Why am I suddenly craving milk?
24
It wouldn't be a surprise to learn that this simple-minded uninformed lacking in principles man doesn't even know how conception happens.
17
Correction:
I think she got this amount of money because the affair lasted a year, not just one night. Donnie gave Melania a week to get her pre-pregnancy body back, according to Howard Stern. And he doesn't use condoms because they don't make them small enough.
42
So the Republicans don't want women to use birth control, and they don't want women to have abortions. And then they want those babies to grow up poor, because they won't raise the minimum wage, uneducated because the Education Dept is letting more $$ go to religious schools or because the same department is allowing bogus online universities to bilk people, ignorant because they deny scientific truths such as education and climate change, unhealthy because pollution is allowed to flow into air and water unregulated, and continually ill because they've gutted Medicaid and affordable medical care. And then the people produced by these policies are supposed to Make America Great Again and then keep it great. Man, I want some of that Kool-Aid
34
As a pro life woman, I have every right to protest abortion which is part of my freedom of speech and freedom of expression. You may not agree with my actions, but as long as it is done in a peaceful and civil manner it is allowed. It is guaranteed under the constitution of the United States.
3
Gail, this concise expose of our Creep-in-Chief would make a wonderful blurb for his Evangelical Christian followers to present him as their hero and role model at church this Sunday.
Preachers far and wide will be thanking you Bigly, plus the "show and tell" photo is precious as an added prop.
8
Looking at Stormy's two big attributes in this photo makes it easier to understand why Melania ditched Donnie and Davos for spa time at Mar-A-Lago. However, her time away from her small-handed husband would have been better spent hiring a good lawyer who could file for a divorce that allows her to grab as much cash as she can (perhaps all the good lawyers are too busy defending Trump against Mueller). I cannot fathom how she can explain this photo of Ms. Daniels to Barron. It says buckets about Melania's values that getting a spray-on tan and a massage at the spa is more important than removing her young son from the fetid, polluted, corrupt environment created by her husband.
24
52% of white women need to wise up and vote better. The anti-birth control stance of the GOP is all about keeping women down. As long as women are subject to unexpected pregnancies, employers can justify paying them less or not hiring them to begin with. After all, it's too risky. And some of these GOP voter derive a sick, if unconscious, satisfaction at the idea of denying poor women the pleasure of sex.
17
I feel like what no one's bringing up about the Stormy Daniels scandal, as with every one involving a person of power in a relationship with an adult entertainer, is the way our society still treats as taboo the nearly $100 billion industry of pornography. Even the usage of Daniels' name in reporting is always weighted with "porn star" or "comma the porn star." Not adult film star, not pornographic actress, but porn star.
Putting aside Daniels' gross late-night and tabloid cash-in on Trump (Billy Bush is the charlatan Highlander) and the Christian right's rapturous hypocrisy toward all things DJT, would the sitting American president engaging in an extramarital affair have the same clout if I couldn't easily call up compromising photographs and videos of the woman in question? (Marilyn Monroe is Mother Teresa in comparison.)
Society allows certain men to enact unlimited fantasies of wealth and dominance, but the unspoken intimacy of embedding oneself into the (now digital) daydream of their teenage unmentionables seems to remain the final frontier of Western repute.
3
The depravity of trump is equalled by the depravity of the Christian Right.
The latter has made its bargain with Lucifer.
Perhaps it's time to throw the Christian Right out of the Temple.
13
I guarantee you Trump has paid for numerous abortions. Oh to get those women to come forward and expose his hypocrisy!
19
What, Gayle, you didn't find my post about my Dad bringing HPV home from Vietnam funny? Neither did we kids. Most of Dad's squadron's wives' club survived, but they got their hysterectomies in time.
Donald Trump is worse than a louse, he left his wife's life up to a pro.
8
A political candidate in Indiana said the thing worse than planned parenthood was UNplanned parenthood. He was right. To prevent abortions, one needs to prevent pregnancy.
16
Point of fact: My wife's IUD failed.
2
Trump doesn't have birth control problems. He has self control problems. As does the country as a result of his being in the White House.
32
I think the other depravity is that he was being unfaithful to the wife who just gave birth to his child. No wonder he is so popular with Newt who was unfaithful while his wife was getting cancer treatment. Talk about supportive husbands and family values.
37
Trump neither knows nor cares about birth control for others. If he had sex without a condom, it simply underlines the fact that he's probably suffering from the early stages of dementia. That would explain a lot.
