Women’s Health Champion Chris Murphy Wins Connecticut Senate Race; Victory for Connecticut Women
For Immediate Release: Jan. 28, 2013
WASHINGTON—Planned Parenthood Action Fund President Cecile Richards congratulated Representative Chris Murphy in his win for U.S. Senate from Connecticut this evening. Murphy made women’s health a key focus of the campaign. Murphy strongly emphasized his support for access to affordable birth control, funding for Planned Parenthood preventive health care, and access to safe and legal abortion.
“Tonight, voters in Connecticut put their faith in women to make their own health care decisions and in Chris Murphy to fight for them. Connecticut voters, especially women, resoundingly rejected an agenda that would turn the clock back 40 years on women’s health and rights. The Planned Parenthood Action Fund was proud to fight for Chris Murphy during this campaign, and we are looking forward to working with him on behalf of women in Connecticut and around the country.”
McMahon tried to portray herself as a moderate throughout this campaign, but during an editorial meeting with the Hartford Courant, she revealed her true agenda for women and their health, saying that she thought Catholic hospitals should be able to deny emergency birth control to rape survivors.
In October, Planned Parenthood Action Fund launched its “Don’t Be Fooled” campaign to educate Connecticut voters about Linda McMahon’s real record on issues of importance to women health and women’s economic security. The Action Fund and Planned Parenthood advocacy organizations in Connecticut sent out three pieces of mail in the state (452,289 total pieces), and made 141,122 calls to help widen the gender gap in favor of Murphy, highlighting the “troubling truth about Linda McMahon,” including her support of the Blunt amendment, which would allow bosses to refuse coverage of birth control in their health insurance plans, her position to allow hospitals to deny emergency contraception access to rape survivors, and her role depicting the exploitation of women as the president of WWE.
You can view the first mailer, “Don’t Be Fooled,” here.
You can view the second and third mailers here; and here.
Planned Parenthood Action Fund President, Cecile Richards joined women senators at a Murphy rally on behalf of the Planned Parenthood Federal PAC, saying “we need a champion in the Senate who will stand with Dick Blumenthal and defend the rights of women. That’s why we endorsed Chris Murphy to be the next U.S. senator from the state of Connecticut.”
According to Politico, Murphy made “access to abortion and birth control a key part of his message against the former WWE CEO. McMahon says she is a strong supporter of abortion rights but has said she would have supported the Blunt Amendment; a Republican bill that would have allowed employers to opt out of insurance mandates on moral grounds. To drive home the point that he would be better for women, Murphy on Tuesday campaigned with Planned Parenthood Action Fund President Cecile Richards; Sens. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Mary Landrieu (D-LA); and Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro.”