Today, President Trump signed into law a bill that reverses “an Obama-era rule that barred states from withholding federal family planning funds from Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers.” The bill’s passage was secured when Vice President Pence, who tried to defund Planned Parenthood as governor of Indiana, cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate to approve the legislation.
Naturally, Religious Right activists were thrilled by the measure targeting Planned Parenthood, apparently unconcerned about the fact that it will block low-income patients’ access to health care. Trump even invited top right-wing activists to the Oval Office to watch him sign the legislation.
Penny Nance of Concerned Women for America posted a photo on Instagram from the Oval Office with the president, along with Susan B. Anthony List head Marjorie Dannenfelser and Rep. Diane Black, a vocally anti-choice Republican from Tennessee.
Earlier this week, Nance and Dannenfelser also met with the newly sworn-in Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch.
Anti-choice activists have also attempted to remove all federal funding from Planned Parenthood, which is already prohibited from using federal taxpayer dollars to pay for abortion services, as part of the GOP’s repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
When that effort collapsed, Trump tweeted that the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus, which didn’t get behind Trump’s repeal package, “helped save Planned Parenthood.”
Trump, it seems, has found other ways to harm the women’s health group.