10
How hypocritical are Republicans. Not too long ago, they wanted to impeach a President for having an affair with an intern. But guess whose in the White House now? The current sitting president has made no excuse about being a philanderer and egotist. He want to build a physical southern border wall to control illegal immigration. (Why not a wall along the Canadian border?) What is stopping all the illegal drugs that being mailed to the US, that no physical wall will stop? Or missiles? Instead of jousting at birth control funding or a wall, address the BIG picture - affordable health care (including planned parenthood) and immigration.
16
So, do we imagine Trump has never paid for an abortion? Or advised one of his wives, mistresses, or daughters to have one? Really?
20
I never thought I'd say it but I wish Trump's parents had never gotten together. We might have been spared this entire spectacle of a presidency.
17
Trump's birth control problem is that his parents didn't use any.
31
Why are we even having this discussion? So predictable. Trump does something scummy, outlandish, possibly illegal and definitely immoral, and then liberals get all exercised and republicans continue their America-hating, woman-hating, pretty much everyone else-hating antics and nothing changes. I'm bored with outrage because nothing changes. We need to channel our energy and our money into electoral change, voter registration and just stop talking about trump and his antics. He is who he is. Nobody should claim to be surprised. He was a low-class twit, dishonest in the extreme, abusive and self-absorbed, treating everyone outside his orbit (and many within) with utter disdain. All his life he's been this way! Let's stop venting and start taking our country back.
22
I’m sure every child whose birth came as a surprise to his parents would be surprised to hear that he was “unwanted.”
2
"...the point is that Trump seems to have had either terrible luck or stupendous ineptitude when it comes to birth control."
Or incredible virility!
Let's populate America again... we're falling way behind the Chinese.
1
Recently there have been Republicans who are stridently on the public record as being antichoice. Yet their mistresses have gotten abortions. Republicans are consistent in one way though. They dont care about poor people, and well off people will always be able to get contraception, especially if you are the lover of a rich man
9
Trump "wandered in" to teenage girl's beauty pageant dressing rooms regularly when he ran such things, but HRC running a child sex ring out of a pizza parlor got more coverage from Faux News and generated more hysteria among the evangelical right. Just more reason to despise them both.
14
Yep, life begins at conception, and rights end at birth.
10
Wasn't Trump's first reaction to Marla Maples' announcement that she was pregnant his recommendation that she get an abortion?
12
Properly deployed in the hands of a short-fingered vulgarian, a fortune cookie is 100% reliable. I've been told.
7
Let's coin a new term.
How about Pro-Health? In which the total mental and physical health needs of both the mother and the fetus are considered, with the needs of the fully realized adult woman taking primacy over that of the potentiality of the fetus?
Or Pro-Love? In which the most merciful and loving action is taken, with the suffering of the fully realized adult woman taking primacy over that of the potentiality of the fetus?
7
You would think they'd both have been concerned about catching something.
Stormy - you can do better, girl.
10
Raised Catholic and occasionally have attended Methodist services during the holidays with friends and family. My parents came from Catholic families with 8 brothers and sisters. How does one account for the fact that these days the pews are no longer filled with families of 8, 10, 12 or more children? Abstinence?
13
I wonder what this Valerie Huber chick recommends for married couples who either don't want children or don't want any MORE children. Sexual risk avoidance? I think there are lot of these conservative types who cannot comprehend the fact that not all married couples want to be awash with unplanned children. For pete's sake, approximately 60 percent of women who have abortions already have children. Only approximately 7 percent of abortions are provided to minors. Does this Huber person think that mature adults, particularly those in stable relationships, are going to become abstinent if there is no contraception available? Not in human nature.
8
It is possible that Trump's choice is very likely his age. As the body slows down so does the sexual reaction sometimes to nothing. So he may be a angry that his time has come and it's much slower to for him these days and from now on. with a pill it works just fine but since he is against contraception he would never take a pill. It's not natural. And everything about him is so natural - from his orange hair to fake sincere whispering voice during his speeches.
4
Some benefactor needs to make it worthwhile for Stormy to come forward with details, then let's see what Teflon Trump does. What a great example for Barron.
5
Just a thought, if she took the money, and it's a considerable amount. Was she not obligated to stay silent?
There's the old joke about the honest person who stays bought.
1
Unfortunately Trump is under the assumption that family planning is a woman's problem and job, and like most misogynists believe if you don't want to get pregnant, then don't have sex. So easy for some conservative males who will never get pregnant to say when they can have sex unprotected or not and not have to worry about the consequences. But these same men do not want to pay child support, or fund programs that prevent pregnancy. I am so tired of fighting for our rights, and for reasonable, fact based family planning. But 50 years later we are still fighting for our healthcare and autonomy over OUR bodies.
9
Who cares about Trump's birth control problems.
