Planned Parenthood announced this week that they will be making a massive spending push in 2020. The group launched its $45 million effort to help elect candidates who support abortion rights at the state and federal levels.
The election push was announced in late 2019, but was launched this week. In an interview with CBS, an official with the organization said that the administration “has managed to undo so much over the last three years,” adding “the fact that this summer the Supreme Court might gut Roe v. Wade is an indicator of their intention and they’ve never been so bold.”
Their effort goes hand-in-hand with a new section of their website dedicated to explaining the abortion policies of the 2020 candidates.
They also rolled out the effort in a video, declaring, “The stakes have never been higher for abortion access [and] reproductive rights. But in 2020, it’s our future, our bodies, and our votes.”
The stakes have never been higher for abortion access & reproductive rights.
— Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio (@PPAOhio) January 16, 2020
But in 2020, it's our future, our bodies, and our votes.
We decide, and we're going to win. #WeDecide2020 https://t.co/TsxfIPm0NT
The group told CBS that they’re happy with the entire Democratic field in the presidential race, saying, “Every major candidate in the 2020 elections, except for Donald Trump, has spoken out against dangerous abortion bans and many of them have actually introduced real plans to protect the reproductive rights in this country.”
On the national level, lawmakers have been arguing over the “Born-Alive” bill, which would place criminal penalties on doctors who do not immediately provide care for newborns that survive an abortion procedure. Various forms of the bill have been voted on and even approved in some statehouses.
While these bills have broad support among Republicans, they’re criticized by Democrats who say instances of births after failed abortions are almost nonexistent. In a speech about the bill on the Senate floor, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said, “It has always been illegal to harm a newborn infant. This vote has nothing — nothing — to do with that. Read the language.”