Ted Cruz, Who Focused His Campaign On Attacking Planned Parenthood and Women’s Health Care, Drops Out of Presidential Race

Washington, DC – Tonight Ted Cruz, who last year attempted to shut down the federal government in order to prevent women and men from getting health care at Planned Parenthood health centers, announced that he was dropping out of the 2016 presidential race.

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

“Attacking the care that Planned Parenthood health centers provide will never win elections. Ted Cruz learned that lesson tonight, and Donald Trump will learn the very same lesson in November. That’s because millions of women, men and young people each year rely on Planned Parenthood health centers for essential, life-saving care. One in five women will turn to Planned Parenthood for health care in her lifetime.

“The Republican party has embraced a platform that is anti-immigrant, strips rights away from communities of color, criminalizes abortion, prevents millions from accessing basic health care at Planned Parenthood, and cuts insurance coverage for birth control. It’s only fitting that the presumptive nominee is a bombastic bigot who has called immigrants ‘rapists,’ said he would punish women for having an abortion, repeatedly insults women, and has incited violence against people of color at his rallies. The more Donald Trump embraces this dangerous agenda, the more he alienates the American people."

Last year, Ted Cruz led an unpopular campaign to “defund” Planned Parenthood health centers by preventing Planned Parenthood health centers from serving any patients who rely on federally funded programs. Even though this move was opposed by the majority of the American people, he took it so far as to attempt to shut down the government rather than allow women and men to continue to get cancer screenings and birth control at Planned Parenthood health centers.

During his presidential campaign, Ted Cruz took it one step further, spending money to run ads that repeated dangerous and discredited flat-out lies attacking Planned Parenthood. He also announced that he chose Carly Fiorina, who was forced to drop out of the presidential race after being called out by a barrage of fact-checkers for lying about Planned Parenthood, as his Vice Presidential running mate.