Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, promoted President Barack Obama’s campaign and discussed issues surrounding women’s rights Thursday, Oct. 4, in the Gallery of the Memorial Union.

An audience of more than 50 people gathered to hear Richards, many of them Ames community members and Obama supporters.

Richards discussed the focus on women’s issues in Congress over the past few years amid a struggling economy.

“They don’t want to deal with the hard stuff,” Richards said. “It’s a lot easier to go after women and birth control than it is to create a jobs program.”

Richards commended Obama’s support of Planned Parenthood during his first term.

“The president has continually drawn the line on issues: if you talk about gay rights, if you talk about women’s rights, if you talk about moving the country forward,” Richards said. “Mitt Romney is ready to take us back to the 1950s.”

One student in the audience Thursday was Miles Brainard. Brainard, sophomore in community and regional planning, is the founder and president of Iowa State’s student group The Good Sex Brigade. The group is an educational, but not political, affiliate of Planned Parenthood and strives to talk about sex education in a comprehensive way.

“Planned Parenthood provides essential health services to women in particular, but also to families around the country, and they provide them to the most vulnerable among us,” Brainard said. “It’s really important that people stay informed about who’s on the ballot and what their stand is on Planned Parenthood.”

Rachel Peller, senior in women’s studies, attended the talk with her feminist theory class, and took notice of one issue Richards stayed relatively quiet on.

“Throughout what she was saying today, the only time she even said the word abortion was when she was saying that’s not all that they do,” Peller said.

Abortion is currently a hot-button issue in the presidential election, and a controversial topic in women’s rights.

“Even though abortion is only 3 percent of the number of services they do, it’s still one of their leading sources of revenue and they are the biggest abortion provider,” Peller said. “So whether they want that to be what they’re known for or not, it’s still very much part of their image and what they do.”

Richards concluded her talk with an appeal to support Obama in the upcoming election. She emphasized the importance of young people in elections and the role Iowa will play on Nov. 6.

“Obviously, Iowa is a critical state in this election, and students and young people are going to determine who the next president is,” Richards said. “Whether it’s being able to stay on their parents’ health insurance, or whether it’s being able to get affordable college loans; these are the things that the next president is going to have a huge impact in determining.”