We're wholly more frustrated about Trump's parents' birth control problem.
7
Here's my firmly held moral beliefs about contraception: all people having sexual intercourse should use birth control unless they have made a decision to have a child. To not use birth control is immoral.
This is based on my Catholic values of avoiding the need for an induced abortion and practicing stewardship of the earth.
Okay, now can I compel my employees obtain birth control because of my religious beliefs?
Among the many problems with the moves to restrict birth control is the breath-taking contempt for the moral values of the woman. She is the one with moral agency in regard to birth control, not her employer!
9
For me one of the great puzzles of life is the conservative view on abortion and what causes babies. If we had better birth control and better sex education we would have fewer births. Also once the baby is a person, conservative resent every penny of tax money that goes to their benefit.
11
While this article exposes some strange inconvenient truths, it may be unnecessarily hurtful to Trump's children. None of them was wanted, at least by their father. Wow!
5
I can't believe that we're still arguing about contraception in 2018. Specifically female contraception, of course. The Trump Admin and his Evangelical Sycophants don't place any constraints on the ability of an unmarried man to obtain Viagra using federal funds or private insurance.
12
I think I know a way to cut unplanned pregnancies in half: force the biological father to pay the same child support he would be required to pay if the couple were married and then divorced.
In order to receive public assistance of any kind, the mother would be required to name the biological father. With today’s technology, it would then become incumbent on the fellow to prove he’s NOT the biological father. If he fails the test, he is required to pay court-determined child support for the standard time duration in his jurisdiction. Enforcement would include the right of the state to garnish his wages.
Think about it. A careless fling with someone he barely knows could cut a man’s take-home wages a good 20%-25% for the next 20 years. If he’s named multiple times he’s financial toast. This would greatly sober up some of the hound dogs out there and ensure true personal accountability.
This is a serious issue, folks. Forty percent of babies born in America today are born to unwed mothers, approximately half of whom end up on public aid of some sort. This proposal may sound extreme to some, but I can’t in good faith ask responsible taxpayers, many with modest incomes, to pay for the abject carelessness of others.
15
In the times of sexual Mac Carthysm the US is living, President Trump is almost needed, just to remind you, my American friends who have elected him, that lust is why we are all here.
No lust, no life! Sorry, we ain't no unicellulars....
3
Hmmmm......maybe that's why Trump doesn't want his taxes revealed.....too many "child support" entries ........hmmmmmmm.
37
Do you really think he would pay anyone child support? He's notorious for not paying people what he owes them.
8
the economics story nyt an dems needs to cover. MSNBC today. Richard Trumka. President, AFL-CIO reality check on Trump claims. Please pass on.
9
Better access to birth control helps to prevent abortions by decreasing the need for them. People who interfere with access to birth control should have to explain to the rest of us why they want more abortions.
35
If you want to fix this mess, vote Democrat in November. Any other action, or inaction, will leave Trump and the Republicans in control, and things will only get worse.
41
The GOP gets some perverse pleasure in sabotaging pregnancy prevention, which is odd since unwanted pregnancies often result in the birth of poor, non-white babies they loathe. "Pro-life until birth" is not just a slogan. Was also happy to see the boycott Hobby Lobby comment. Not only does Hobby Lobby deny workers birth control coverage, but it is committed to promoting the teaching of creationism on an equal footing with evolution in schools. This will be life as we know it after the GOP puts an end to the Mueller investigation. Get used to it folks.
15
I'm with the main character in the movie Lady Bird who, after hearing a "pro life" representative relate that her mother chose not to abort her says, "If you had been aborted, we wouldn't have had to listen to this lecture." It's disgusting to be lectured to by people who support Trump.
31
Examples of his hypocrisy are as plentiful as the number of breaths he takes per day.
He calls himself 'pro-life' as well, even though he's appointed people to key environmental posts whose undisguised aims are to destroy all environmental protection.
A chief executive with Exxon Mobile once said "I don't care about the planet. I care about people." This asinine comment is typical for Trump as well. He cares about nothing--certainly not his own reputation for credibility.
10
Ironically those same people who oppose contraception and abortion also oppose government assistance to those very same people on the grounds that they don't want to pay for welfare. It seems that they are having it both ways and getting away with it.
16
One-hundred thirty grand for a one-night stand seems a little steep unless maybe there was another little complication with the birth control method used?!
11
Ms Collins proves again, no REAL reason behind GOP's rhyme. This Republican strategy is to woke the morality in the color-adverse voters. "Anti-contraceptive" will be just another pledge of allegiance for Trumpers; and, it matters not, that it's a nonsensical ax to grind at the REAL objects of their ire: welfare mothers and their kids.
