With just two weeks left until Election Day, Planned Parenthood has joined the country's unprecedented voter mobilization effort with a new TV ad campaign endorsing Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry and running mate John Edwards.
The campaign is intended to augment female voter participation by highlighting the importance of Kerry's pro-choice stance in preserving women's health care rights.
The ads are designed to educate women on the implications of President Bush's pro-life platform should he be re-elected. Lisa Boyce, spokesperson for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin, said Bush poses a threat not only to a woman's right to choose, but to reproductive rights in general.
\It's not just his pro-life stance, but it's his stance on restricting access to birth control, sex education and abortion services,"" Boyce said. ""I think most women, regardless of how they feel on the 'choice' issue, would agree that they feel they are in the best position to make health care decisions for themselves-not some politician.""
Boyce said over 700,000 registered women voters in Wisconsin did not vote in the last presidential election; however, only a fraction of that amount needs to be mobilized for the Planned Parenthood campaign to be considered successful this time around.
""Since Gore only won the state by 5,600 votes [in 2000], we don't need to move huge numbers,"" Boyce said.
On the UW-Madison campus, mobilization, rather than conversion, is the key objective of a campaign like that of Planned Parenthood. According to UW-Madison political science Professor Virginia Sapiro, reproductive rights are a very important issue on campus, although the TV ads will do little to alter anyone's viewpoint.
""A campaign ... is not about changing people's minds if they've already got them made up. It's about mobilizing your side, or taking the undecideds ... and saying, 'Look, here's the really important point you should be thinking about. Now vote!'""
Planned Parenthood has broad-reaching contact with women of multiple age groups, and the organization said they hope this unique association with the female voting bloc will help the effectiveness of its ad campaign.
""Wisconsin women have the power to dramatically change the outcome of this election,"" PPAWI Political Director Chris Taylor said in a statement. ""There is no organization as uniquely suited to engage women and motivate them to vote as Planned Parenthood. Together, we will make a difference on Election Day.""
