A Post-Election Message From PRCH

November 6, 2008
From PRCH Board Chair Suzanne T. Poppema, MD

Hurrah! We finally have a pro-choice president again!

A president who supports a woman’s right to abortion. Who supports access to the full range of reproductive healthcare and opposes parental notification.

It’s time to celebrate!

We can also celebrate our three-for-three victories in California, Colorado, and South Dakota, where voters affirmed their belief that government has no place in Americans’ decisions about abortion, contraception, and childbirth. In all three states, the campaigns against the initiatives used science and medicine to persuade voters and beat back ideology. Physicians worked with activists from other fields to protect young women’s unfettered access to reproductive healthcare in California, prevent blastocytes from being defined as fully human in Colorado, and safeguard South Dakotans’ right to abortion.

I want to thank everyone for all the hard work you did to defeat these initiatives—phone-banking, sending letters to newspapers, talking to the media, knocking on doors, and speaking to your fellow doctors. Thank you for your efforts on behalf of women’s health!

Now, let’s build on our momentum. We must ensure that every woman and every girl can get the reproductive healthcare she needs. We must put science into sex education at every school. We must allow some of our Supreme Court justices to retire knowing their work for women and children will not be undone.

With these goals in mind, PRCH has many plans for the year ahead, including opportunities for you to make your voice heard by our country’s policy makers.

But now is a time to celebrate. So take a minute to stand up and jump for joy!