Like any normal human being, I’ve followed the 2016 Presidential race quite closely, watching both debates, following the polls, reading tons of Politico articles and there’s been unexpected things happening, like real estate mogul Donald Trump surging in the polls and Bernie Sanders giving Hillary Clinton a run for her money. But the most surprising happening has been the realization that the most misogynistic candidate, the infamous Trump, has actually the best policy on women’s healthcare.
WHAAAAATTT???
Now this may seem like a far-fetched conclusion, but let me explain. After the Planned Parenthood videos were released, threats of a government shutdown over Planned Parenthood funding, and finally a hearing full of Republicans mansplaining to Planned Parenthood’s CEO Cecile Richards, we now finally have a clear view on whether the 2016 GOP Presidential candidates support Planned Parenthood. If you’re still unsure about whether or not you should support Planned Parenthood and women’s healthcare, read these articles then come back to me.
Now, what we learned in this media-frenzy is what the GOP candidates really think about Planned Parenthood and thus, women’s healthcare. The lone level-headed candidate turned out to be none other than the candidate considered to be the most anti-woman in the field: Donald Trump.
He stated in an interview that although he didn’t support federal funding for abortions at Planned Parenthood – which, thanks to the Hyde Amendment, there hasn’t been since the 70s – but he “would look at the good aspects of [Planned Parenthood], and I would also look, because I’m sure they do some things properly and good and that are good for women, and I would look at that, and I would look at other aspects also. But we have to take care of women” (Source). Maybe he doesn’t actually care about women’s healthcare and just is doing it for the votes, since Planned Parenthood is polling 8 percent higher than anyone running for president and 17 percent higher than the Republican Party (Source).
Okay, wow. So this means that even though Trump is an anti-choice republican, just like all the other candidates in the GOP Presidential field, he has chosen to look past his ideology and see that wow, Planned Parenthood does do some good stuff for women, like STD testing and treatment, sexual education, birth control, and cancer screenings. In addition, for many of its clients, Planned Parenthood is the only healthcare provider that they’ll see all year. In 2014, 79 percent of their patients had incomes of 150 percent or lower of the federal poverty level. So Trump seems to be the only candidate who looked passed the 3 percent of services that are abortions and saw the facts: Planned Parenthood is one of the nation’s leading providers of women’s healthcare (Source).
But wait?!?! Carly Fiorina is a woman and a GOP Presidential candidate. She’s a woman. She should know how important access to birth control and breast cancer screenings are for women. Guess again. In response to the SCOTUS Hobby Lobby decision she stated “women have enough access to birth control” (Source). Fox News, yes FOX NEWS, has even called her out on her false and misleading descriptions of the heavily edited Planned Parenthood videos released by the Center for Medical Progress, a pro-life group. It’s almost as if Trump and Fiorina switched positions on this issue just to cause more confusion in this race. As Gloria Steinem said this past week “If you thought Republicans could find no woman more damaging to the diversity and needs of the female half of this country than Sarah Palin, take a good look at Carly Fiorina and what she stands for” (Source).
This really pisses me off. When the most bombastic, foul-mouthed candidate in the GOP Presidential running is the only candidate that makes a sensible decision about women’s healthcare, it means to me that a) Trump is way more of a wild card than I thought, b) Fiorina is definitely not a women’s candidate, and c) since the Republican party really doesn’t care about my uterus, vagina, or any type of my reproductive health care, they don’t care about my life. Republicans, you can come back to me when you respect my body and my healthcare.