WHAT IF Republicans REALLY cared about an anti-contraceptive agenda? First, the GOP would have to morph into "The Party of Charitable Words for Single Unwed Mothers". Making Rush speechless - that would be the gift that keeps on giving.
Next? Their Herculean task to care about and contribute to the well-being for unwanted, underprivileged children. More taxes? No, for the righteously Right, the crisis of morality begins and ends with "those people".
It's easy to understand why the GOP's evangelic base CARES NOT that it nominated a porn star's boring, run-of-the-mill, sugar daddy. The victory in securing a conservative SC Justice was, exactly, the RIGHT AMOUNT of morality to fill that stolen-from-Obama-for-the-right-reason nomination.
8
It's probably only a matter of time before someone reveals she has had Trump-sponsored abortion or been coerced into having one. With Trump, it's a never ending stream of sordid details of a selfish, profligate life, and that he was always either very cautious or very lucky seems unlikely and totally out of character for him.
19
The religious right always implies that the only users of birth control are unmarried women who want to have a lot of sex. The reality, of course, is that married couples use birth control, along with unmarried couples who aren't some kind of sex fiends. Not that I have a problem with unmarried women wanting to have a lot of sex. I just have a problem with the whole false idea that birth control is some kind of "specialized" product, rather than something virtually every American needs during the years of fertility to be a productive, healthy, and economically viable citizen.
170
What I dislike about the republicans is that they first want to save the fetus, then once the fetus is born, run the other direction, and claim it should pull itself up by it's boot straps. The idea is so anti-christ like for them to on the one hand laud Christian values then, just seconds later Throw those same values out the door. God is not pleased with them, They might take note what Jesus warned of some that when it was time to get their reward, would be told He did not know them. Just claiming his name, is not enough, love is an Action verb, You have to love your enemies. As God loved the world which was his enemy, as John 3:16 mentions.
As to Trump, He is a shill for the money grubbers. They don't care about the people.
18
There is no god. There are no gods. There never have been any gods.
I love that you gave the christian game away: "time to get their reward". That is all it is.
The lovely Stormy is smart enough to cash in on this society's non stop fascination in the naughty behaviour,hypocrisy,and the sensational antics of our commander and chief. I say hurrah for this woman,and now may we pay some attention to matters more age appropriate to a smarter set
2
Contraception is a men's issue, too. Can we all try to remember that?
86
It's man's responsibility, too; it's a woman's final say because HELLO it's her body.
6
What abut disease transmission? My father never forgave himself for giving my mother cervical cancer.
3
Especially the men...
2
I'd like to point out that birth control is very important for men, too. Lots of loving men and women in stable relationships still want to plan when to become parents and to how many kids
15
It bears repeating, apparently, that 53% of white women voted for trump. So I suspect those women either have access to abortion, regardless of their political and religious ideology, or they believe the stork is somehow involved.
Don't worry. Black women are lining up to run for public office. They'll right this listing ship.
17
Trumps remark that women who get an abortion should be punished as a criminal left out any mention of the man who started the pregnancy-certainly no innocent bystander. Many religious also stress punishment for sinners, but again, it's the woman in a desperate situation who suffers. It's easy to judge others harshly, but rationalize our own mistakes. If anyone thinks men's behavior towards wanting sex outside of marriage will change by punishing women who get pregnant, they better come up with a better idea. Our society would be much improved if women could get all the help they need and stop laying the blame on them.
28
I suppose I understand why Jimmy Kimmel or The View would book Stormy Daniels. It contributes to the degradation of our culture, but after all, our sponsors....
But Micheal Wolff told Bill Maher this story of presidential philandering is not altogether in the past tense. Donald keeps his lawyers busy.
7
“Who said I’m pro-choice?” he once demanded, perhaps forgetting it was him, in one of his books.)
Why not say which book has that claim?
Imagine how convincing you’d be telling a trump supporter that you know he was once claimed to be pro choice in one of his books “because NYT columnist Gail Collins said so.
This is not a trivial matter. I enjoy Gail’s humorous analyses of events, but she seems to think we should trust her and Times editors completely. That’s the only conclusion I can draw when she won’t even provide a book’s title, and rarely provides links about the obscure anecdotes she relates so we can verify the information or learn more about it.
4
I googled your quote and there is a youtube clip of Donald on Aug 19, 2015 saying he is pro-choice. I imagine the book is listed as well.
