NY grand jury indicts former President Trump
(CNSNews.com) – A Republican initiative aimed at repealing the Affordable Care Act “is about denying women healthcare” and “disempowering women,” NARAL Pro-Choice America president Ilyse Hogue said on Capitol Hill Thursday.
Speaking at a press conference held by House Democratic leaders to protest GOP plans to repeal the ACA and defund Planned Parenthood, Hogue said President-elect Donald Trump, Speaker Paul Ryan and the GOP-controlled Senate have “no mandate to take away our healthcare.”
“More Americans voted for Democratic leadership in the White House and the Senate than voted for the Republicans,” she said. Hogue also cited “reports” saying “that Trump voters are surprised to hear their healthcare might be taken away and that Planned Parenthood might be defunded.”
Hogue was possibly referencing a Vox reporter’s interviews with several Kentucky Obamacare enrollees in December who supported Trump and didn’t think he would repeal the ACA. A Huffington Post story last month cited a Planned Parenthood-commissioned focus group that said some Trump supporters would be “surprised” if he defunded the abortion giant.
“Your hypocrisy is showing,” Hogue said to Republicans. “You say you want to help the American people economically. Taking away women’s contraception is going to cost women collectively over a billion dollars a year. The party that puts abortion services out of reach of most American women now wants to take away contraception, pre-natal care, and maternal healthcare.”
But this should not be a surprise, she added, “for a president who campaigned on a platform of misogyny.”
“Make no mistake, this is about healthcare, this is about denying women healthcare but it’s about more than that. It is about disempowering women and taking away our agency to build healthy, thriving families which is good for everyone in this country,” she concluded. “The last thing I will tell you is that we stand ready.”
Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), and members of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus attended Thursday’s event. They argued that repealing Obamacare and defunding Planned Parenthood would harm millions of Americans.