President Obama didn’t ask for any votes today at the White House Women’s forum, but he came very close, and the women assembled got the message.
“As long as I’ve got the privilege of being your president, we’re going to keep working every single day to make sure those doors [of women’s opportunity] forever stay open and widen the circle of opportunity of all our kids,” Obama said at the White House. “Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!” was the campaign rally reply.
Obama then explained “what’s at stake,” as he often does in campaign speeches. “What we can’t do now is go back to the policies that got us into so many of the problems that we’ve been dealing with in the first place,” he said. “That’s what’s at stake.”
Obama defended Obamacare against Republican repeal efforts. “When people talk about repealing health care reform, they’re not just saying we should stop protecting women with preexisting conditions, they’re also saying we should kick about a million women off their parents’ health care plans,” he said.
He also touted the contraception mandate and quoted Mitt Romney. “Later this year, women will receive addition access to recommended preventive care, like domestic violence screening and contraception at no additional cost,” Obama said at the White House, before later adding that “when people say we should get rid of Planned Parenthood, they’re not just talking about restricting a woman’s ability to make her own health decisions; they’re talking about denying, as a practical matter, the preventive care like mammograms that millions of women rely on.” (Planned Parenthood reportedly doesn’t provide mammograms. Their website recommends women contact Planned Parenthood to see “where you can get a mammogram in your area.”)
Mitt Romney has said, “Planned Parenthood — we’re going to get rid of that.”
