While news of the massive ‘Mother Of All Bombs’ bombing on Afghanistan makes headlines, along with Donald Trump Russian collusion ties closing in, signed the “Mother Of All Anti-Choice Bills” in Washington with the help of Vice President Mike Pence. Judy Hershfeld Davis with The New York Times reports:
WASHINGTON — President Trump signed legislation on Thursday aimed at cutting off federal funding to Planned Parenthood and other groups that perform abortions, a move cheered by conservatives who have clamored to impose curbs on reproductive rights.
The measure nullifies a rule completed in the last days of the Obama administration that effectively barred state and local governments from withholding federal funding for family planning services related to contraception, sexually transmitted infections, fertility, pregnancy care, and breast and cervical cancer screening from qualified health providers — regardless of whether they also performed abortions. The new measure cleared Congress last month with Vice President Mike Pence casting the tiebreaking vote in the Senate.
Along with this bill, Trump makes a ridiculous and ignorant proposed provision.
Mr. Trump has shown ambivalence about Planned Parenthood, voicing support for its health-related services other than abortion, and his daughter Ivanka has urged him to tread carefully on the issue, concerned about the possible political repercussions of the Republican effort to defund the organization altogether. As a middle ground, Mr. Trump has proposed preserving federal funding for Planned Parenthood if it stops providing abortion services.
Read full NYT story here.
So, he will preserve federal funds if Planned Parenthood stops providing abortion services? Federal funds don’t pay for those services now under federal law under the Hyde Amendment. And what about hospitals? Is he going to defund all the hospitals providing abortions?
This president and this Republican Party are clearly, insidiously, and jointly unhinged and unfit to be in office. Trump signed the anti-Planned Parenthood bill the same day he bombs another country and the same day the Trump-Russian investigation rapidly corners him. He is a master distractor, a manipulating misogynist, and war-mongering killing machine. He doesn’t realize the strength of the people. He doesn’t understand the power behind the Resistance. But he will.