IPM: Ahead of the debate, we’ve got the receipts

To: Interested Parties
From: Planned Parenthood Action Fund 
Re: Ahead of the debate, we’ve got the receipts
Date: Tuesday, September 10, 2024

There is only one candidate for president on the debate stage tonight who will protect abortion rights and her name is Kamala Harris. 

Vice President Harris’s record on protecting our reproductive freedom — including abortion — is unquestionable. Here are the receipts: 

The Biden-Harris administration: 

• issued two executive orders on protecting and securing access to reproductive health care services in an effort to lessen the harm of the abortion crisis — leveraging Medicaid to support patient travel, opening up supplemental Title X funds, and making some abortion care available through the VA;
• responded to misinformation by launching ReproductiveRights.gov — an essential source of accurate, trusted information about health care and access;
• issued HIPAA guidance and most recently a HIPAA rule to strengthen privacy protections for reproductive health care; and
• made history when Vice President Harris became the first vice president ever to visit a Planned Parenthood health center.

As a senator, Kamala Harris made reproductive freedom a cornerstone of her work. 

• She fought to improve Black maternal health outcomes by introducing many maternal health bills, including the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act. 
• She blocked Senate Republicans from defunding Planned Parenthood and advocated relentlessly for the Title X program, specifically against the domestic gag rule.
• She championed birth control access, supporting multiple bills to increase affordability of contraception, as well as defending the Affordable Care Act and supporting access to sex education. 
• In the Senate Judiciary Committee, she was a leader on reproductive rights — especially when she fought to keep the issue front and center during the pivotal Supreme Court confirmation hearings of now-Justices Kavanaugh and Barrett. 
• She championed efforts to protect and expand access to sexual and reproductive health and rights around the globe by cosponsoring the Global HER Act to permanently end the global gag rule.
• She fought to protect nationwide access to abortion at the federal level by co-sponsoring the Women’s Health Protection Act. 
• She worked to end insurance coverage bans on abortion care by co-sponsoring the Equal Access to Abortion Coverage or EACH Act. 
• Then-Sen. Harris received Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Champion of Women’s Health Care Award in 2018 for her outstanding contributions to sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Trump, on the other hand, has shown us exactly where he stands on the issue of abortion and all things reproductive health care. And, we are currently living in the context of his dangerous actions from his first term as president. 

Trump has not changed his mind or moderated his position on abortion. He is simply losing on this issue and desperate to fool people into voting for him. Here’s just a glimpse of his highlight reel:

• Trump stacked the federal courts with judges whose hostility to reproductive health was longstanding, including three Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe.
• Trump and his administration repeatedly backed a national abortion ban.
• Trump manipulated the COVID-19 pandemic to restrict access to medication abortion and laid the foundation for the current legal battle over mifepristone.
• Trump consistently leveraged his administration to undermine access to birth control.

And don’t forget about the threat of Project 2025. The architects of this plan also know where Trump stands on abortion, and it’s why they included these suggestions in their 900-page policy outline for his next term:

• Allowing the government to monitor people’s pregnancies and potentially prosecute them if they miscarry
• Allowing employers to deny workers access to birth control
• Banning medication abortion and reversing the FDA’s approval of mifepristone
• Trying to enforce the 1800s Comstock laws to ban abortion nationwide – despite settled understanding of the law from Congress and the courts that these laws do not apply to legal abortions.
• “Defunding” abortion providers and obstructing access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care nationwide.

So, no matter what is said on the debate stage tonight remember this: When it comes to protecting our reproductive freedom, Vice President Kamala Harris is the only choice in this election. 

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Planned Parenthood Action Fund is an independent, nonpartisan, not-for-profit membership organization formed as the advocacy and political arm of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. The Action Fund engages in educational, advocacy, and limited electoral activity, including grassroots organizing, legislative advocacy, and voter education