NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin Shocked, Offended by Green’s Callous Statement
Madison, WI – In tonight’s debate, Republican Congressmen Mark Green stated that some women use abortion out of convenience, and that “I believe that too many women believe abortion is a safety net, a way out, and I don’t.”
Kelda Helen Roys, Executive Director of NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin, issued the following statement in response to Green’s callous and shocking comment:
“Luckily for him, Congressmen Green has never faced an unintended pregnancy – never feared that he might become pregnant after being violently raped and denied emergency contraception. He has never had his health seriously threatened by a difficult pregnancy. And he has never had his prescription for birth control denied by a pharmacist.
“By making this offensive and uninformed statement, Congressman Green has once again demonstrated his lack of respect for Wisconsin women and their families. An unintended pregnancy is one of the most difficult, private, and deeply personal situations a woman can face.
“Abortion in Wisconsin is anything but convenient. In fact, Wisconsin gets an “F” in access to reproductive health care according to NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation’s 2006 “Who Decides” report. Green’s lack of sympathy for victims of brutal sexual violence shows that he is too extreme for Wisconsin.
“Congressman Green has tried to make abortion a crime in virtually every circumstance – even for victims of incest and rape, even for women undergoing cancer treatment, even for those whose health or lives are threatened.
“Yet Congressman Green’s dismissive and callous attitude towards women does not stop here – he also has voted time and again to deny women access to the very birth control that would reduce the need for abortion by preventing unintended pregnancy.
“Green disparages our values of freedom, privacy, and personal responsibility – and substitutes a vision for our state where politicians insert themselves into our families’ most personal and private medical decisions. If Congressman Green thinks that his ill-informed, extreme views on abortion will resonate with Wisconsin voters, than we look forward to having an honest discussion over the next four weeks. ”
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Background information on Green’s Extreme Voting Record:
Mark Green, Republican gubernatorial candidate, has spent his political career undermining women’s access to preventative health care, including birth control and postpartum care. His votes are lockstep with the Bush Administration and its far-right allies in undermining basic privacy rights and freedoms for Wisconsin families. Mark Green makes it harder for women to bear healthy children, harder to prevent unintended pregnancy, and harder to reduce the need for abortion. He’s received a zero percent rating from NARAL Pro-Choice America and Planned Parenthood.
Green opposes a woman’s right to birth control, even though contraception greatly reduces the need for abortion by preventing unintended pregnancy, and spacing pregnancies by using birth control is proven to result in healthier babies and mothers.
• Co-authored bill to let pharmacists withhold birth control from patients (1997 AB 953)
• Voted to allow insurers to deny birth control coverage, even when they pay for Viagra – but has taken over $70,000 from the insurance industry (1997 AB 693)
• Voted to withhold family planning funds from the world’s poorest women (2001-115)
• Repeatedly endorsed by groups that seek to criminalize birth control
Green opposes health care access and support for mothers and children.
• Voted to allow hospitals to refuse to treat poor patients, even pregnant women (2006-004)
• Voted to slash Medicaid funds for low-income family and child health care (2005-601)
• Blocked a vote to increase the minimum wage to $7.25/hour, even though Wisconsin’s single mothers and their families face high levels of poverty (2005-365)
• Voted to let insurance companies continue “drive through delivery” practice of kicking new mothers out of the hospital 12 hours after giving birth
Green would imprison women and doctors for having an abortion.
He co-authored several federal constitutional amendments to criminalize abortion, while refusing to sign on to abortion bans that make exceptions for rape and incest. (2001 HJ Res. 20; 2001 HJ Res. 10)
• Wants abortion criminalized under every circumstance – even when a woman’s health is threatened (2000-104)
• Green supports imprisoning women – even rape and incest victims – who seek abortion and doctors who care for them (2003-530)
• On April 8, 2006, the Wisconsin State Journal reported on Green’s “call to bring back Wisconsin's near-complete ban on abortions,” which, like South Dakota’s recently passed law, makes no exceptions for a woman’s health. Green would also criminalize abortion in cases of rape or incest, saying, that he is opposed to safe, legal abortion “regardless of the terrible circumstances” that caused the pregnancy.
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