Heidi Heitkamp on Abortion

Fund Planned Parenthood but don't fund abortions

Kevin Cramer (R): Ban. "Forty years ago, the United States Supreme Court sanctioned abortion on demand. & we wonder why our culture sees school shootings so often."

Heidi Heitkamp (D): Mostly legal. "Reproductive decisions should be left to a woman, her family, & her doctor." But opposes public funding & supports state's right to mandate parental consent for minors & to restrict partial-birth abortions.

Q: Let Planned Parenthood receive public funds for non-abortion health care?

Kevin Cramer (R): No. Co-sponsored bill to defund.

Heidi Heitkamp (D): Yes. Voted against numerous bills aimed at defunding.

Q: Allow employers to withhold contraceptive coverage from employees if disagree with it morally?

Kevin Cramer (R): Yes. Requiring contraceptive coverage infringes upon religious freedoms.

Heidi Heitkamp (D): No. Keep ACA requirement that insurance plans provide non-copay contraception.

Opposed 20-week abortion ban

Not only that, but C-SPAN cameras caught Heitkamp high-fiving Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on the Senate floor just after the vote. PolitiFact assessed the moment as being "more of an awkward greeting than a crude celebration," but to many constituents, it appeared tone-deaf and even offensive.

After that vote, on February 15, Rep, Kevin Cramer entered the race, immediately making it the most-discussed Senate contest of the midterm cycle, and rightly so.

North Dakota has just one member in the House. As a result, Cramer has already represented the entire state in Congress since 2012, the year that both he and Heitkamp were first elected (she in a close contest against Republican Rick Berg). In that election, Cramer received 12,000 more votes than she did.

Opposes public abortion funding.

Christian Coalition publishes a number of special voter educational materials including the Christian Coalition Voter Guides, which provide voters with critical information about where candidates stand on important faith and family issues. The Christian Coalition Voters Guide summarizes candidate stances on the following topic: "Public funding of abortions"

Keep federal funding for family planning clinics.

Excerpts from Letter to the Senate Majority Leader from 46 Senators: The recent vote in the House to overturn rules protecting Title X health centers would deny women access to care. In 2015, Title X provided basic primary and preventive health care services such as pap tests, breast exams, and HIV testing to more than four million low-income women and men at over 4,000 health centers. In large part due to this work, the US unintended pregnancy rate is at a 30-year low, and rates of teenage pregnancy are the lowest in our nation`s history. The success of the program is dependent on funding. Family planning services, like those provided at Planned Parenthood and other family planning centers, should be available to all women, no matter where they live or how much money they make.

Opposing argument: (Heritage Foundation, `Disentangling the Data`): Planned Parenthood received approximately $60 million of taxpayer money under Title X, and $390 million through Medicaid. To ensure that taxpayers are not forced to subsidize America`s number one abortion provider, Congress should make Planned Parenthood affiliates ineligible to receive either Medicaid reimbursements or Title X grants if they continue to perform abortions. Taxpayer money from these programs should instead be redirected to the more than 9,000 federally qualified health center sites that provide comprehensive primary health care for those in need without entanglement in abortion.

Supporting argument: (ACLU, `Urging Title X`): Title X services help women & men to plan the number and timing of their pregnancies, thereby helping to prevent approximately one million unintended pregnancies, nearly half of which would end in abortion. However, current funding is inadequate. Had Title X funding kept up with inflation it would now be funded at nearly $700 million. We ask that Title X be funded at $375 million, which is $92 million above its current funding level.