3
Seems like Ivana had a premonition of things to come. Obviously her three pregnancies just happened. She either was not ready or did not want the pregnancies or pregnant by the man who was her husband. Or may be she was just clairvoyant about her kids. She may have seen aghast at what her two sons, Eric Trump and Trump Jr. turn out to be. Also, she might have seen her beautiful daughter become completely wrought between two two corrupt men - her father and her husband. And reading this op-ed today about their mother must be a solid punch to their solar plexus. As for Tiffany Trump - her tragedy seems never-ending.
12
$130k + an NDA.
Would love to know what the cost of breaking the NDA is. Because if it's only the return of the $, she would handily make that back and then some with a GoFundMe: "Spilling The DNA by Breaking My NDA".
Outside of that, Miss Daniels has certainly been taking the adult club scene by Storm: commanding as much as $75k/night in Las Vegas for a performance. This must be the JOBS creating economy 45 has touted.
11
Young women need to band together and march in the streets! Oh right, they ARE doing that. Well, you better do more than march. Get democrats elected to every possible office you can. I'm an old man. Nobody is trying to take control of my body and my reproductive choices. YOUNG WOMEN UNITE!
24
I don't really think Mr Trump is very different than most of our gender when it comes to sex among other things.
Wear a condom? How about my boots and a raincoat too?
Pregnant? Should'a been born a guy.
Most of us want what we want when we want it.
Delayed gratifica .......... say what?
Birth control is always a woman's problem until men in Congress took it upon themselves to weigh in and address this concern which was opened with prayer to their male god, who clearly inspired them to limit abortion to the first twenty weeks regardless the pregnant woman's thought. Divine inspiration. How else?
How could any woman possibly know more about the life growing inside her body or how to take care of that life for the next couple of decades than her male legislator?
Every man grows older and some even grow wiser.
10
I think it more than likely that Trump has had other problems with birth control and that those might have been expensive to cure. No condoms bad news. No birth control pill insurance support worse problem. Sexual predators should not vote for pro-life. Risky business.
7
the idea that a thinking person would be opposed to birth control is ridiculous. No, i do not respect religious objections, as they are simply absurd and groundless.
20
There comes a moment when decent people go do something else rather than watch humiliation and degradation.
But then reality TV is all about exactly that ... it's the reason people watch it. A working definition of "deplorable" might well be "do you watch reality TV?"
And so there's a beautiful but louche schadenfreude in Stormy's 15 minutes of fame.
"Hey Donnie, I saw Stormy on TV last night (wink wink). Was it good, man? How's things with Melania these days?"
5
You would think it would be enough that women accept the health risks and suffer the side effects of the various contraception methods available in order to protect not only themselves but the men from unwanted pregnancy and 18 years of financial responsibility for a child. But no, we are also made to pay for them without insurance coverage and continually fight for our right to get them at all.
23
The Secret Service should be fully equipped with condoms to provide Trump with the "protection" he needs. Agents should be trained in their proper use and should stand ready to assist the President in putting them on (and taking them off) since that is where most of the "use effectiveness" problems occur with these methods. Planned Parenthood could be called upon to do in-service training for both the Secret Service and for the White House Staff. Donald Trump has more than enough children. What he needs is information, motivation and commodities to benefit from the family planning services that he has cut from the federal budget.
7
As one other commenter wrote, I would like to add that I, too, am Catholic. And, yes, I am pro-choice as well as being pro-life, however, the latter placed with a different perspective. A lot of my rigid views changed when I became an RN and worked in a hospital. There we were constantly fighting for life, an infant fed Comet cleanser by an unhinged mother who later died, many young cancer victims with most of their lives ahead of them only to be stolen by an incurable disease. Or the mother of 5 hemophiliac children, two already with amputated legs, who was "Catholic" and did not believe in birth control.
When it comes to religion or false prophets like Trump dictating our private sexual lives, they cross a line. Religions are man-made, and often, not only metaphorically but also literally. They are arbitrary. If there is a God, and I hope there is one (especially in light of our present political debacle), She is probably a just one who understands our needs and above all does not judge.
28
Again I must ask: If every woman in the world had access to decent birth control, including abortion if she had to make that difficult decision, where would generals get armies and corporations get cheap labor? Certain groups of people try to make it about religion, because that's easier than beating all women into submission, but this is about control of national resources, that is women's bodies. It's about showing women who's boss. No surprise that Trump is allied with the current GOP on this. When I was younger I think the GOP was fiscally conservative but socially more liberal. Now they are seemingly defined by their will towards out-of-control patriarchy.
