Romney Tries to Soften Birth Control Message
Romney Tries to Soften Birth Control Message : Shots - Health News : NPR
Once again the Romney campaign tries to blur the distinction between employers and employees in their deceptive ad. Health care plans are part of your compensation, and employers don’t generally get to tell you how you may or may not spend your compensation. The Federal Mandate is not an attack on Religious Freedom, it’s an attack on Religious Sectarian Discrimination. Catholic Employers should not be able to ban atheists, Buddhists, or Protestants from receiving birth control as part of their health care package.
Obama has used both birth control and abortion as wedge issues for months, in an effort to woo female voters. And he has been leading with women.
In fact, a new Gallup poll of voters in a dozen swing states found that abortion is the top concern for women, vastly outperforming jobs, health care and the economy.
But it’s a balancing act for both candidates because Obama’s requirement that most health insurance plans pay for contraceptive coverage is unpopular with the Catholic Church — and so with some Catholic voters in those swing states.
Romney, on the other hand, is strongly with the church and against the birth-control mandate, along with his proposal to defund Planned Parenthood. He actually got in trouble earlier in the spring when he initially suggested he would not support a Senate amendment to overturn the birth control requirement.
But birth control is popular, as is Planned Parenthood, which gets some 40 percent of its funding from federal and state governments.
So now Romney is out with a new ad.
“You know, those ads saying Mitt Romney would ban all abortions and contraception seemed a bit extreme, so I looked into it,” says a woman identified as Sarah Minto. “Turns out Romney doesn’t oppose contraception at all. In fact, he thinks abortion should be an option in cases of rape, incest, or to save a mother’s life.”
The ad is not that surprising given that recent polls show a narrowing of the gender gap, with Romney catching up with women.
But women’s health groups are not amused.
“This is an ad designed to deceive women,” said Planned Parenthood Action Fund Executive Vice President Dawn Laguens. “The Romney team knows that Mitt Romney’s real agenda for women’s health is deeply unpopular — ending safe and legal abortion, ending Planned Parenthood’s preventive care that millions of people rely on, and repealing the Affordable Care Act and the coverage of birth control with no copay.”