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Abortion-rights groups praise, slam Jindal after birth-control proposal
Prominent abortion-rights groups responded with praise and rancor Friday to Gov. Bobby Jindal's (R-La.) proposal that Republicans back over-the-counter birth control.
The GOP has been "stupid to let the Democrats demagogue the contraceptives issue and pretend … that Republicans are somehow against birth control," Jindal, who is expected to run for president in 2016, wrote in the Wall Street Journal.
Jindal was referring to debates over the healthcare law's requirement that most employers provide birth control in their health plans without a co-pay.
In a statement Friday, Planned Parenthood Action Fund President Cecile Richards praised Jindal for his "thoughtful contributions to the conversation on women's health."
NARAL Pro-Choice America was combative, however, calling Jindal's op-ed "another case of trying to convince that public that anti-choice politicians are really not as extreme as their voting records suggest."
"Jindal’s own record on contraception directly contradicts his claim of support," NARAL President Nancy Keenan said in a statement.
"While in Congress, Gov. Jindal voted against every progressive pro-choice position. He voted to remove contraception from a list of health services that poor women overseas should get. And he cosponsored the Right to Life Act, a bill that would have ended not only legal abortion in almost all cases, but also could have banned most common forms of contraception."
Jindal once ran Louisiana's Department of Health and Hospitals and served in President George W. Bush's Health and Human Services Department. He also served two terms in Congress.
The Friday Wall Street Journal piece argued that Republicans could neutralize contraception as a political issue by supporting its availability over-the-counter. Jindal also said this would drive down the price of the pill for women.
