Just Say NO to Dick and YES to Jen - Reason #10

Abortion is one of those hot-button issues that really isn't comfortable to think about or discuss.
But when it comes down to it, the majority of voters believe that a women has a right to choose for herself, particularly in cases of rape and incest.
Not only is Governor Granholm protecting a women's right to choose, she's actually being pro-active on stopping unwanted pregnancies all together.
Dick DeVos' plan? Other than interfering with a women's right, he hasn't said boo.
So why would we vote for a guy that doesn't stand for what we do?







10. Dick DeVos has extreme views on abortion, even in the case of rape and incest.
Dick DeVos does not support a woman's right to make personal medical decisions and opposes reproductive choice — even in cases of rape or incest. (MIRS Capitol Capsule, July 20, 2006)







10. Governor Granholm supports a woman's right to choose, and is working hard to prevent unwanted pregnancies.
Governor Granholm has vetoed two bills that would have restricted the right to choose.
Jennifer Granholm established the Talk Early & Talk Often program designed to offer resources for parents to discuss abstinence, sexually transmitted diseases, and other issues regarding sexuality with their middle-school aged children. (MDCH)

Here are the facts...

Governor Granholm says that she supports a woman's right to choose, but she believes we need to be pro-active when it comes to unwanted pregnancies.

• 40.6 percent of all pregnancies are unintended – (MDCH 2001 Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System)
• The total cost to Medicaid for the delivery of a baby and first year of life is $11,528 – with the cost of delivery averaging $6,197 and the cost of first year of life services averaging $5,331. (MDCH FY07 Budget Projections)
• In FY 2000, the state Medicaid program paid for prenatal, delivery and post-natal care of roughly 26,000 unintended births. Each birth cost Medicaid $11,000, which translates to $286 million in costs for Michigan. (MDCH FY 2000 Budget)
• If Michigan can reduce the number of unintended pregnancies by 10 percent, it would save the state over $27 million in Medicaid expenditures annually. (MDCH F707 Budget Projections)

Dick DeVos says he's opposed to abortion and would be thrilled if it were banned. Amway Guy has no plan for preventing un-planned pregnancies.

Pro-Life
What exactly does that mean?
Amway Guy won't elaborate.
He won't tell us, but he'll sing like a canary when it means he gets an endorsement potentially worth thousands of votes and even more in terms of campaign dollars.

Right to Life of Michigan, for example, has strict criteria for endorsing candidates, and the group isn't averse to "parsing" the issue.
To get Right to Life's endorsement -- as DeVos did months ago -- a candidate must "be pro-life with no exceptions other than the life of the mother."
Incest? Not an exception.
Rape? Not an exception.
Health of the mother? "Nope," says Larry Galmish, who heads the Grand Rapids-based group's political action committee. "When you get into health, you can make exceptions for a broken fingernail."
-snip-
DeVos filled out the group's extensive and "confidential" questionnaire, and submitted to a lengthy interview before getting an endorsement, Galmish said.
But Galmish does say that "we endorsed Dick DeVos early and we found him to meet all the criteria we have. We have no questions," about his position on abortion. (Detroit News 7/22/06)

But that's not the end of the story. Just a couple weeks ago, while being interviewed on Michigan Catholic Radio, Dick DeVos mentioned that he'd be "thrilled" if Roe v. Wade was overturned. (Associated Press 10/13/06)