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McCain Has No Answers When It Comes to Women’s Health Care

Planned Parenthood Action Fund Rally Highlights 0% Rating 

(South Portland, ME)  John McCain’s campaign stop in South Portland gave local activists an opportunity to highlight his poor record on women’s health and rights. It came on the heels of Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s highly touted and often-downloaded ad showing his lack of understanding of basic women’s health care. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqnmXSXtDkQ.  To view photos of our rally check out our Flickr account. - http://www.flickr.com/photos/ppnne/show/  

“The more women learn about McCain, the more they realize he is anything but a moderate when it comes to their health and rights,” said Chris Quint, speaking of behalf of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund in Maine.  “We had a great turn out of activists today on short notice because his views are so extreme and out-of-touch with American women. He’s earned a 0% ranking from the Planned Parenthood Federation of America for over 100 votes in the Senate to restrict education, health care access, and reproductive rights. At the same time, he’s voted in favor of wasting more than a billion federal tax dollars on failed abstinence-only-until marriage programs that withhold lifesaving information from young people.” 

The national Planned Parenthood Action Fund is now running a 30-second TV spot critical of John McCain’s stance on birth control and women’s health issues. “The ad highlights McCain’s struggle to express an opinion or even remember his voting record on the issue,” said Quint.  “It’s a strong visual reminder that John McCain has no answer when it comes to protecting women's health makes a clear case that he and President Bush are alike when it comes to reproductive health care.” 

“Mainers are sick and tired of leaders like these two who are afraid to talk about prevention but eager to tout prohibitions; do not recognize the important health, economic, and social benefits of family planning; and are not capable of having or supporting honest conversations about sexual health. That's why we turned out dozens of activists to stand up for these issues at the campaign stop in Mill Creek today. That’s why we’re mobilizing voters as part of the One Million Strong campaign to bring pro-family planning, pro-choice voters to the polls in November.  And that’s why the Planned Parenthood of Northern New England Action Fund is doing more than we've ever done this year to elect a president who understands basic women’s health concerns.  We want the electorate to kNOw McCain.”