In the months leading up to November’s election, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America will register voters at its health centers and college campuses in 45 states, the organization announced last week.
Volunteers will set up tables outside Planned Parenthood clinics and at community gatherings to register voters, inform residents about their state’s voter ID laws, and engage in get-out-the-vote efforts in the weeks before Election Day. PPFA is also directing people to its “My Vote, My Voice” website, where they can pledge to vote, get an absentee ballot from Vote.org, find out where to vote from Rock the Vote, and get a voter registration form by email.
Planned Parenthood is a particularly apt organization to lead voter registration efforts, since its clientele is disproportionately populated by members of historically marginalized demographics. A quarter of Planned Parenthood’s patients are Latina and more than three-quarters live at or below 150 percent of the federal poverty line. For people who don’t speak English or live in poor or rural areas, Planned Parenthood may be one of the most accessible, affordable community institutions. In these places, a health clinic may be the best way to reach those without easy entry points into electoral politics.
“Planned Parenthood health centers see 2.5 million patients annually,” read the organization’s announcement. “Many of these people are young voters, people of color, or people with low-incomes—the same communities that historically have been disenfranchised and continue to face unnecessary hurdles and discriminatory voter suppression laws when trying to vote.”
Since the Planned Parenthood Federation of America is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, its voter registration program is nonpartisan and not affiliated with any candidates. The organization’s lobbying arm, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, endorsed Hillary Clinton in January, its first-ever endorsement in a presidential primary.
PPFA has held voter registration drives in the past, but this year’s efforts, launching in the wake of several important court victories involving voting rights, are getting a lot of extra attention. After a year of repeated attempts to “defund” Planned Parenthood, all that hullaballoo about the straw man of fetal tissue donation, and state and congressional hearings excoriating Planned Parenthood for all manner of fictitious misdeeds, the impact of representative politics on women’s health care has never been clearer.
