Planned Parenthood Vermont Action Fund IE PAC
2018 VT Candidate Questionnaire 

The Planned Parenthood Vermont Action Fund (PPVTAF) is a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization formed as the advocacy and political arm of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England (PPNNE). The Action Fund engages in educational activity including legislative advocacy, voter education, and grassroots organizing. The Planned Parenthood Vermont Action Fund Independent Expenditure Political Action Committee (PPVTAF IE PAC) is a non-partisan independent expenditure only political action committee committed to supporting pro-women’s health candidates for legislative and statewide office.  PPVTAF IE PAC endorses candidates based on issues concerning:  Affordable, accessible health care and family planning services; contraceptive equity; emergency contraception; sex education; and abortion access --for all Vermonters.

This election cycle, our work is through an independent, expenditure-only PAC.  Vermont law prohibits coordination between IE PACs and candidates, so we will not be conducting candidate interviews, making contributions, or participating in coordinated activity. 

Returned candidate questionnaires must be received by Wednesday, September 5th.  All responses are public materials.

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* Candidate Name

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* Candidate Race

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* District

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* Political Party

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* Preferred Email Address

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* Website

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* Do you want a Planned Parenthood Action Fund IE PAC endorsement?

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* Protecting Planned Parenthood's Ability to Serve Our Patients
Planned Parenthood of Northern New England is the region’s leading reproductive health care provider, educator, and advocate — with 21 health centers, twelve of which are in Vermont, we serve 40,000 men, women, and teens every year. Ninety four percent of the services accessed at PPNNE health centers are: screenings for breast, cervical, colorectal, and testicular cancer; routine well woman visits; family planning; rapid HIV testing with results in 20 minutes; testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections; screening for cholesterol, high blood pressure, and diabetes; prenatal referrals; birth control; emergency contraception; HPV and Hepatitis A&B immunizations; basic infertility work-up and referral; comprehensive sex education; and trans-inclusive health care, including hormone therapy.

PPNNE health centers also provide accurate information about all of the options around a woman’s pregnancy to support her personal medical decisions, provide abortion care and referrals for abortion, and support women’s access to safe and legal medical services.

Will you defend PPNNE against efforts to eliminate federal or state funding for our health centers?

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* Affordable, Accessible Reproductive Health Care Services
Making health care, including family planning, more accessible and affordable is one of the most important issues facing our country. Planned Parenthood health centers are an integral part of America’s health care system and will continue to play a vital role in serving the millions of Americans newly insured under the Affordable Care Act. Through Planned Parenthood health centers, women have access to the essential primary and preventive health care services that promote and protect their health and well-being. In fact, the majority of PPNNE patients rely on family planning health centers as their main source of primary health care.

Two programs that are critical to Planned Parenthood’s ability to serve in this role are the Medicaid program and the Title X family planning program. The Medicaid program is the foundation of ensuring low-income Americans have access to the health care they need; in fact, Medicaid recognizes the particular importance of family planning services. It includes several critical policy protections to maximize access to these services under Medicaid. The Title X family planning program is the nation’s only program that is focused on providing a broad range of family planning services and information to more than four million Americans per year. Taken together, these two programs serve as the foundation of  access to basic family planning care.

Unfortunately, as the cost to provide care and the demand for services has increased, funding for family planning has remained woefully inadequate. At the same time, family planning programs have been subject to political attacks designed to undermine women’s access to these important services.

Will you support efforts to ensure Planned Parenthood's participation in Vermont's health care delivery networks?

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* Will you oppose efforts to eliminate or reduce Title X family planning funding, as well as oppose efforts to undermine or weaken the Title X family planning program?

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* Will you oppose efforts to weaken the Medicaid program (such as block granting to the states) or to remove existing protections for family planning services under the program?

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* Gender Equity
Gender, sex, and sexuality are all different. The term “transgender” refers to individuals whose gender identity or expression does not conform to the social expectations for their assigned birth sex.  Whether it is access to hormones, transition-related surgery, or needing healthcare that corresponds to a person’s sex but not their gender, transgender reproductive health needs often go unmet by a system that has traditionally marginalized this population.

Will you support laws that stop discrimination in health care based on sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity, meaning health insurance companies and others could not refuse to allow a person to participate in a program or access health care because of their gender identity?

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* Birth Control Coverage
Half of all pregnancies in Vermont are unintended.  Contraceptives have a proven track record of enhancing the health of women and adolescents, preventing unintended pregnancy, and reducing the need for abortion. Although contraception is basic health care for women, some policymakers who oppose women’s healthcare have tried to erode this benefit by promoting policies that allow employers the right to deny their employees access to coverage for birth control. As part of the Affordable Care Act, which passed Congress in March of 2010 and was codified in Vermont law in 2016, health insurance plans are required to fully cover women’s preventive health care services, including the full range of birth control methods, with no co-pays to their members.

