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Morning Briefing

Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations

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Tuesday, May 29 2018

Full Issue

Perspectives: Trump's Anti-Abortion Policies Aside, He's Not Really A Pro-Lifer

Opinion writers express views on President Donald Trump's recent announcements about withholding funds for organizations that perform abortions or make referrals.

Whenever I hear聽Donald Trump聽described as the聽most pro-life president ever, I think well then, I would not want to meet the runner-up. Pro-lifers, and yes, I am one, do not debate which people are people. Or think of聽even the most remorseless criminals聽as less than human. 鈥淭hese are聽not聽people,鈥 Trump has said of some of the immigrants being deported.聽鈥淭hese are animals."聽He鈥檚 frequently called聽gang members聽and school shooters and terrorists聽animals.聽(And he reportedly has no patience with animals.) ...You cannot really value life and speak this way. (Melinda Henneberger, 5/29)

President Donald Trump鈥檚 plan to withhold federal funds for organizations that perform abortions or make referrals for them will endanger women鈥檚 access to a wide range of health care, such as birth control, Pap tests for cervical cancer and testing for breast cancer and sexually transmitted infections. Trump鈥檚 effort is designed to placate a group of social conservatives who are determined to crush Planned Parenthood, damn the consequences. They view the women鈥檚 health organization as evil because some of its clinics perform legal abortions. They constitute a small fraction of Planned Parenthood services, and no federal funds are used for the procedures. Trump opts to put women鈥檚 health at risk just so he can pander to a group that can鈥檛 seem to see anything beyond the abortion issue. (5/28)

President Trump is trying to turn family planning 鈥 what most of us consider good for mothers, fathers, children, and families 鈥 into something bad, even shameful. He鈥檚 also trying to make abortion 鈥 part of women鈥檚 health care for 45 years 鈥 into an abomination so nasty that clinicians dare not speak its name. (Margery Eagan, 5/28)

I had hoped the political conversation around abortion would fade. I had hoped that people who were firmly against abortion could take comfort in knowing that they would never be forced to have one. But our politicians have never let it fade. And yet women still want and need abortions. In a perfect world, no one would need one. Birth control would be perfect, finances would be perfect. But that鈥檚 not how it is. (Joan Finn-McCracken, 5/25)

This is part of the Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.
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