Republican Party Platform
RCRC's president comments

My friends, The Republican Party has adopted its platform. I am saddened to say that their positions on reproductive health care, sexuality education, and abortion would - if enacted into law - be harmful to women and families.

All people deserve access to legal health care services including abortion and emergency contraception. Health care professionals must provide information and care consistent with medical standards and must be responsive to the needs and wishes of individual patients -- without ideological restrictions. However, the Republican platform states that health care professionals, including pharmacists, must be able to refuse to participate in a service "for any reason." This blanket support for religious refusals is a disservice to patients.

The platform also calls for increasing funding for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, which have been proven time and again to be ineffective and harmful to our youth. Continuing to spend money on these dangerous programs is wasteful when we know that comprehensive sexuality education works and arms our children with medically-accurate information, not ideological scare tactics. And despite the unacceptably high rate of teenage pregnancy in this country, the platform would require parental consent before a teen could access contraception. 

Before Roe v. Wade, thousands of women were injured, became sterile, or died because they sought to end an unwanted pregnancy. The Republican platform supports a constitutional amendment that would outlaw abortion. I remember those times when women had to seek illegal abortions, and it was the young and the poor who suffered the most. We must not go back to that time.

Democrats and Republicans must work together for the benefit of healthy women and healthy families. As a nation, we need caring policies on sexuality education, family planning and contraception, affordable child care and health care, adoption services, and safe, legal abortion care. I urge our nation's political leaders to work towards ensuring that families and communities have the resources necessary to care for their children.

You can hear or read my response to the Democratic platform on our website.

Thank you for your interest.  

September 2008