President Obama issued a video address defending Planned Parenthood from Mitt Romney after the Republican candidate said he would 'get rid' of taxpayer funding for the abortion provider.
“(W)hen some professional politicians casually say that they’ll ‘get rid of Planned Parenthood,’ don’t forget what they’re really talking about: eliminating the funding for preventive care that millions of women rely on and leaving them to fend for themselves,” said Obama.
Obama said that federal funding for Planned Parenthood would continue as long as he was the president.
“That's why last year, when Republicans in Congress threatened to shut down the government unless we stopped funding Planned Parenthood, I had a simple answer, 'No.'” he said sternly.
Obama reminded Planned Parenthood supporters that it was time for opponents to stop "playing politics" with "women's health."
"Let's be clear here," he said. "Women are not an interest group."
Planned Parenthood Action emailed the video to all of their supporters with a special message from their president Cecile Richards.
"President Obama gets it, and he hasn't stopped fighting since his first day in office. He knows how important women's health is, and he respects the right of every woman to make her own medical decisions," she wrote. "Watch the video, sign our letter to President Obama, and keep standing with Planned Parenthood."
