Planned Parenthood to promote birth-control access at Obama events
Planned Parenthood activists in Missouri plan to have supporters stationed in all three communities that Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, plans to visit on Wednesday.
In a release, the organization’s leaders said that supporters “are anxious to hear what Senator Obama has to say about supporting and protecting Missouri families. Advocates will be at each location in their pink STAND UP FOR WOMEN’S HEALTH t-shirts.
“For women, access to birth control and breast and cervical cancer screening is basic healthcare. But the Blunt and Bush Administrations have made it increasingly difficult for women and families to have access to this preventive care,” the release says.
“Missouri families are dealing with hard decisions right now,” said Kellie Freeman Rohrbaugh, with the Planned Parenthood of Southwest Missouri Action Fund. “When a working mom has to choose between paying for her child care and her birth control, we have a moral obligation to demand more of our elected officials.”
Rohrbaugh, by the way, had circulated similar fliers last month when the GOP presumptive nominee, John McCain, held a town hall in Springfield, Mo., which has a Planned Parenthood clinic (it does NOT provide abortions at that site).
“Working families are struggling with high fuel and food costs,” said Alison Gee, speaking for ADVOCATES, the Political Arm of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region. “The last thing they need to worry about is the cost of birth control. Missouri women and families deserve an administration in Washington, DC that will make birth control accessible and affordable to all who need it.”
I’ll take it a step further. Let’s offer a $500 a year cash bonus to any woman on public assistance who has Norplant or other persistent contraception installed for an entire year, and who does not become pregnant or give birth at any time during that year. That oughta take care of the whozyababyzdaddy problem.