The Stakes for Abortion Rights, from the Head of Planned Parenthood

The Political Scene | The New Yorker

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4.2 • 3.3K Ratings

🗓️ 22 October 2024

⏱️ 25 minutes

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Summary

If Vice-President Kamala Harris wins in November, it will likely be on the strength of the pro-choice vote, which has been turning out strongly in recent elections. Her statements and choices on the campaign trail couldn’t stand in starker relief against those of Donald Trump and his running mate, J. D. Vance, who recently called for defunding Planned Parenthood. Meanwhile, Harris “is the first sitting Vice-President or President to come to a Planned Parenthood health center, to come to an abortion clinic, and really understand the conversations that have been happening on the ground,” Alexis McGill Johnson, Planned Parenthood’s president and C.E.O., tells David Remnick. The organization is spending upward of forty million dollars in this election to try to secure abortion rights in Congress and in the White House. A second Trump term, she speculates, could bring a ban on mifepristone and a “pregnancy czar” overseeing women in a federal Department of Life. “Is that scary enough for you?” Johnson asks.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to the political scene. I'm David Remnick. Early each week, we bring you a conversation from our episode of the New Yorker Radio Hour.
0:15.0	Welcome to the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.
0:19.0	Ever since the Supreme Court ended Roe versus Wade in the Dobbs decision. Voters have been
0:24.7	pushing back hard. Democrats outperformed expectations in the 2022 midterms and
0:30.1	every ballot measure that's been up for a vote, even in the red state of Kansas,
0:35.0	has gone for reproductive choice.
0:38.0	More voters than ever before call abortion their most important issue,
0:42.0	especially women under 30.
0:45.0	If Kamala Harris prevails in the election,
0:47.4	it will likely be on the strength of the pro-choice vote.
0:50.8	Donald Trump is frantically backpedaling from his success in overturning Roe, but he doesn't seem to be on the same page as his running made J.D. Vance, who recently called for defunding Planned Parenthood.
1:02.0	The president and CEOing Planned Parenthood.
1:03.0	The president and CEO of Planned Parenthood is Alexis McGill Johnson and the group is spending
1:08.3	upwards of $40 million in this
1:18.0	Just a few days ago, just a few days ago, just a while back,
1:20.0	Senator J.D. Vance, the Vice presidential nominee for the Republican, said this.
1:24.7	On the question of defunding Planned Parenthood, look, I mean our view is we don't think
1:30.0	that taxpayers should fund late-term abortions. That has been a consistent view of the Trump campaign the first time
1:36.2	around and it will remain a consistent view. What do you make of the
1:40.4	Republican ticket rolling out this idea really late in the campaign
1:44.7	well kind of hedging on what its own history is on this issue.
1:50.9	Well you know the opposition has been trying to defund Planned Parenthood for a long time.
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