Cecile Richards does not agree with Democrats who don’t believe reproductive rights should be used as a “litmus test” for Democratic candidates.
On Tuesday, the Planned Parenthood president went on Politico’s “Off Message” podcast to discuss women’s health and the recent news that some Democrats ― including chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) and California Governor Jerry Brown ― would be open to supporting anti-choice Democratic candidates in order to get more votes.
Richards said that she believes Luján is “totally wrong,” and she’s going to keep fighting to prove just that.
“It’s a shocking sort of misunderstanding of actually where the country is... which is overwhelmingly supportive of abortion rights,” Richards told Politico. “Fundamentally, perhaps [what Luján is] missing is, people can distinguish between their own personal feelings and what they believe government or politicians should do.”
Recent surveys have distinguished between support for legal abortion among Americans, and the percent of Americans who say abortion is morally wrong. Richards referred to voters who wouldn’t personally choose to have an abortion do still believe that the government shouldn’t have autonomy over a woman’s body and reproductive choices.
“People even in some of the most conservative areas of the country who may themselves personally say, ‘I would never choose to have an abortion,’ or, ‘That’s not something that’s right for me,’ also, absolutely do not believe politicians should be making decisions about pregnancy for women,” Richards said. “I think [Luján’s] totally wrong, and I’ll use every opportunity to convince him of that.”
Head over to Politico to read the full interview.
