PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Planned Parenthood Action Fund President Cecile Richards on Friday unloaded on Mitt Romney, painting the GOP presidential nominee as an extremist on women’s reproductive rights.
“In the next five months, the offensive you should go on is Mitt Romney’s own statements about what he would do to women’s health care if he was elected president,” Richards told a small group of progressive bloggers and activists at Netroots Nation. “There’s just no way to overstate how little people know what’s going on.”
Richards said that, compared to Mitt Romney, John McCain is a “mainstream moderate” on women’s issues. To have the Republican presidential nominee go on record saying “we’re going to get rid of Planned Parenthood … is just so far off the reservation,” she said.
Richards outlined the group’s plans leading up to the November election, which include an ad running in Florida, Iowa and Virginia. The ad, part of a $1.4 million buy, calls Romney “just wrong for women.” Planned Parenthood also endorsed President Obama to coincide with the release of the ad.
Richards on Friday defined the issue of birth control as an economic and voting right, not a social issue.
“The only people who think birth control is a social issue are folks who have never taken it, or never had to pay for it,” Richards said.
David Taintor
David Taintor is TPM’s News Editor. He contributes to TPM’s Livewire coverage, among other areas. David is from Chanhassen, Minnesota, where, yes, it gets very cold. Reach him at taintor [at] talkingpointsmemo.com
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