The worst thing we can do is to assume that the Electoral College [voting] resulting in the election of Donald Trump represents a mandate. It does not. He did not get the majority of the popular vote; that went to Hillary Clinton. That means those votes represent the consciousness of the nation, which is that abortion should be legal, that contraception and family planning are health issues and prevention, that a woman's right to reproductive privacy is the law of the land and should remain such.
Willie ParkerIf you're making abortion illegal and undermining the various things that will allow the prevention of that need, it can only be a situation that goes from bad to worse.
Willie ParkerI just want to remind people that the task of those who support reproductive rights and reproductive justice didn't change based on who is in the White House. We have leadership that is not supportive of what we're trying to do, but the demand for justice shouldn't be modulated.
Willie ParkerI'm full of clichรฉs - I was raised by a Southern black woman and they had a saying for everything.
Willie ParkerThe US government is like an ocean liner, not like a speed boat. It's harder to turn around than people might think.
Willie ParkerDonald Trump has every intention to repeal the Affordable Care Act, as much because it's known as Obamacare [as because he wants] to try and deconstruct the legacy of President Obama. But that has implications that mean women who were accessing family planning and contraception as a preventative service with no co-pay will lose access to that coverage. We [will] only see an exacerbation of the things we were engaged in trying to prevent - like unplanned pregnancy and the need for abortion, which creates a societal dilemma.
Willie Parker