Cecile Richards wants you to vote.
“This election is as important, if not more than, the one that happened two years ago,” the former Planned Parenthood president and beloved progressive figure said earlier today in an interview with the Mercury. “In Oregon, they make it easy to vote. In a lot of states, it’s a real challenge, so I just hope everyone in the entire state will take advantage of that and go vote.”
Richards was in town to lend her strong, Texas-accented voice to the campaign against Measure 106, which would take away public funding for abortion.
“It’s not only about abortion access,” Richards said when asked about the potential impact Measure 106 could have on Oregonians. “Once you start going in this direction—we’ve lost access to birth control, we’ve lost access to breast cancer screenings. They never stop at ending abortion access.”
“The real impact is that people who already have the least access to care, and a lot of other things usually, are the first ones impacted,” she added. “Women with low incomes, women who are immigrants, people who live in rural areas.”
Two other states—Alabama and West Virginia—also have abortion-related measures on the ballot this year, which would effectively take away the guaranteed right to an abortion in those states.
Outlawing abortion in any state is unconstitutional under Roe v. Wade, but Richards said that these measures are likely part of a wider anti-choice national strategy—one that has been given new fuel since Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined the Supreme Court, giving it a conservative majority. Kavanaugh said he considered Roe v. Wade to be precedent during his confirmation hearings, but there is still a lot the Supreme Court can do to limit safe and affordable abortion access without necessarily overturning Roe v. Wade.
“We are seeing across the country state legislators that are very right-wing are going to make a concerted effort to make laws that are unconstitutional, because all of those laws are now going to be going up to the Supreme Court,” Richards said. “The fundamental challenge of not just whether Roe stands, but whether there is an undue burden for patients… that is exactly what is going to be at stake. And I guess we’ll get to see Judge Kavanaugh, see exactly what his word is worth.”
Richards was also in town to campaign with Gov. Kate Brown, who is facing a tight re-election race against Republican State Rep. Knute Buehler. Buehler has been casting himself as a moderate and tried to distance himself from the Trump Administration. But in 2017 he voted against the Reproductive Health Equity Act, which expanded access to free reproductive health services in Oregon.
“What Knute Buehler is doing in Oregon is exactly what I’m seeing across the country,” Richards said. “Republicans have voted repeatedly to repeal the Affordable Care Act, repeal access to birth control, and suddenly everyone’s going, ‘Oh, that’s not what I really think.’ That’s exactly what Knute Buehler’s doing. He’s saying, ‘Don’t look at what I did. Just look at what I’m saying now.’”
“Knute Buehler is running as a Republican,” she added. “The Republican party now is the party of Donald Trump.”
Both the Oregonian and the Portland Tribune chose to endorse Buehler, penning endorsements that played up Buehler’s ideas and played down Brown’s concrete accomplishments, like passing the Reproductive Health Equity Act and a sweeping transportation funding bill. Brown’s current lead over Buehler in the polls sits within the standard margin of error.
“For women, we have to be five times as good,” Richards said, when asked if being underestimated came with the territory of being a powerful, progressive woman. “And look at the coverage from the media—75 percent of it is coming from men, to be honest, and I feel like we are already operating, as Kate is, with one hand tied behind our back. But she has an incredible record, and I think at the end of the day, voters are smart enough to know that’s just how it is.”
Even if the progressive agenda wins out on election day—even if Brown is reelected, and 106 is overturned, and Democrats win a majority in the House of Representatives, et. cetera—Donald Trump will probably still be President for at least two more years. When faced with that fact, and faced with the constant uphill battle that is being a pro-choice advocate in America, Richards says she has to take time to savor the victories.
She remembered two years ago, when Speaker of the House Paul Ryan pledged to get a bill defunding Planned Parenthood on Trump’s desk post-haste.
“I just say, don’t let the door hit you on the way out,” she said. “Because he’s retiring now, and Planned Parenthood is still open all across the country. And that happened because people organized. It didn’t happen because Washington changed. It happened because people on the ground made it happened.”
Richards said that thanks to generational shifts, she can envision a day when ensuring abortion access and funding Planned Parenthood will not be seen as controversial issues. But until then, she has some advice for Oregonians regarding Measure 106.
“Beat it overwhelmingly,” she said. “Beat it decisively. Because otherwise, it just keeps coming back.”
