A Warning To Both Parties On Planned

Parenthood And Abortion

Updated September 30, 20154:45 PM ET
Published September 30, 20152:35 PM ET

The head of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, was grilled on Capitol Hill for five
hours Tuesday. Republicans in Congress are making a renewed push to defund the group
which provides health screenings, contraception and performs abortions after
controversial sting videos were released earlier this summer alleging it sells fetal tissue
for profit.
For many Republican presidential hopefuls, the call to defund Planned Parenthood has
become a rallying cry on the campaign trail.
"If it's about women's health, then why isn't the liberal Democrat Party willing to say
that pregnancy centers such as this should also be funded by taxpayers?" Carly Fiorina
asked at the Carolina Pregnancy Center, an anti-abortion crisis-pregnancy center. "Why
shouldn't taxpayers be paying for pregnancy centers in communities all across this
nation, to give women an opportunity to understand their choices?"
Debates over abortion reliably fire up both the Republican and Democratic bases, but
both parties risk overplaying the issue in the 2016 campaign. Republicans saw an
opening after the videos were released in July, but polling has shown that views of
Planned Parenthood haven't budged since then. And for Democrats, running campaigns
that overemphasize the issue have backfired in the past.
The challenge for Republicans
The Carolina Pregnancy Center offers women pregnancy tests and baby supplies, but
not health services or contraception. Those are things Planned Parenthood provides at a
reduced cost for lower-income women.
Pollster Tresa Undem said that's why so many women go there more than some might
think.
"It's a very important place for young people to go," Undem said. "I mean everybody
knows somebody who's been to Planned Parenthood for healthcare."
Undem's firm has done polling for Planned Parenthood, among other groups, in the past.
She points to recent surveys that show most Americans support maintaining federal
funding for the organization.
What's more, an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll out this week found almost half (47
percent) of Americans had a positive opinion of Planned Parenthood, while fewer than a
third (31 percent) had a negative one. That's higher than either political party, or

anyone currently running for President. It's also unchanged since July, when the first
sting video targeting Planned Parenthood was released.
Undem said that matches what she's hearing from focus groups.
"People are seeing it sort of as a political attempt," she said. "It's a political stunt. It's
not something they're sinking their teeth into. They're not changing their minds about
Planned Parenthood."
They're also not changing their minds much about abortion. Since Roe v. Wade was
settled in 1973 more than 40 years ago opinions about abortion have barely
budged, as NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben has reported. Most people say they're somewhere
in the middle. A majority told the Pew Research Center they think it should be legal
in certain circumstances.
Dianne Bystrom, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at
Iowa State University, said even though most Americans see abortion as a settled issue,
it still motivates each party's base.
"At the primary stage, when you have the activists in both parties really engaged more
in the process," she noted, "it tends to be a more important issue not only on the
Republican side for those who are pro-life but also on the Democratic side for those who
are pro-choice."
Republican pollster Christine Matthews says Planned Parenthood, meanwhile, remains a
strong brand except among conservative Republicans.
"Conservative Republicans see this brand very differently than other people," she said.
"[They] primarily associate Planned Parenthood with abortion. But if you're an
Independent or a Democrat, you primarily think that Planned Parenthood is providing
health services."
Conservative Republicans also make up the core of the GOP primary. Matthews said that
explains the anti-Planned Parenthood push now, but it could cause problems for
Republicans in a general election.
"That concerns me a little bit," Matthews said Tuesday. "I think especially with the
testimony we're seeing today, with the image of a male Congressman sort of taking to
task the President of Planned Parenthood."
Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat from New York, charged that her GOP colleagues were
"beating up on a woman, on our witness today, for making a good salary."
Tennessee Republican Rep. John Duncan told Richards in response, "I've seen many
male witnesses treated much tougher than you've been treated here today. ... Surely
you don't expect us to be easier on you because you're a woman?"
Richards replied, "Absolutely not. That's not how my mama raised me."
Her "mama" is the late former Democratic Texas firebrand Gov. Ann Richards.
Risk for Democrats, too
While Democrats might take some solace in the polling numbers that views of Planned
Parenthood and abortion, for that matter, have remained relatively stable.

But, just as there are dangers for Republicans in overplaying the issue (beyond
mobilization and fundraising) there are risks for Democrats, too.
And one does not have to look far for an example of that.
Take the Colorado Senate race in 2014. Democrat Mark Udall's campaign and the
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee seemed to have a singular focus
women's reproductive rights.
"Because this really matters, it's important you hear this directly from me. My opponent,
Congressman Gardner, led a crusade that would make birth control illegal. He
sponsored a bill to make abortion a felony even in cases of rape and incest. His record
is beyond troubling it's wrong. We're talking about your rights as women, as families,
as Coloradans."
In another, Udall says, "No one can blame you for checking a calendar to remind
yourself, 'Yep, it really is 2014. So how is it we're still debating a woman's access to
abortion or birth control. For most of us, those debates got settled by the last
generation."
You get the picture.
And it worked.
Udall won a greater percentage of women than Barack Obama did in 2012 in Colorado.
But Obama won Colorado in his reelection bid. Udall lost.
Why? Because, while Obama won men, too, 51 to 46 percent, Udall lost them by a
whopping 17 points. (See the chart above.)
Yes, it was a midterm with the lowest turnout in 70 years and key Democratic voting
groups did not turn out. But it's a cautionary tale in overemphasizing any particular
issues, especially one as polarizing as abortion rights.