During Tuesday night's CNN/New York Times Democratic debate, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) piggybacked off Sen. Kamala Harris' (D-CA) tangent on abortion and "protecting women's access to reproductive health care." According to the New Jersey Senator, women should not be the only ones fighting for access to abortion.
"And I'm having a deja vu all over again. I'm having a deja vu all over again because we're having another health care debate and we're not talking about the clear and existential threat in America, that we're in a state [Ohio] that has had two Planned Parenthoods close," Booker said.
In Booker's eyes, men should be helping fight for women's access to abortion because "women are people and people deserve to control their own body."
"We are seeing, all over this country, women's reproductive rights under attack and, God bless Kamala, but you know what? Women should not be the only ones taking up this cause and this fight," he explained. "And it's not just because women are our daughters and our friends and our wives. It's because women are people and people deserve to control their own body."
According to ABC News, the two Planned Parenthood clinics Booker was referencing, located in Cincinnati, closed over Title X funding, which prohibited clinics from providing abortion referrals and mandated a "clear financial and physical separation" between family planning services and abortion services.
The Planned Parenthoods in Ohio received roughly $600,000 in 2018 and "was used to give free tests for sexually transmitted diseases, provide services related to HIV and AIDS, and run programs to reduce infant mortality," Cincinnati.com reported.
The pro-abortion organization said a 2016 pro-life state law defunded their clinics, which pulled them from several health and education programs.
The two clinics that closed did not provide abortion services.
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