Planned Parenthood takes aim at McCain
As one of the key battleground states in the upcoming presidential election, Wisconsin is already getting attention from a powerful national lobby: the political arm of Planned Parenthood.
Badger women, in particular, will be aggressively targeted by the family planning group, says Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund.
"The gender gap has been the deciding difference in the last two presidential elections and, frankly, it was for Bill Clinton as well," says Richards in a recent phone interview.
Four years ago, Richards notes, Wisconsin voters chose John Kerry, the pro-choice Democratic candidate, by just 11,000 votes. Planned Parenthood, she says, has 200,000 identified supporters in the state.
"Being able to educate and mobilize that constituency can absolutely make the difference in a battleground state in a presidential election," she says.
Sen. John McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee, has an abysmal record when it comes to family planning issues, Richards adds.
Noting that McCain has voted against requiring health care plans to cover birth control and has opposed funding for international family planning services, Richards says: "He's opposed a whole host of things that are really very mainstream health issues."
That very record, however, is supremely attractive to Wisconsin Right to Life, the state's forceful anti-abortion lobby, whose political action committee last week endorsed McCain for president.
"Senator McCain has a stellar 100 percent voting record on protecting unborn children from abortion," the group writes in its announcement.
It praises McCain for opposing Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, and taxpayer funding of abortion for low-income women, among his other positions.
"For those of us who believe the sanctity of human life is the bottom-line issue in making our voting decisions, the choice could not be clearer," says Susan Armacost, director of the political action committee, in the news release.
And that is what Planned Parenthood is counting on. Richards says many voters, men and women alike, think McCain supports legal abortion because he is perceived as a moderate Republican relative to his more conservative colleagues.
"We have a big education gap here," she says, "and a picture we need to fill in."
She says recent polling by her group in battleground states found that when pro-choice McCain voters were told McCain opposes Roe v. Wade, they were less likely to vote for him.
"They begin to peel off of him immediately," she says.
Inclusive medical care
A common fear among gay men and lesbians is that they could be prevented from visiting their partners in the hospital or being involved in their partner's medical decisions. Because same-sex couples are barred from the legal protections of marriage, such access is usually up to the health care facility. Under these circumstances, Meriter Hospital did right by one lesbian couple, according to one of the profiles featured in the hospital's compelling "My Story" ads, which have appeared on television, radio, the Internet and billboards.
Diane, a nurse consultant at a law firm who had a lumpectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer, says she wasn't sure whether Meriter would honor her wishes for her life partner to be involved in all of her medical care.
"I had asked that through all tests and procedures, my partner, Anne, accompany me," Diane says in the ad. "I was told that she could. And it was true."
"Staff treated both of us with respect and was inclusive of Anne during any explanation," Diane adds. "I cannot say enough positive things about Meriter Hospital. Thank you so much for taking such wonderful care of not only me but also of my partner."
Mae Knowles, spokeswoman for Meriter Hospital, says Diane's story has gotten more reaction from the community than any of the other stories in the ad campaign. And, she adds, it's been "all positive."
Billboards featuring Meriter patient Diane were some of the hospital's most popular.
