Deeds Highlights Difference In Priorities For 2009 Election

Press Release

Creigh Deeds today released a statement highlighting concrete ways that the differences between his priorities and those of Bob McDonnell would affect the future of the Commonwealth.

Despite nearly two decades of being one of the leaders of the anti-choice movement in Virginia, Bob McDonnell has yet to be clear on how his priorities as Governor would roll back the reproductive health rights Virginians currently have. McDonnell, a delegate between 1992 and 2005, pushed his agenda to restrict a woman's right to choose by sponsoring or co-sponsoring abortion bills every year he was in office -- 35 bills in all. Just last year, McDonnell claimed in front of a National Right to Life Committee convention that elections are to decide whether the people in power are pro-life or not.

"As Governor, my number one priority will continue his career of working for bipartisan progress to create jobs and economic opportunity throughout the Commonwealth," said Creigh Deeds. "Bob McDonnell has also made his priorities clear: He would restrict womens' access to safe birth control and roll back a woman's right to choose. It's a goal he pursued each and every year as a state legislator. As Attorney General he defended anti-choice laws all the way to the Supreme Court. He says he doesn't want to talk about it in the campaign, but the decisions we make as Governor will be vastly different over the next four years. His priorities would return Virginia to the days when divisive social battles rather than bipartisan progress marked political discourse in Virginia. At a time when 300,000 Virginians are unemployed and more than a million people lack health insurance, those are battles Virginia families can't afford to have their elected representatives fight."

The changes Virginia would see if Bob McDonnell had his way include: new restrictions on emergency contraception - even for rape and sexual assault victims; the ability of adult women to receive legal, FDA-approved prescriptions at a pharmacy; and, the institution of extra "informed consent" provisions specifically subjecting women to procedures and waiting periods not required for other medical treatments. Bob McDonnell voted for bills on each of these topics, Creigh Deeds has opposed them. But more importantly, a Governor who pursues goals such as these does so at the exclusion of working toward bipartisan progress on jobs, economic opportunity and transportation.

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