From Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia:
Glenn Youngkin Amplifies Support From Anti-Abortion Extremists
Richmond, Va. — While thousands of Virginians took to the streets this past weekend to express their support for reproductive health and rights, Glenn Youngkin has continued to spend time behind closed doors with anti-abortion fanatics eager for him to win and go “on offense” to ban abortion and defund Planned Parenthood.
After spending the weekend with The Family Foundation, Trump’s former press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, and State Senator Amanda Chase, Glenn Youngkin spent Tuesday evening at an event with Charmaine Yoest. Yoest joins a long list of Youngkin supporters, including U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, Governor Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma, and Governor Greg Abbott of Texas, who have made their agendas to ban abortion abundantly clear.
Yoest was a Trump appointee at Health and Human Services and is well-known for her opposition to abortion, without exceptions in the case of rape or incest or to preserve the health of the mother, and said her goal was a “post-Roe nation.” She opposes all birth control and believes in “legal rights” for embryos. She’s spread extensive misinformation about abortion and birth control, including claiming abortion causes breast cancer.
Jamie Lockhart, Executive Director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia:
“From committing to going ‘on offense’ on abortion once governor to proudly accepting the endorsement of the Governor of Texas and to now spending time with Charmaine Yoest, Virginia voters just cannot trust Glenn Youngkin to protect their reproductive rights. Charmaine Yoest and her anti-abortion cronies helped push through the largest number of abortion bans since the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade in 1973. We simply cannot allow a Texas-style abortion ban to undo our hard work to protect reproductive health and rights in Virginia. Virginians must vote like their rights depend on it — because they do.”
In Charmaine Yoest’s own words:
“Yoest says her focus is on a “post-Roe nation” in which states will again be the sole arbiters of when, where, and whether women can get abortions. “The real question is what do the states do,” she says. “And so in a sense, we’re leapfrogging over [Roe].” She believes AUL’s growing body of state laws will set precedents with the potential to eventually change federal abortion law.” [Mother Jones, 4/28/17]
“No matter who wins on Election Day, Yoest will continue to follow her step-by-step plan to make abortion illegal. “As we’re moving forward at the state level, we end up hollowing out Roe even without the Supreme Court. That’s really where our strategy is so solid.” [New York Times, 11/2/12]
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