By Maria Hickey, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – Planned Parenthood's Republicans for Choice Committee is launching a St. Louis region chapter.
Former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman came to St. Louis to discuss the party's position on reproductive rights.
Whitman says the Republican Party is broader than it sometimes appears.
"There are people within the party who are all over the place on any individual place on any individual issue, choice being one of them," Whitman said. "There is a very strong group within the Republican party that sees, frankly, a woman's right to make decisions about her own body as the essence of conservatism, that government should not be the one making those decisions."
Whitman says the choice committee also is concerned about women's access to family planning, emergency contraceptives, and reproductive privacy.
The former EPA chief has been a champion of moderate Republicans since leaving the post in 2003.