The Story Thus Far: Reproductive Rights
The Trump Administration has already taken extraordinary steps to undermine reproductive rights.
The recently released bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act strips federal funds to Planned Parenthood clinics through Medicaid for one year.
o Emily Crocket (Vox) and the Editorial Board of the Washington Post analyze the recent House bill and conclude that the provision regarding Planned Parenthood burdens low-income women seeking medical services.
Trump proposes informally that Planned Parenthood federal funding can continue if the organization stops providing abortion services.
o Emily Bazelon (NYT) argues that this aspect of the bill is about politics rather than healthcare, since federal tax dollars don’t pay for abortions, except to save a woman’s life or in cases of rape or incest.
One of Trump’s first acts as President was to reinstate the global gag rule: a policy that blocks US federal funding for NGOs that provide abortion or referral services.
o Michelle Goldberg (Slate) and Margaret Talbot (New Yorker) explain that Trump’s order greatly extends the previous global gag order, by applying the requirement to global aid furnished by all U.S. governmental departments and agencies.
o At an international family planning conference, nations pledged funds to make up for the gap left by the new U.S. policy.
Trump stated in one of his first interviews as President-elect that abortion “would go back to the states.”
o Linda Greenhouse (NYT) argues this would split the country in two, between abortion access in the North and limited access for low-income women in the South.