What Would Ann Do?

It's our time to put a president in the White House who cares about women's health, take back our country, and move once again with progress and commitment to the future. That's what Hillary Clinton said when she suspended her presidential campaign and that's what my mother Ann Richards would say if she were alive today. When Mom lost her reelection bid for governor of Texas to George Bush in 1994, she didn't just get over it, she went on with it -- on to campaign with gusto for hundreds of women and other progressive candidates across the country.

Mom required only one thing of the many folks who asked for her campaign help: a 100 percent belief in women's rights. If they didn't have it, they were out of luck. But if they stood up for women as she did, she would travel to the ends of the earth for them.

That's why if she were still around she would suit up and campaign for Senator Obama in the farthest corner of the farthest state. Mom would see in him a leader with a long and consistent record for standing up for women's health care, a man raised by a single mother, a father of two daughters, and a husband who supports women's rights 100 percent.

She'd see in him what we at the Planned Parenthood Action Fund see: a leader who will improve access to quality health care for women, a partner who will support and protect a woman's right to choose, and a president who will invest in prevention programs that help prevent unintended pregnancies and reduce the need for abortion.

Elections are about choices, and Mom would have said that women voting for John McCain would be like chickens choosing to vote for the Colonel. In 25 years in Washington, John McCain has consistently voted against women's health. McCain wants to overturn Roe v. Wade, opposes basic family planning programs, and voted against insurance coverage for birth control. He has a zero percent voting record from Planned Parenthood.

As a health care provider to millions of patients every year, we take our endorsement process very seriously. In this election, the choice is very clear. Our national Action Fund board has voted unanimously to recommend an endorsement of Senator Barack Obama for president. That recommendation has been sent on for ratification to our local action organizations, who represent the interests of all 103 affiliates.

This year we have seen historic numbers of women, young people, and millions of new voters engaged for the first time in the political process. This is the kind of social change that Mom believed in and fought for her entire life. And that's the kind of work we at Planned Parenthood are all about.

Planned Parenthood Action Fund polling finds that more than half of women voters in battleground states have no idea where Senator McCain stands on women's health issues, and even worse, half of the women who support him describe themselves as pro-choice. The good news is when these women learn about his record of voting against access to family planning and sex education, as well as his opposition to Roe v. Wade, they become much less likely to support him.

That's why we are out there, engaging and educating voters on the records of both Senator Obama and Senator McCain, and turning out the key voters who will be instrumental in electing a pro-choice, pro-women's health care president.

In her famous speech at the Democratic convention twenty years ago, Mom said, "I think of all the things that never would have happened and all the people who would have been left behind if we had not reasoned, and fought, and won those battles together." Like Hillary, she would be imploring all voters to not let this moment slip away. She would agree that we have come too far and accomplished too much. Let's link arms and get on with the future, she'd say. It's time to elect Barack Obama president.

Cecile Richards, daughter of the late Ann Richards, former governor of Texas, is president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund.

Comments

[eternalkerri]

Wait WOAH! You cannot say those things.....they're logical. THEY HAVE NO PLACE IN POLITICS!!!

[kellygrrrl]

Hilary Rosen on Hardball right now speaking about 2004 election - 20 million women did NOT vote

I sure hope those 20-mil are planning to show up and speak up for the rights in '08

[kellygrrrl]

all women considering taking "Punitive Action" against the DNC
by voting for McLame should stop and ask themselves:

"Who am I really punishing?"

[tuttlemsm]

For one thing, all those kids that McCain wants to send into Iran.

[tuttlemsm]

If McCain gets his way and we invade Iran, we may really begin to suffer a little.

[WilliamGossett]

Too late now...

The anti-Roe v. Wade side has won

[auntiecairo]

Ms. Richards - loved your Mom - glad to see you are carrying forward her ideals -- thanks for a great post. Have been amused by anyone who implies Obama is sexist - especially Clinton supporters - as much as I liked Bill Clinton he's hardly a champion for women and set sexual harassment back a decade. . .

[jazzman]

Wow! Look at all the goodies the disenchanted Hillary supporters can look forward to if they choose not to support Obama and vote for McCain or 'present' instead. If they decide to get their revenge by with holding support from the Democrats this year I just hope they don't expect to look their daughters in the eye and say they fought for their future.

