Women's health organization Planned Parenthood has been at the center of a political tug of war for years. Last year doctored videos appeared to show employees engaging in unethical behavior, providing rhetoric for GOP presidential candidates like Carly Fiorina, and may have inspired a violent attack at a Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs last year. Republicans in Congress have repeatedly threatened to pull federal funding for Planned Parenthood because abortion is among the services it provides.
Many Democrats are supporters of Planned Parenthood, including Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who received the first endorsement from the organization in its 100-year existence.
Clinton will formally accept the endorsement at a campaign event in New Hampshire on Sunday. According to Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood: "Everything Planned Parenthood has believed in and fought for over the past 100 years is on the ballot." Richards is referring to a measure, approved by the House, to strip federal financing for the organization.
Clinton released a statement saying she was "honored" by the endorsement and called the bill to before the House "a jarring reminder of what's at stake in 2016." She added that if elected she would "defend against attacks on reproductive health care, and protect access to affordable contraception and safe and legal abortion across the country."
According to a New York Times-CBS News poll from September 2015, 60 percent of female voters believe Planned Parenthood should receive federal funding. The same poll found that 72 percent of voters feel abortions should be generally available, or "available with limits."
At the rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Sunday, Natarsha McQueen, a 40-year-old Planned Parenthood volunteer from Brooklyn, N.Y., will tell her story of the life-saving test at a Planned Parenthood clinic that detected her breast cancer.
"If you aren't in the same economic state or haven't been to our communities, you can't relate to how important this is to women of color," Ms. McQueen said.
