DES MOINES, Iowa — Ruth Richardson waited near the Iowa capitol’s grand staircase, just outside the limelight. At the podium nearby, abortion-rights supporters railed against the state’s conservative swing on abortion following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, calling Republican bills “nonsense,” “pseudoscientific” and “speaking for the extreme.” Richardson glanced at her speech and its somewhat different message.
Not that Richardson disagreed with what speakers were saying. As the new president and CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States, which oversees the organization in blue-leaning Minnesota and four red-leaning neighbor states, Richardson is one of the region’s pre-eminent supporters of reproductive rights.
But as the abortion debate continues to rage, the former Minnesota legislator sees a post-Roe opportunity to reframe Planned Parenthood’s mission: Instead of dated binary arguments, she believes the debate in modern America must focus on health equity.
“I don’t think people understand the intersections between access to abortion and a full range of health services,” she said. “It’s trying to have a more comprehensive conversation and connect the dots in ways people don’t spend enough time thinking about.”
She points to Iowa ranking last in per-capita OB-GYN specialists; reports have shown states with the restrictive abortion laws are losing OB-GYNs. She speaks about Black women being three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes nationally, and six times more likely in Iowa. She worries about health care deserts in rural areas.
Richardson talks about the freedom to have an abortion as well as the freedom to have a child and raise that child.
Abortion opponents scoff at this equity focus as disingenuous, given the racist beliefs of Planned Parenthood’s founder — something the organization acknowledges and denounces — and its clinics
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