Cecile Richards: We Must Elect Clinton
For the past few weeks, our country has watched in horror as the presidential nominee of the Republican party has been exposed by his own words as a sexual predator, then stood on the debate stage in front of the country and displayed profound ignorance of women’s experiences.
I don’t know a single parent in the world who wants their sons to treat women the way Donald Trump does.
While watching Trump degrade women and bully immigrants, Muslims, and people with disabilities is terrifying for so many Americans, it’s even more alarming that the policies he’s proposing reflect those views and would take the next generation’s health, opportunities, and rights back decades.
And I don’t know a woman in the world who wants the next generation to have fewer rights than she had growing up.
But here’s what a Donald Trump presidency would mean to our futures, and the futures of the next generation.
He wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act. If this happens, those under 26 will no longer be guaranteed coverage under their parents' plans. Insurance companies will no longer be required to cover birth control with no copay, which costs one person up to $600 per year just on birth control pills. Preventive care - like cancer screenings and annual exams - will no longer be guaranteed without out-of-pocket costs. And over 20 millions Americans could lose their health care altogether.
At the same time, he is attacking providers who support communities by providing low-cost care. Both Donald Trump and his running mate, Mike Pence, have vowed to defund Planned Parenthood. What this really means is that millions of women who rely on critical federal health programs will lose access to breast and cervical cancer screenings, birth control, well-woman exams, and other preventive care at Planned Parenthood health centers. For many, these health centers are the only health-care provider they will see all year.
That is why we need Hillary Clinton in the White House. She has been fighting her whole career to ensure that people in America have access to health care. When the health insurance industry stopped her from passing health-care reform in the 1990s, she got right back up and worked with Republicans and Democrats in Congress to help create what is now called Children’s Health Insurance Program, which currently covers more than 8 million children nationally.
And to this day, Hillary Clinton continues that fight. She used the stage at the last presidential debate to embrace reproductive rights, which, according to a CNN a focus group, was the most favored moment of the entire debate.
The Trump-Pence administration would do whatever they could to stop women from making their own family-planning decisions. Donald Trump wants Roe v. Wade overturned and has said women should be punished for getting an abortion. While Trump wants to treat us like criminals, Hillary Clinton will stand up to protect our rights to make our own decisions about when to start a family.
While Donald Trump thinks pregnant women are an “inconvenience” for employers, Hillary Clinton believes we’re well overdue for catching up to the way families live and work today. We are the only industrialized nation that doesn’t have paid family leave. She will change that, giving peace of mind and economic security to not only new mothers, but to fathers and adoptive families, as well as others caring for a family member. That’s real progress that respects all our families.
It’s not just the wage gap that can hold women back. Many of the millions of students in college now will leave with loans that cost more than a down payment on a house. They need better options than being saddled with student debt for the rest of their lives - options such as Hillary’s plan to allow every student to graduate from a public college or university in their state tuition-free.
For the generation coming of age now, there’s a lot at stake in this election. Put simply, it’s a choice about what kind of country we want to be, what kind of future we want for this generation and the next one. Do we want a president who has worked her entire career to expand opportunities for women and families, who has made the health and well-being of children her priority? Or do we want someone who has spent his lifetime insulting and degrading women, and would set us back decades in ensuring equality and economic security for ourselves and our families?
I have been involved in turning out voters my whole life, including when my mom, Ann Richards, was running for governor of Texas. I’ve never seen an election with more on the line for women. We will not stand for a president who attacks and bullies us, and demeans our experiences. We deserve one who will work to expand opportunities. so everyone can build their futures and chase their dreams. Hillary Clinton has been doing this her entire life, which is why we need her in the White House.
Cecile Richards is the president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund.
Follow Cecile on Twitter.
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