Last week Donald Trump promised that, if elected president, he would work to defund Planned Parenthood, sign into law a national ban on abortions after 20 weeks and work to make permanent a law that prohibits the use of public money to pay for women's health when it comes to abortion (which is still legal in the U.S).
And that? That's not even the worst of his promises to put women's health options at risk.
Trump also enlisted longtime anti-abortion leader and president of the Susan B. Anthony list, Marjorie Dannenfelser, to head up his campaign’s “Pro-Life Coalition.” The Susan B. Anthony List is an organization that opposes abortion for any reason—including if continuing a pregnancy puts a woman's life at risk—but also opposes several forms of contraception, including emergency contraception and copper IUDs. Dannenfelser and members of her organization falsly describe these effective measures of preventing pregnancy as actually causing "early abortions.”
Trump's playing fast and dangerous with women's health and lives in his effort to find support and get elected in November. Keep in mind that back in April, Trump said women should be punished for abortions if the procedure were made illegal (he then reversed that statement). During that month his positions on the topic of abortion seemed to shift quite rapidly. Though he later backed away from those statements, what is clear is that a Trump presidency generally and defunding Planned Parenthood specifically, would be disastrous for women all over America.
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Here's the deal: According to a recent study, defunding Planned Parenthood wouldn’t just result in women losing an abortion provider but overall women's health services. At least half of women who get contraceptive care, get it from one of the Planned Parenthood health centers around the U.S. For a significant number of women using their services, Planned Parenthoods are the only family planning center available or affordable to them.
Under Donald Trump’s plan, women could potentially lose their ability to access birth control.
But what is also clear is that Donald Trump doesn't actually understand the issues he's making promises about. As recently as the primaries in this 2016 election season, he claimed (correctly) that Planned Parenthood had done “very good work for millions of women.“ In fact, for years he claimed to be pro-choice. And yet now he is in an alliance with an organization that perpetuates the myth that the morning after pill and IUD’s are a form of abortion.
Under Donald Trump’s plan, women could potentially lose their ability to access birth control. This puts him at odds with almost anyone who has been sexually active, 99 percent of whom have used birth control at some point in their lives and those 62 percent of women of reproductive age who currently use birth control.
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We can’t help but wonder what his daughter—a de facto spokesperson for the Trump campaign on all women’s issues—thinks about this latest announcement. She busy hustling to get his maternity leave policy to be taken seriously. How does she plan to defend his latest missive against women?
Also: Has anyone seen Melania? Where she stands on all of this?
