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Lucylastic -> Romney To Fundraise With Plan B Maker (5/10/2012 6:01:40 AM)
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Earlier this year, presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney came out strongly against the Obama administration policy that will require health insurance plans to offer birth control coverage at no additional cost — one of the many important preventive health benefits women will receive as a result of Obamacare.
In particular, Romney denounced the fact that insurance plans would now be required to cover Plan B, a form of emergency contraception that he falsely referred to on numerous occasions as “abortive pills.” This is what Romney said in Colorado on February 6, 2012:
ROMNEY: This same administration said that the churches and the institutions they run, such as schools and let’s say adoption agencies, hospitals, that they have to provide for their employees free of charge, contraceptives, morning after pills, in other words abortive pills, and the like at no cost. Think what that does to people in faiths that do not share those views. This is a violation of conscience.
(Plan B works just like regular birth control pills and is not, in fact, an abortifacient.)
The Miami Herald’s Marc Caputo reports that next week the Romney campaign will be doing a major fundraising blitz across Florida, including an event “at the Star Island manse of pharmaceutical magnate Phil and Pat Frost where dinner costs $50,000.”
Who is Dr. Phil Frost? He is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Teva Pharmaceuticals, a major manufacturer of contraceptives. Its North American website prominently advertises several forms of contraception, including Plan B One Step, which Romney previously denounced as an “abortive pill”:
This isn’t Romney’s first instance of hypocrisy on this issue. Earlier this year, ThinkProgress revealed Romney’s hypocrisy, noting that he was financially invested in — and profiting from — the very products he was seeking to restrict affordable access to:
Romney’s Goldman Sachs 2002 Exchange Place Fund, valued at over a million dollars in 2010, brought in nearly $600,000 in gains in 2010 and is invested in:
- Watson Pharmaceuticals: manufacturer of nine forms of emergency contraception (which Romney incorrectly identifies as “abortifacients“).
- Johnson & Johnson: launched the first U.S. prescription birth control product in 1931 and produces various forms of birth control.
- Merck: produces various forms of birth control
- Mylan: produces birth control medication and filed the first application for a generic birth control pill last year.
- Pfizer: a contraception producer that recently had to recall about a million packs of birth-control pills that weren’t packaged correctly.
It appears that Mitt Romney strongly opposes emergency contraception, except when it’s of financial benefit to him or his campaign.
UPDATE
Bloomberg News reports that the Romney campaign refused to comment on this story:
Romney’s campaign spokeswoman, Andrea Saul, didn’t respond to a request for comment on how the candidate, who opposes abortion rights, could accept support from the maker of “abortive pills.”
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/05/08/480240/romney-fundraiser-plan-b/
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