers.

• Ayotte has voted against equal pay legislation multiple times, introducing instead a “stripped-down version” of the Paycheck Fairness Act that severely cut its protections against discrimination.

Nevada Rep. Joe Heck:

• Rep. Joe Heck has voted eight times to block patients from care at Planned Parenthood health centers.

• Heck called theHobby Lobby Supreme Court decision, a “reasonable decision.”

• Heck said that the ACA's birth control benefit, which ensures that women have access to no-copay birth control had "nothing to do" with women's health.

• In Congress, Heck cosponsored dangerous so-called “personhood” legislation.

• Heck cosponsored a bill that would ban abortion starting at  20 weeks, with no exception for rape or incest. The bill would also criminalized doctors who did not comply with the law.

• Heck votedto block consideration of the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would have addressed the gender pay gap.

Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey:

• Sen. Pat Toomey has voted to block patients from accessing care at Planned Parenthood health centers seven times –– including a vote in favor of shutting down the entire federal government over funding for Planned Parenthood services.

• Pat Toomey is as extreme as it gets when it comes to access to abortion. Toomey supports putting doctors who perform abortions into jail.

• Toomey has voted multiple times against the Paycheck Fairness Act.

North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr:

• Sen. Richard Burr Burr has voted eight timesto defund Planned Parenthood. And prevent Planned Parenthood health centers from providing birth control, cancer screenings, and STI testing for over a million Americans.

• Burr cosponsored the Blunt Amendment, which would expand employer’s ability to block access to birth control. And he said he was “pleased” by the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision. This decision allows employers to deny women access to affordable birth control.