[brilliantatbreakfast]

Thank you for posting this. Your mother's voice is sorely missed this year. I hope your words make some of the angry Hillary supporters who are planning to cut off their daughter's noses to spite their faces and vote for McCain think again. Because doing so gets "revenge" for nothing, and sentences their daughters to a world that resembles Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale."

[andvoodoo2]

Divisive much? You aren't helping your party or your candidate. No real Democrat would vote for McCain so LET IT GO.

[CEKChuck]

"Mom would have said that women voting for John McCain would be like chickens choosing to vote for the Colonel", lol! My new facebook quote. Looks like Cecile has inherited some of her mom's sharp wit.

[kellygrrrl]

you beat me to it!

I just copied it and was going to post:

This Is My Favorite New Line!!!!!!

viral

[BatedBreath]

Thank you for your encouraging words. Your mother and Miss Molly are sorely missed.

[ADVOCATE4ZPG]

Instead of DEPENDING on the election of Obama, the right-to-choose(?) cohort should begin to construct a "multi-layered" defence of their position. BEGIN with State legislatures. Laws contravening Roe vs. Wade et al. will begin there if there is a successful, Federal court challenge.
IMPLEMENT a plan to stockpile (somewhere?) a bountiful supply of "day-after" medication available immediately and Internet-sourced. A similar stockpile of RU-486 (actual name?) should be created on or offshore, Internet-sourced, and mail-deliverable. Surgical abortions would be arranged in sympathetic states, Canada, and offshore..­....(withi­n 500-1000 miles....?)

Of course, the anti-abortion cohort would attempt to buy up and shut down the supplies, but like those during the U.S. "Prohibition," nimbleness would be necessary until the remainder of the population became fed up..... Their expenditures in addition would help exhaust their cause....

By the way, the mere propect of a MASSIVE, "Prohibiti­on"-scaled resistance will help those on the Supreme Court to rethink the folly of a reversal. They must be reminded of the PRICE($$$) and chaos they WILL ensue....

ANOTHER layer of defence: Senators who will block the confirmation of ADDITIONAL justices with an "anti-abortion" bias.....

Faced with a long, tough fight, even the anti-abortion BULLIES can be cowed.....!

[TheIndependenceParty]

Good suggestion! The Religious Reich, as I refer to them, have come together from bottom (county and township) to top (The White House) and the same strategy will work in defense of Human Rights, including the right to Choose.

[clevelandchick]

It is vital to have a person in the White House that is pro-choice because the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education and the Department of Women's Health right now under the Bush Administration is promoting abstinence-only education over sex-education and spreading lies about birth control, sexually transmitted diseases and abortion. They have defunded any state's sex education that is not abstinence only. Our federal government has instituted a gag-rule on foreign aid agencies that provide assistance to third world countries - they're not allowed to talk about birth control or even provide condoms.

Do not minimize the effect our government agencies can have on state government, the states rely on federal funding from these agencies for programs. Just ask any teacher or non-profit director. Therefore don't minimize the effect of an anti-choice, anti-birth control President that dictates the policies of these agencies.

[kenr]

Cecile - good on ya. Your mother was a legend, and every day I lament that she - and Molly - did not live to see this moment. I miss both their voices.

[chriss0114]

Thanks for being SO ON POINT!

Your mother is smiling!

[wwstaebler]

McCain vis a vis women's issues? As your mother would say: "That dog won't hunt."

[OnTheCusp]

I implore every thinking person to 1) buy a copy of "The Handmaid's Tale," 2) read it and 3) pass it on to someone younger than you, male or female. Everybody, all of us, need to let the younger generation know what life will be headed towards if we somehow let John Wayne McCain into the white house.
Don't think it can't get any darker, folks! It most certainly will if McCain wins.
Or at least look it up on Wikipedia....The Handmaid's Tale.....if it doesn't scare the crap out of you then you're not paying attention!!!
I see "I miss Bill Clinton" bumperstickers all the time, but I miss Ann and Molly more!!!!

[TheIndependenceParty]

And as a man I do too. Bill Clinton is no hero to me. He was a fair president, and a disgusting example of male behavior.

[Soundofthunder]

The fact there are women who are against a woman's right to choose is no less bizarre than an organization called "Christians Against Christ".

SOT