107
I stopped shopping at Hobby Lobby several years ago, when they refused to cover their women employees birth control due to their religious beliefs. This is a large corporation that relies heavily on a female demographic to buy their products. The hypocrisy wasn't lost on me. I decided to vote with my hard earned cash. I haven't been back since and I haven't missed it. I also passed along the information to other women friends too. If a majority of women did the same, Hobby Lobby might be forced to revisit their policies. That's what is needed because when you have influence over the bottom line you're heard.
27
Perhaps it would be best to view Stormy as a sort of gravitational field about which all other issues orbit. One could, after all, guage any position Mitt Romney ever took by assessing it's relationship to Seamus' epic journey. Stormy could well be a kind of weather vane for how the economy might turn, how women can find respect and potential for advancement in the workplace, and how immigrants from nations full of blonde people can find rewarding, lucrative careers in the land of the free. Ms. Collins, you've opened a window onto the Donald's soul.
3
With Stormy Daniels in the front end of this piece I became instantly nauseated. What new low have we reached?. This must be it...but...can we go lower? How? To fully appreciated the depravity of this whole discussion just consider her body of work. The add in Trump's. We are in uncharted waters for sure.
5
Chris Matthews: Do you believe in punishment for abortion, yes or no as a principle?
Donald Trump: The answer is that there has to be some form of punishment.
Grand Old Punishment
"Love the sperm donor; hate the sperm recipient"
Nice GOPeople.
16
President Kennedy gave us his "New Frontier." President Trump leads us into a whole new realm of previously unknown presidential exploration, the lightweight (in thought, maturity and political theory) though buxom porn "star" Stormy Daniels. Trump leads us ever downward, below the belt and otherwise.
8
IS there a reporter out there who would push Trump on his position on sexual risk avoidance ?? Might it be that he's (not) enjoying a period of abstinence and taking his ire out on the country?
The Republicans have ceded any balance in the party to their most extreme religious right. They are pushing a punitive agenda on those working poor who are dependent on Medicaid and Food Stamps. They mock those who cannot support their children; but here they mock those who wish to control their own reproduction. NONE of these moves will strengthen families, or the country. They don;t save much in the way of expenditures in the short term, and the policies can cost - again - individuals and families, and then, collectively, the nation, much more long term. Some of this has been a very old fight; Trump just adds a particularly cynical twist in his support of regressive policies
10
I'm no longer able to get pregnant but I'm on birth control pills to prevent a condition that forced me to have surgery a few years ago, surgery and a week off from work to recuperate.
Those birth control pills are cheaper for my insurance company than expensive surgery and they keep me at my desk which is better for my employer.
Why in the name of all that's out there would any employer choose a more expensive alternative that would make an employee less productive?
25
Puritanical Perverted Punishment: GOP 2018
12
Given how trump views and treats women as objects for his personal gratification why would he think of their health and wellbeing. A self centered person rarely thinks of others except how he can use them in the moment.
35
Stormy has been signing denials and making the TV rounds of late. Problem is, it seems to all be in jest. Lest we make fun of a very troubling issue here (Gail, good job) but seriously after reading some very smart and thoughtful comments here, this is an important topic that must be discussed beyond here.
10
CGR If you saw Stormy on Jimmy Kimmel's program--she denied signing the letter of denial sent out to the media. She said it was not her signature and she didn't know who sent it.
In 2011 she said Trump did not use a condemn which bothered her.
2
". . .our president doesn't seem to know all that much about birth control.: What does he know about? The stupidity and cruelty of this administration is all cruelty - they're all just playing dumb (except Trump, who is as illiterate and dumb as an adult can be and still function - like a large number of his supporters) in order to appear less duplicitous. But it's all a mean, nasty act - typical of fascists to do that when pandering to people who are easily duped. These people are evil. . .but if we the American people can get our act together we.re going to burn them up. Ferociously.
13
I've never heard of an evangelical complaining about IVF, freezing eggs or embryos, surrogate mothers, or depositing sperm. All of those things would violate many of their 'rules'. Just more proof that evangelicals are hypocrites.
21
Great writing, Gail. A couple of movies come to mind (why movies? Trump is a character)
One is the rôle of the great Richard Libertini as General Garcia in the hilarious, "The In-Laws". Peter Falk reminds Alan Arkin not to say anything about Gen. Garcie's paintings. I can see a Trump staff member warning a visitor, "Don't say anything about sharks..."
The other movie is the classic "Dr. Strangelove" with the truly great Stirling Hayden as General Jack D. Ripper. He reveals to us that in his encounters with women that he had denied them his essence. That could explain Trump's behavior to us.
Now, on to denying women access to health care in the name of Right Wing Christianity...
8
It is almost impossible to imagine Trump supporting any policy that liberates women from the abuses and oppression of men.
Misogynists, fake Christians, and other Republicans are terrified of independent women.
