Biden Secures Planned Parenthood Endorsement

WASHINGTON, DC —Planned Parenthood Action Fund today, June 15, announced its endorsement of Vice President Joe Biden for president of the United States.

Statement from Alexis McGill Johnson, Acting President, Planned Parenthood Action Fund:

“This election is a fight for our country’s very survival. We have seen the Trump administration dehumanize us, and disregard our health, our rights, and our lives. Trump has attacked access to abortion and reproductive health care, and he has attacked the people that Planned Parenthood health centers serve: women, Black people, immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community and more.

“Joe Biden is the only candidate in this race who will stand up for our health and our rights. He was instrumental in the creation of the Affordable Care Act, which expanded birth control with no co-pay to 63 million women, and in helping to ensure that sexual and reproductive health care was accessible across the country. He has spoken out for LGBTQ+ rights, and against the systemic racism in this country that is costing Black people their lives. Biden has committed to champion access to sexual and reproductive health care — including access to abortion — and to fight for our communities. When he left the Senate, Vice President Joe Biden had a 100% voting record from Planned Parenthood Action Fund, and has been clear he is ‘100% for sexual and reproductive health.’ And we are going to hold him to that.

“Donald Trump is dangerous. We must do everything we can to get him out of office this November.

“This election we have a choice — between Donald Trump, whose incompetence and disregard for the law are a danger to us all, and Joe Biden, who is committed to fighting for reproductive health and rights for all.

“For us, and for so many, the choice is clear. Planned Parenthood Action Fund is endorsing Joe Biden for president.”

As Vice President, Biden was instrumental in the creation of the Affordable Care Act, which expanded birth control with no co-pay to 63 million women, eliminated gender bias in health insurance and helped to ensure that sexual and reproductive health care was accessible across the country. As a candidate, Biden has outlined a range of policies to protect and expand access to reproductive health care, including abortion, including:

• expanding access to contraception — outlining a plan to expand the ACA and guarantee access to birth control with no co-pays, including in his proposed public option;
• protecting the constitutional right to an abortion, including with his judicial nominations, and reversing the Trump Administration and some states’ all-out assault on the right to access abortion;
• support for comprehensive sex education;
• reversing Trump’s harmful Title X gag rule — which forced Planned Parenthood affiliates and other health centers out of the nation’s only dedicated family planning program — and his dangerous global gag rule, which undermines access to sexual and reproductive health services around the world;
• addressing the high maternal mortality rate among Black women.

Vice President Biden has also publicly committed multiple times — including at Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s We Decide member forum last June, and more recently in the Democratic presidential debate this past March — to repeal the harmful Hyde Amendment. Biden is also the only candidate in the presidential race to address racial injustice and structural racism in this country — calling directly for this country to dismantle the systemic racism that has proven to be deadly for so many Black people across America.

In contrast, Donald Trump has spent the past four years pushing policies and actions that threaten access to reproductive health care and rights. Tens of thousands of people have died following his incompetence in handling the response to COVID-19. He has spent his time in office dismantling access to health care — slashing the safety net, trying to block access to abortion, fighting at the Supreme Court to restrict access to birth control, remaking the federal courts with judges hostile to the right to access sexual and reproductive health care, and trying to keep patients from accessing care at Planned Parenthood health centers. And it’s not just health care — he has attacked the rights and well-being of countless communities across the country — immigrants, people of color, the LGBTQ community and more.

This announcement is part of the Action Fund’s continued endorsement of federal candidates committed to reproductive health and rights around the country. In 2018, the American people sent more women and women of color to Congress than ever before and flipped the House of Representatives to a clear pro-reproductive health majority.

Last year, Planned Parenthood advocacy and political organizations announced a historic investment of at least $45 million in key battleground states during the 2020 cycle, and in January, Planned Parenthood Votes launched “We Decide 2020,” Planned Parenthood advocacy and political organizations’ people-powered electoral program to elect champions for reproductive rights up and down the ballot in 2020. Planned Parenthood advocacy and political organizations around the country will be mobilizing 15 million Planned Parenthood supporters to help people get involved and build on their power for the upcoming election. Planned Parenthood Action Fund also plans to mobilize over half a million Action Fund members this election to volunteer for and elect our endorsed candidates —including Vice President Joe Biden.

“We Decide 2020” will be Planned Parenthood advocacy and political organizations’ largest electoral program ever.