NARAL PRO-CHOICE COLORADO EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR TO ADDRESS RALLY SUPPORTING DR. LEROY CARHART, TARGET OF NATIONAL ANTI-ABORTION PROTESTS
For Immediate Release
NARAL PRO-CHOICE COLORADO EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR TO ADDRESS RALLY
SUPPORTING DR. LEROY CARHART, TARGET OF NATIONAL ANTI-ABORTION PROTESTS Ailts to Represent NARAL Pro-Choice America
In Denouncing Anti-Choice Attacks on Women, Doctors Bellevue, Neb. (Aug. 28) – Emilie C. Ailts, executive director of Denver-based NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado, will join leading national and local advocates for reproductive rights and reproductive health at a news conference with Dr. LeRoy Carhart in Nebraska today. Carhart, a physician who provides safe, legal abortions at a health center outside Omaha and who announced plans to provide abortion care in neighboring Kansas following the assassination of Dr. George Tiller, is the target of massive anti-choice demonstrations and protests this weekend. Ailts, who will serve as a representative of Washington, D.C.-based NARAL Pro-Choice America and its affiliates, will deliver the following remarks in support of Dr. Carhart, his staff, and their patients as they endure an onslaught of intimidation and inflammatory rhetoric: “I am here today on behalf of NARAL Pro-Choice America, NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado, my colleagues in other states, and the million-plus Americans who are members of the organizations that comprise our network. “I am honored to stand in unity with Dr. LeRoy Carhart and his staff. Their continued courage and commitment against many odds make it possible for women in Nebraska and across the country to make the personal and private decision to access safe, legal abortion care with dignity. “On May 31 in a church in Wichita, Kansas, we witnessed what happens when inflammatory rhetoric -- similar to the antics we see outside this building today -- fuels violence. Dr. George Tiller’s murder left Dr. Carhart as one of only a handful of physicians in the country who will publicly state that he will provide legal abortion care to women who face severe health- or life-threatening complications late in their pregnancies. “As pro-choice Americans, we must remain vigilant in stopping anti-choice efforts to undermine a woman’s right to choose, whether through the intimidation we see outside Dr. Carhart’s health center today or at the ballot box. We know that groups like those outside today are working to put another deceptively worded abortion ban on the Colorado ballot in 2010 -- even though voters rejected a similar measure in 2008 by a three-to-one margin. Those groups have no respect for the votes of mainstream Americans or the values of freedom and privacy that underscore a woman’s constitutional right to make decisions about her own health and her own body. “Dr. Carhart got it right when, after the assassination of his friend and colleague in Kansas, he advised America’s pro-choice majority to vote for candidates who share their values and to turn out of office those elected officials who refuse to condemn this pattern of violence against the doctors who provide safe, legal abortion care and their patients. “As a representative of NARAL, the political leader of the nation’s pro-choice majority, I wholeheartedly agree with Dr. Carhart. And as a symbol of our solidarity with Dr. Carhart and the other health care professionals who risk their lives every day to ensure women can receive the health care they need, I am wearing this purple wristband that reads, ‘Trust Women,’ two powerful words that were on a button often worn by Dr. Tiller. “Today, pro-choice Americans here and across the country are wearing this wristband in honor of the courageous physicians like Dr. Carhart, other medical professionals, and volunteers who make it possible for women to exercise their constitutional right to choose. “We look forward to a day when violent protests are a vestige of the past; when all women are trusted to make the personal health care decisions that are best for them and their families; and when courageous and caring physicians like Dr. Carhart are free from threats of violence and intimidation.” NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado (NPCC) is the political leader of Colorado’s pro-choice community. NPCC has more than 30,000 supporters statewide and works to develop and sustain a constituency that uses the political process to guarantee every woman the right to make personal decisions regarding the full range of reproductive health choices, including preventing unintended pregnancies, bearing healthy children and choosing legal abortion. More information is available at www.ProChoiceColorado.org. ###
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