Contraception almost certainly is the most liberating discovery for women ever made.
Fear of women is why religious fundamentalists, orthodox Catholics and Jews, and almost all Republicans want to outlaw not just abortion, but also contraception.
Women who vote Republican are authoritarian submissives who want to be slaves. Men who vote Republican are simply swine.
22
I actually pity Melania Trump. I'm sure she was blindsided by all these allegations, and certainly humiliated beyond redemption. I believe we'll be seeing even less of her now. But then again, Melania supported Donald's Obama birther witch hunt, which yielded zero evidence of foreign birth. Dear Mrs. T, what goes around...........
21
Not surprising that TD hooks up with strippers and doesn't use a condom. It's her problem. There is a quote in Gloria Steinem's book "My Life on the Road" from an Irish-American woman cab driver in NY City that says it all: "If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament." Time is up for men attempting to control and suppress women and their bodies.
30
"Text book generic" is what Stormy Daniels is claimed to have said about sex with Donald. Am curious about which text book.
9
I would like to know what Trump's monthly hush money...uh, sorry, child support payments...costs are.
11
I am beginning to think that all conservative men hate women, starting with their own mothers. What is it about us that intimidates so many men so much that they would rather see us barefoot and constantly pregnant, with no right to vote, drive, or even go out in public, essentially. They want to treat us as chattel, preferably not seen or heard. It's time for this hatred to stop, gentlemen. Get hold of yourselves and recognize the fact that if it wasn't for women, the human race would have been extinct a long time ago, and I'm not talking just about pregnancy. I'm talking about world wars, nuclear bombs, bump stocks, assault weapons, flying jet airplanes into buildings, suicide bombers - what is it with war and guns and bombs that fascinates you all so much, anyway?
21
Menstruation envy.
6
Trump most likely views this as his duty to the preservation and advancement of mankind to strengthen the gene pool with as many Trumplike creatures as possible. Just one more item to add to the list of gifts he has given us.
2
Donald Trump married a supermodel, but that wasn't enough for him. To his list of conquests, he had to have a porn star, while his wife was at home with the new baby. Jeez. Maybe in the next presidential debate in the 2020 campaign, Stormy should be seated in the crowd. I hope the Dems are working towards that. It would be satisfying to make the point, even though it will do nothing to change the minds of the Republican Stepford Wives that support Trump. It was Hillary's fault that she did not leave Bill, but somehow it will not be Melania's fault if she does not leave Donald, and it somehow will not be his fault either.
19
I wondering when Melania files for divorce, before or after the Trump term ends, and how long will it be before Trump illegitimate children start popping up from previous illicit liaisons.
14
Dear Gail, Anyone who tries to sort out "The Donald's" sexual behavior, might as well jump into a bag full of cats. To deny women the right to obtain: advise, treatment and assistance at their choice is not just cruel and stupid, it goes against any moral,medical and ethical standard I know of. By the way I have nothing against cats. If I could, I would throw "The Donald" into a large vat of cats and see who comes out a loser. RAW
6
How many other women are receiving hush money from Donald Trump? If the
Reckless sexual behavior by an American president endangers our national security.
If Trump's sexcapades made him subject to blackmail, America's national security is in danger.
More people than porn stars may be involved. One allegation of particular concern is that Trump cavorted with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel room while the KGB surrepitiously filmed the fun. Is Putin using the tape to blackmail Trump into lifting sanctions against Russia's oligarchs?
10
Trump told Howard Stern that avoiding STDs was his “personal Vietnam”. Judging by his failure to use a condom with Stormy casts doubt on whether he managed to dodge even that bullet.
Why would we expect Trump to be any different with his sex life? He has been irresponsible, selfish, narcissistic and cruel as a businessman and as a president. You would think that Stormy, of all people, would know that there is no payoff worth the risk to her and her family’s health.
If nothing else, I hope that Melania’s humiliation inspires her to have her son vaccinated against HPV. There’s got to be one responsible adult in that family.
15
When I was young Playboy magazine had a feast of diversity as centerfolds, tall, short, voluptuous, petite, a rainbow of hair colors, ethnic and multi-national. All of us lustful boys rejoiced. Then Hefner got old and insecure and the centerfold became homogenous, pneumatic, overstuffed dyed blonds with ugly painted faces. Of course our equally insecure un-President would go for this tawdriness. For me? - yuck. Would I kick her out of bed? You bet. And I am not that picky.
5
A serious question is whether or not Trump has ever taken an AIDS test. If he has in fact slept with hundreds of women including porn stars who have had many, many partners the possibility of him being HIV positive is not all that remote.
