IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Yesterday, a column in the Denver Post further exposed Congressman Coffman’s blatant hypocrisy and explains why his out-of-touch positions will hurt him back home. Here are some key sections:
Family planning will once again be a defining issue in 2016, thanks to the GOP’s relentless attempts to defund Planned Parenthood — a move that would cause up to 25 percent of the organization’s 2.7 million patients to lose access to family planning and reproductive health care, reports the Congressional Budget Office.
Rep. Ken Buck also flip-flopped on his longstanding support for personhood, along with Rep. Mike Coffman, who also used Planned Parenthood’s logo in a campaign ad to increase his appeal to women.
When all the sound and fury of the GOP primary dies down, some Colorado Republicans may find themselves in a precarious position. How will they explain yet another flip on family planning to voters who believed in their moderate tales?
Coffman is already taking heat for campaigning with Planned Parenthood’s name in 2014 and voting to defund the organization a year later. He claims the organization’s services are easily replaced. But that’s simply not the case.
ICYMI: A flip-flop on family planning
Denver Post
After accusing Democrats of focusing too narrowly on reproductive healthcare in the 2014 elections, Republicans now can’t seem to focus on anything else.
Family planning will once again be a defining issue in 2016, thanks to the GOP’s relentless attempts to defund Planned Parenthood — a move that would cause up to 25 percent of the organization’s 2.7 million patients to lose access to family planning and reproductive health care, reports the Congressional Budget Office.
Rep. Ken Buck also flip-flopped on his longstanding support for personhood, along with Rep. Mike Coffman, who also used Planned Parenthood’s logo in a campaign ad to increase his appeal to women.
The progressive posturing didn’t last long. It took just 10 months for GOP victors to launch a series of attacks on family planning and reproductive health care services.
Since September, congressional Republicans voted three times to defund Planned Parenthood, launched four congressional investigations into the agency’s use of government money, threatened to shut down the federal government over funding, and ousted their own speaker. Next up: A Benghazi-like investigation likely to last well into 2016.
It also won’t reduce any federal funding for abortion, since it’s already prohibited by law.
What defunding Planned Parenthood will do, however, is deny thousands of women access to family planning, prenatal care, breast exams, and screenings for cervical cancer. No woman should be denied care for this highly preventable disease, which can destroy her fertility or take her life.
When all the sound and fury of the GOP primary dies down, some Colorado Republicans may find themselves in a precarious position. How will they explain yet another flip on family planning to voters who believed in their moderate tales?
Coffman is already taking heat for campaigning with Planned Parenthood’s name in 2014 and voting to defund the organization a year later. He claims the organization’s services are easily replaced. But that’s simply not the case.
The anti-abortion-sponsored GetYourCare.org site offers an eye-opening list of alternate providers for reproductive health care: It includes hundreds of elementary schools, homeless shelters, nursing homes, and even jails, reports RH Reality Check.
Six in 10 Americans oppose defunding Planned Parenthood, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. In fact, voters rated Planned Parenthood more favorably than any GOP candidate. That’s an issue sure to play out in the 2016 elections, where every candidate asking for a vote should have a clear explanation of where they stand on affordable access to family planning — and a consistent record to prove it.
Lisa Wirthman is a monthly columnist. Follow her on Twitter: @LisaWirthman
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