Former Secretary of State says McFadden’s comments that contraception isn’t a health care or economic issue is an ‘insult to all women’

Today, former Secretary of State Joan Growe spoke out against investment banker Mike McFadden’s comments over the weekend that contraception coverage is not a health care or economic issue for women and their families:

“Investment banker Mike McFadden has made it abundantly clear he will not stand up for Minnesota women. As a woman and as someone who represented women statewide in Minnesota for over two decades, I won’t stand by and watch a candidate for the U.S. Senate try to marginalize over half the population or issues that are important to us.

“It’s outrageous that McFadden thinks contraception coverage isn’t a health care or economic issue and therefore not worthy of discussion. Women can pay hundreds of dollars every year for access to contraception. Ninety-nine percent of women have used birth control at some point in their lives. This is an issue Minnesota families deal with every day and McFadden’s repeated silence is an insult to all women.”

On Saturday, during an interview with The Bemidji Pioneer, McFadden refused to answer for the second time a question on the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on contraception, this time claiming it was neither a health care nor economic issue and therefore did not merit a response.

More than half a million women in Minnesota have benefited from the provision in the Affordable Care Act that requires insurance companies provide free preventive health services, such as contraception, and the majority of women say that “being able to use contraception has had a significant impact on the quality of their lives, particularly by giving them the economic autonomy to pursue goals like becoming financially independent or getting a college degree.”

contraception · Joan Growe · Mike McFadden · U.S. Senate · women's health care

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