Candidate for Michigan’s 7th Congressional District Earns Endorsement from Nation’s Leading Pro-Choice Advocacy Group
For Immediate Release: May 16, 2018
Contact: [email protected]
NARAL Pro-Choice America today announced its endorsement of Gretchen Driskell in her campaign to represent Michigan’s 7th Congressional District.
“Gretchen Driskell has spent her time in the Michigan state legislature fighting for women’s rights, including access to birth control and abortion, and she’ll do the same in Congress,” said Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. “Women and families in Michigan deserve someone who will stand up for them and defend reproductive freedom in Congress. Gretchen is that candidate. We are so proud to stand with her.”
“I’m honored to receive the endorsement of NARAL, one of the premier national organizations working for women’s reproductive health and economic justice,” said Driskell. “Now, more than ever, is the time to stand up for women’s rights.”
Driskell’s opponent, Tim Walberg, has been a fervent supporter of the Hyde Amendment, a discriminatory policy that blocks Medicaid funding for abortion care. This policy makes the road to accessing abortion care much more challenging for low-income women, and disproportionately, women of color. In January, Walberg voted to make the Hyde amendment permanent, effectively cutting certain women off from accessing their constitutional right to abortion care based on what’s in their bank account. He has even co-sponsored an extreme anti-abortion bill that would ban abortion after 20 weeks, even in cases of rape and incest.
Gretchen Driskell was the first female mayor of Saline, Michigan and was elected to the Michigan House of Representatives in 2012. During her time in the Michigan state legislature, Driskell served as a passionate voice for reproductive freedom, sponsoring a bill to educate women on emergency contraceptives and another bill to reverse a law that would require women to purchase extra insurance to cover an abortion.
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NARAL Pro-Choice America and its network of state affiliates are dedicated to protecting and expanding reproductive freedom for all Americans. NARAL works to guarantee that every woman has the right to make personal decisions regarding the full range of reproductive choices, including preventing unintended pregnancy, bearing healthy children, and choosing legal abortion. In recognition of its work defending our constitutional right to choose, Fortune Magazine described NARAL as “one of the top 10 advocacy groups in America.”