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Planned Parenthood To Register Voters At Its Clinics

By Patricia Ramirez
Published on: 07:51 PST, Aug 7, 2016

If you haven’t yet registered to vote, soon you will be able to do so at your local Planned Parenthood clinic. On Friday, Planned Parenthood told the world that it will be launching a campaign called “My Vote, My Voice.” The program is designed to allow people to register to vote at Planned Parenthood clinics, online, and on various college campuses. The goal of the effort is to ensure that as many people as want to can be involved in the process of electing the next POTUS, and in politics in general.

The Planned Parenthood campaign will be targeting potential voters who might not traditionally vote, reports the Huffington Post. The Planned Parenthood effort will utilize a large staff of volunteers and span across 45 U.S. states. Kiosks (read: temporary tables) will be erected at Planned Parenthood clinics, as well as various other locations — they will be manned by volunteers who will not just register voters, but who will also provide people with information about their state’s voter ID laws to ensure that they aren’t turned away from the voting booths in November.

In addition, the Planned Parenthood initiative will remind the voters it registers about their right and responsibility to help choose the next U.S. president on election day by sending out notifications two weeks prior to the general election.

The new Planned Parenthood voter registration program is completely non-partisan and will offer voter registration to potential voters no matter their political beliefs or party affiliation.

However, despite not being affiliated with one political party or the other, the Planned Parenthood voter registration program will most likely provide more of a boon for the Democratic party than their Republican counterparts. The fact of the matter is that Planned Parenthood’s client demographic is largely made up of young, minority patients, which traditionally tend toward liberal political stances.

A representative for Planned Parenthood spoke publicly about the reasoning behind the “My Vote, My Voice” initiative.

“If we can’t all participate in our government, we all get cheated. We’re launching the ‘My Vote, My Voice’ campaign to help ensure that every voice is heard and every vote is counted in communities across the country. No matter what your political beliefs are, if you don’t or can’t vote, then you can’t elect officials who will keep your best interests in mind.”

While some are calling the Planned Parenthood voter registration effort a bid to pad the vote for Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party (despite being non-partisan), Planned Parenthood has a different take on the situation. The very demographic most widely served by the organization is largely made up of people of color, young adults, and low-income Americans. These are the same people that are so often negatively impacted by voter suppression regulations — regulations that so often benefit well-to-do white voters and their political party of choice.

Planned Parenthood is simply trying to level the playing field and ensure that each of the 2.5 million patients that it provides services for every year is registered to vote if they are qualified to do so.

Not surprising, abortion opponents are none-too-pleased with Planned Parenthood’s recently announced plans to get in on the voter registration game. According to a recent article by Life News,Planned Parenthood is planning to “register voters in one room and abort them in the other.”

The self-avowed pro-life website is accusing Planned Parenthood of scheming to put a “pro-abortion candidate” in the White House.

Hillary Clinton has promised to continue the fight for abortion rights in the United States. She has spoken of nominating a pro-choice Supreme Court Justice to replace the deceased Antonin Scalia, who was very socially conservative and anti-abortion in his views and rulings.

What do you think? Is Planned Parenthood simply trying to make sure disenfranchised voters are registered, or is the women’s health organization trying to stack the deck in favor of Hillary Clinton? Do you support the Planned Parenthood “My Vote, My Voice” campaign?

[Image via a katz/Shutterstock]

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