Unfortunately, in 2014, in Hobby Lobby v. Burwell the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), for-profit corporations are allowed to deny insurance coverage for their employees’ birth control (as required by the Affordable Care Act) because of the business owners’ personal religious beliefs.  Fortunately, Vermont passed a law in 1999, the Contraceptive Equity Act, which requires all employers who provide health insurance that includes prescription drug coverage, must also include prescription birth control. In 2016 there was an effort on the Vermont House floor to weaken this law with an amendment creating a religious refusal right to deny employees access to birth control that was resoundingly defeated. 

Will you oppose legislation that would weaken or overturn Vermont's 1999 Contraceptive Equity Act that protects a women's access to birth control coverage no matter where she works?

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* Will you support expanding Vermont's birth control benefit in Act 120 to include nonprescription insurance coverage for over the counter contraceptives, including condoms and any FDA approved over the counter birth control that might be available in the future including the birth control pill?

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* Emergency Contraception
Emergency contraception (EC), sometimes known as the “morning-after pill,” is a safe and effective means of preventing pregnancy. Available for nearly 40 years, it contains hormones found in birth control pills and, to be effective, must be taken within 120 hours after intercourse. Access to EC is crucial in situations such as rape, or when contraceptive methods have failed. EC has no impact on an existing pregnancy. Nonetheless, groups opposed to this method of contraception falsely claim that it can end a pregnancy, and disseminate misinformation about its safety and efficacy. The FDA and medical societies have made clear that EC is a safe and effective method of birth control, not abortion. In 2010, FDA approved a new emergency contraceptive product, ella®, which is now available by prescription to women of all ages and The FDA similarly made Plan B One-Step available over-the-counter (OTC) to people of all ages.


Will you support legislation and other efforts to ensure full coverage of and access to emergency contraception for people of all ages?

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* Teen Pregnancy Prevention update
Polls show that 85 percent of Americans support sex education in schools. The federal government has moved to provide federal funds for sex education both through the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative and the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP). These two initiatives provide funding to states and programs that implement proven, effective pregnancy prevention programs. Nevertheless, federal funds also remain available for unproven abstinence-only programs; even though numerous studies show that abstinence-only programs are ineffective and fail to teach accurate information about preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

Will you support federal funding for evidence-based pregnancy prevention and STI/HIV prevention programs and oppose efforts to undermine comprehensive, evidence-based medically accurate sex education?

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* Will you oppose funding for ineffective abstinence-only programs?

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* Abortion Access
Decisions about whether to have a child must be left to a woman and her family with the counsel of her doctor or health care provider. Politicians should not interfere in a woman’s personal medical decisions about her pregnancy. Opponents of safe and legal abortion have tried to erode access to abortion through a range of abortion restrictions, intimidation, and harassment. And now most recently, through engineering votes on the US Supreme Court specifically for the purpose of taking away this right.   As a result of the continuing federal judicial assault on Roe v Wade, some states, including California, have passed legislation to legislatively guarantee full unrestricted abortion rights for their citizens. 

Do you support legislation that would guarantee full, unrestricted abortion rights  into state law?

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* Will you oppose any legislation that limits the right of a woman to make the best decision for her health, including: attempts to legislate a woman's intentions for deciding to end a pregnancy, criminalize health care providers, medically unnecessary restrictions for doctors and facilities, or otherwise interfere with the doctor-patient relationship?

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* Will you oppose legislation that limits individuals' ability to purchase private health insurance that includes coverage for abortion?

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* Vermont is one of 17 states that fund abortion care for low-income women. Will you oppose efforts to restrict or eliminate funding for low-income women's abortion services?

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* Will you support minors' access to a safe place to receive confidential reproductive health care services and abortion care?

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* Security and Equity

 At Planned Parenthood, we believe that no matter the gender, race, or occupation, all people should be able to live, work, and make decisions about their future with dignity and with the resources needed to thrive. We support policies that allow all people to exercise all of their human rights without fear, discrimination or retaliation including policies that address issues that impair a woman’s ability to control her own reproductive life due to systemic poverty, discrimination, inadequate education or lack of health care. We advocate for reproductive justice for all people. Removing barriers that stand in the way of a person’s ability to access reproductive health care is central to the Planned Parenthood mission. 

Will you work toward promoting self-determination for all Vermonters based on wage, racial, and gender equity?

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* PPVTAF IE PAC expects that endorsed candidates maintain a voting record that is 100 percent in support of women’s health policies in Vermont.


Candidate Signature, Date

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* Additional Comments

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