Top Adviser Affirms Romney's Intent to Overturn Roe v. Wade
For Immediate Release: Jan. 27, 2013
Washington - Planned Parenthood Action Fund Executive Vice President Dawn Laguens released the following statement responding to Romney campaign senior advisor Ed Gillespie's comments on CNN's State of the Union and FOX News Sunday about Mitt Romney's vow to end safe and legal abortion:
"This election offers a stark choice between whether women should make their own medical decisions or politicians should make these decisions for them. President Obama trusts women to make decisions about their health care, and today Mitt Romney's campaign reminded us yet again that Mr. Romney wants politicians to make these decisions.
"Mitt Romney would work to overturn Roe v. Wade. His campaign made that clear again today. A Mitt Romney presidency would take women back not just four years, but 40 years -- and not just on abortion, but on access to birth control, cancer screenings and basic health care.
"Today, one of Mitt Romney's top advisers was once again dishonest in claiming that the Affordable Care Act provides federal funding for abortion. This is simply untrue. The truth is that federal funding has not been used to provide abortions for more than 30 years, except in very rare cases. Mitt Romney is misleading the public about the facts because his views on women's health are deeply unpopular. The more that voters, especially women, know about Mitt Romney's plans to end federal funding for Planned Parenthood preventive services like birth control and cancer screenings, repeal the benefit providing birth control with no co-pay, and end safe and legal abortion, the less likely they are to vote for him."
The Romney/Ryan administration would:
- Overturn Roe v. Wade and end safe/legal abortion.
- The president has the power to end safe and legal abortion. According to the Washington Post, “The Supreme Court is certainly the only body that can overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion. But that does not mean the president does not hold sway over what abortion rights look like in a wide variety of ways,” such as regulating Medicaid, passing federal abortion regulations, and appointing Supreme Court judges.
- “Get rid” of Planned Parenthood, which would deny women access to birth control and cancer screenings.
- Would end the nation’s family planning program, which provides preventive care to nearly five million women, and cut off access to birth control for women who need it the most.
- Repeal the Affordable Care Act, undoing the greatest advance for women’s health in a generation, and cut off millions of women from no co-pay birth control and other preventive health services.
- Support “personhood” efforts, which have been rejected in MS, CO, and OK, and that could ban forms of birth control and IVF.