Mitt Romney: 'Planned Parenthood -- We're Gonna Get Rid of That'

***In light of ABLC's move to The Raw Story, I am reposting this for new readers.

Democrats are hitting back hard against the growing threat that Romney poses to women's health:

I get it, Mitt. You're pandering to the wingnuts who think that Planned Parenthood is out there aborting babies eight days a week. You're licking the boots of the wingnuts who believe that 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does is abortion services. After all, Senator Kyl said it on the floor of Congress, so it must be true. (Of course he later qualified his lie by saying it wasn't intended to be a factual statement. Funny, that -- somehow, almost everything that erupts from the face-holes of Republicans are not intended to be factual statements.) And let's not forget that in Wingnutopia, Planned Parenthood is erecting abortionplexes nationwide so that women can pop in for a quick mani/pedi and an abortion.

See, Mitt doesn't understand that those of us who are not impervious facts; those who live in a reality-based world and do not base fact on "what they believe in their heart," understand the Planned Parenthood is the largest healthcare provider for women.  One in five women have visited Planned Parenthood at some point in their life, and 99% of women have used birth control at some point in their life.

But Mitt is so desperate to become president that he will say and do anything all the while ignoring the growing coalition of women who are fed up with the Republicans' attempts to set our vaginae back to 1950 in an attempt to shovel more and more money to the 1 percent.

As Cecile Richards told reporters this afternoon:

"I was really stunned to read that Mitt Romney has now said he wants to get rid of Planned Parenthood, because really what that means is he wants to get rid of preventative health care for 3 million folks every year. It shows an extraordinary lack of understanding of family planning and the budget to say one of the ways he's going save money in this country is by ending birth control and family planning. The most conservative economist will tell you that family planning saves money. It saves taxpayers money. It's ludicrous to think that Mitt Romney, who is running for president of the United States, thinks we're going to balance the budget by ending birth control access in this country."

Cecile Richards noted that disregard for women's health has been a growing theme of Romney's campaign, and pointed out that Romney has stated that he wants to do away with the national family planning program (Title X), a program Richards ironically notes was signed into law by Richard Nixon.  (Title X serves  5 million women each year.)

Richards further noted that Romney has also come out in opposition to expanding access to birth control services (he supports the Blunt Amendment), and has come out in support of a national Personhood Amendment, legislation that is so extreme that even Mississippians voted "hell no" back in October. (asiangrrlMN wrote about that here.)

As is his nature, Romney is flip-flopping like a fish out of water in an attempt to court the most wingnutty voters, hoping that these low-brain-activity voters will never find out that in 2002, Romney actual sought Planned Parenthood's endorsement.

Just as he bashes "Obamacare" with more fervor than any of the other candidates (in order to distract from the fact that he was for the individual mandate before he was against it), Romney is bashing Planned Parenthood -- and, by extension, all women -- to repent for his former support of women and reproductive freedom, and to wash away the stain of his prior pro-choice, pro-Roe viewpoints.

The Right and the MSM will help Romney spin his "get rid of Planned Parenthood" comments.  They'll claiming that of course he didn't mean he wanted to "get rid of" Planned Parenthood.  After all, the most he could do is defund Planned Parenthood, not disband it.  Ninja, please. That is a distinction without a difference.  Defunding Planned Parenthood combined with axing Title X would have severe repercussions for the women who frequent health care centers like Planned Parenthood, 60 percent of whom use such health care centers as their sole healthcare provider. No amount of Luntz-esque spin will change that fact.

The bottom line is this: Mitt Romney is bad for women.  And for a candidate who touts himself as a businessman, his anti-women platform is outright stupid.  Mitt thinks that killing family planning services will balance the budget.  Spoiler alert! It won't.

Liberals, women (with brains), women-adjacent, and men who support women are all rightfully scared of Rick Santorum.  Well, be scared of Romney too.  He is as extreme if not more extreme than Santorum.  He has no principles and will say or do anything.  That's a dangerous combination.

(To check out some statistics on Planned Parenthood, visit the Team Uterati Wiki Project. The site is still under construction, but feel free to poke around!)

[Stand with Planned Parenthood- DONATE.]

image via Amanda Underwood, all rights reserved.