Patrick Murphy campaign reaffirms Planned Parenthood support

U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy

On Monday, the Ron DeSantis for Senate campaign claimed that Democratic Senate candidate Patrick Murphy has been silent on continued funding for Planned Parenthood. The Murphy campaign contacted Florida Politics Monday afternoon to say that Murphy is a staunch supporter of Planned Parenthood and of women’s reproductive health rights in general.

On Friday, an email with multiple links to an online petition of support had gone out from the Murphy campaign asserting that Florida Republicans were on a mission to “destroy Planned Parenthood,” specifically citing DeSantis’ sponsorship of a bill to remove funding from the organization.

“Planned Parenthood is already prohibited by law from using federal funds for abortion procedures. The taxpayer dollars they get are used for other services — like cancer screenings, prenatal care, birth control, and STI testing,” the email read.

“So let’s call this what it really is. Republicans are getting ready to vote against money for cancer screenings. They are getting ready to vote against money for prenatal care. And they’re OK with it, as long as they score political points with their Tea Party base,” the email continued.

As well, Murphy was one of three Congressional members to co-introduce the Affordability Is Access Act, which would protect women’s rights to their preferred method of birth control.

“Millions of women across the country depend on birth control to manage their health care and reproductive needs,” Murphy said. “Maintaining the current access women have is more important than ever. This legislation would preserve access to affordable birth control without overcharging women and without government interference.”

“Murphy has long been a champion for women’s health care rights,” said Joshua Karp, the Murphy campaign’s communications director.