Less than two weeks after she addressed the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards was crisscrossing the Granite State over the weekend, charging local Democrats to knock on doors and spread a message surrounding equality, women’s rights and access to health care.
In the state Democrats’ Concord campaign office on Sunday, Richards told a group of about 20 volunteers that “the stakes are incredibly high” this election cycle, drawing a stark contrast between the two major parties’ nominees: former secretary of state and Democrat Hillary Clinton and New York businessman Republican Donald Trump.
Richards called Trump an “erratic, undependable” candidate who is “just not prepared to be president.”
“He poses a real threat to our security as a nation and our ability to pull people together and move forward,” said Richards, who also made an afternoon visit to Democratic canvassers in Portsmouth on Sunday. She split Saturday between a meeting with canvassers in Manchester and a women’s house party in Concord later in the afternoon.
On the national stage in Philadelphia, Richards blasted Trump for his rhetoric on women’s rights and his comments to MSNBC in March that there should be “some form of punishment” for women who seek abortions. She touched on those comments again Sunday, painting Trump as the antithesis of progress and Clinton as the candidate who will advance affordable health services and pay equality.
Responding to a question on the Executive Council’s June decision to fund Planned Parenthood after cutting funding for the program last year, Richards said she was glad the program found bipartisan support and then tied it to the state’s U.S. Senate race between Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte and Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan.
The Executive Council’s vote to award a $550,000 contract to Planned Parenthood was made on the deciding vote cast by District 3 Councilor and Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Sununu, who also made the deciding vote against a similar plan in 2015 while the organization was being investigated for allegedly selling the body parts of aborted fetuses for research.
“It was a recognition that the patients who come to Planned Parenthood, they don’t come with any party affiliation,” Richards said of the vote to fund the organization. “They come because they need access to affordable health care. And for many women in New Hampshire, we may be their only health care provider. That to me is why it is shocking that any politician, including Sen. Ayotte, would vote to de-fund an organization that in fact provides affordable, often life-saving care to 2.5 million people every year. . . . It’s time we take politics out of health care access.”
The U.S. Senate race in New Hampshire has caught national attention as a contest that could potentially decide authority in the legislative chamber. While she is indeed stumping tirelessly for Clinton in the Granite State, where the nominee lost a primary race to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in February, Richards is also pushing Hassan’s candidacy as of equal importance for canvassers to stress on the ground.
Hassan “has made the issues of women and families, access to affordable health care, an economy that works for everyone, has made that a priority her entire career and public service,” Richards said.
The canvassing kick-off in Concord was a grassroots meeting of volunteers discussing ways to start conversations with voters around the election and their candidates. Maps of neighborhoods were printed out with routes outlined for volunteers to follow.
Cathy Battistelli, a Clinton supporter from Concord, has been knocking on doors for Democrats since June 2015. She said that getting early work done on the ground sets them up for the increased intensity leading up to the general election in November. Having a national figure such as Richards come through and fire up the canvassers is invaluable, she said.
“She’s inspiring,” Battistelli said. “This is a lifelong fight. Women have been fighting for rights, and it’s sad that we’re still fighting for these same rights over and over. It’s a key issue, especially for me, in this election.”
(Nick Stoico can be reached at 369-3309, nstoico@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @NickStoico.)