DNC 2016: Eaton delegate says Hillary Clinton has ‘proved herself’

The Ohio delegation met for breakfast this morning at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Philadelphia Airport.

Scheduled to speak at this morning’s breakfast were: Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley; State Rep. Kathleen Clyde; SEIU International President Mary Kay Henry; and Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards.

“(The GOP knows) by electing their arrogant, hateful nominee (Donald Trump), they can continue to pursue their anti-woman, anti-labor, anti-environment and anti-economic equality agenda,” Clyde said. “The only thing the GOP is for these days is disenfranchising those who disagree with that.”

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Deloris Rome Hudson, a Hillary Clinton delegate from Eaton, said this will be her fifth time serving as a delegate. Hudson said she hopes the Democrats will unite following the first day of the convention.

“I understand that the Bernie delegates have a voice,” she said. “They have a movement and it’s very strong. I know that when you feel passionate about something, you want to make sure everyone knows how you feel. I think they’re getting that out there, but I’m hoping at the end of the convention last night that it helps join us together as one to help defeat Donald Trump.”

Hudson said women have been oppressed long enough, and she’s ready for a woman — Clinton, specifically — to lead in the White House.

“I think she’s done the groundwork and proved herself competent enough to serve in that position,” she said. “As a woman, I’m very proud of her for continuing her work for as long as she has. She could’ve quit and said I’m beat down or this isn’t really meant for me, but she didn’t do that.”

Declaring it is crucial to elect Hillary Clinton as president, a senior official of Planned Parenthood warned today that “generations” of abortion rights “policy will be set” by the next president’s nominations to the U.S. Supreme Court.

After speaking to Democratic delegates at their morning breakfast at the Democratic National Convention, Dawn Laguens, executive vice president for Planned Parenthood, predicted the next president could name as many three nominees to the high court, where five justices currently tend to support a woman’s right to choose an abortion.

“We know that whoever is president, we know has one seat to appoint and likely could end up with as many as three,” Laguens said. “And that is going to shape the court not just for one presidential term, but for 40 years.”

“That is really where our focus is,” she said. “The election is important, but the court is forever.”

Last month by a 5-3 vote, the justices struck down a Texas law which required a doctor performing an abortion to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals and insisted abortion clinics have hospital-like surgical standards.

With its ruling, the high court reaffirmed a landmark 1992 ruling that states cannot place an “undue burden” on a woman’s constitutional right to have an abortion.

But with the possibility that Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 83, and Anthony Kennedy, 80, could retire during the next four years, either President Clinton or President Donald Trump would name their replacements. Both Kennedy and Ginsburg have voted in favor of abortion rights.

In addition, the Senate has yet to act on President Barack Obama’s nomination of federal appeals court Judge Merrick Garland to replace Justice Antonin Scalia, who died last February.

“We just feel that everything, everything, everything is on the line,” Laguens said.

Michael Gonidakis, president of Ohio Right to Life, said “Democrats are so out of touch with America as evidenced by their new platform which calls for taxpayer funding of abortions on demand.”

“A Hillary presidency would result in the radicalization of the Supreme Court that currently is sympathetic to abortion on demand without apology,” he said.

Laguens spoke on the same day Democrats were poised to nominate Clinton for president, making her the first woman presidential nominee by any major political party.

In addition, Laguens assailed Republican Gov. John Kasich, calling him a “complete disaster” for “the women of Ohio.”

“I’m not a fan of John Kasich. I thinks he gets away with a lot under a moderate persona when he’s actually really, really quote extreme when it comes to women’s health and rights, and clearly does not trust women,” she said.

As governor since 2011, Kasich has signed into law 17 restrictions on abortion rights, which has resulted in the closing half of the state’s 16 abortion providers.

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