14
"...is just cruel and stupid." What isn't cruel and stupid coming from the GOP these days? Well, it's not just the rich that get a tax cut. My wife and I are Middle Class and we'll get, oh about one thousand bucks off our 30% we pay in taxes each year, until of course 2025 when that giant tax cut goes away for the 99%. I guess we can buy a couple cases of condoms if the our university decides that it would be against their religion to provide birth control, and assuming our pharmacist doesn't see condoms as being provided by evil Satan or is an abortafacient.
12
Trump doesn't believe men should have to be responsible for birth control, and he doesn't think anybody should get help buying birth control. Trump sides with male chauvinists who think only women are at fault if they unwittingly get pregnant, and that poor people -- who too often are brown- or black-skinned -- shouldn't have sex if they can't buy their own contraceptives. There's no compassion -- just derision -- for the pregnant women who didn't intend to become pregnant. They become vessels handed over to the hypocritical pseudo-religious evangelists -- whose own daughters are first in line at PPH if THEY get preggers!
10
I remember years ago listening to a pro-life advocate poo-poo the idea, espoused by pro-choice advocates, that outlawing abortion would be just the first step by anti-abortion groups to deny women the right to control their own bodies with regards to family planning. It appears that the pro-choice people were right all along.
16
Of course we are.
4
I'm glad I read this after eating breakfast. The thought of Trump having sex is enough to make anyone ill. Apparently, even his wife.
23
Sorry, Ms Collins. One devoted reader here was unable to muster a grin. Perhaps this article should have been entitled: "Rut Cries of the Rich and Famous". Somehow I keep wondering how low the bar of presidential qualifications must creep before it sinks so far as to be irretrievable. There's gotta be humor somewhere but after the SOTU speech, it's taken a hike.
7
"Conservative values" include a fear/fascination with sex that is unhealthy for us all, considering the way they try to rule against anything to do with the subject unless it's packaged properly (marriage between one man and one woman, celebrated with a cake provided by a heterosexual). With less contraception, there will be more abortions (legal or not). But Republicans don't care--fetuses are good for their political careers, but babies and mothers need money, and money means taxes. That's why the USA has such a disgraceful rate of mother/child survival compared with most other developed nations--those other countries have national medical coverage.
11
I know people will attack me for saying this, but some women have men like Trump (i.e. rich) impregnate them on purpose. It's quite a meal-ticket. Also, big cash settlements to women for hush-money or 'settlements,' are sort of disgusting. There are men who have spent years in prison, unjustly convicted for rapes they didn't commit. When DNA--testing exonerates them, they get less money than Gretchen Carlson, if they get anything at all. I saw Gretchen Carlson on The View the other day. She is now a very wealthy woman.
4
That Trump refuses to use condoms really says everything about him and his attitude towards women.
Not that anyone with eyes to see would need this as proof.
3
President Trump, is a Misogynist. His whole life, has been a vilifaction of them in both his words and actions. If he could repeal the 19th Amendment, he surely would and take our Country back to 1920, before it was passed. In his mind, that would make America Great Again. What bewilders me are the women and men that support him?
5
Someone pays $130K to a woman for a night of sex - makes one ask “who abused who ?”
1
Employee health care is a benefit paid for by the employee through reduced wages. Employers who would deny coverage for birth control are making decisions using the employee’s compensation. To hand over decisions about a person’s health care to the employer constitutes condoning a kind of theft. This is in addition to the outrageous idea that women should have no say over their own bodies. Once again, the pseudo religious parade around as moral while committing crimes and harm to others. And the pseudo president? We’ve come to expect this kind of behavior from him. The question is when will we put our foot down with this seventy-something infant? This con man? This sexual predator?
8
Gail Collins, you are the best. Throw it all right back in his face, right where it belongs. More, more, more please!
6
YES, Thank you, Gail--- to infinity!!!!!!
Should have thanked you immediately--
but hopefully, you know you are our shining star---
An autocratic force is taking over and twisting our constitution; we are in serious trouble.
1
Here is Trump talking about Hillary on Fox News in 2012:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5A02pNcGHs
And where are Trump's tax returns.
4
Every day in every way, we are reminded about the deficiencies of the occupant in the White House. His hypocrisy, greed, cruelty, and immorality know no bounds. Mr. Mueller, surely you have enough evidence to charge him with obstruction and his campaign with conspiracy. Please, it cannot come soon enough that you rid us of this damaged individual who is destroying our country.
6
By the end of Gail's second paragraph, I felt that I could not read on, having just finished breakfast and all. Calling upon my deep reserves of courageous persistence, however, I persevered.
My reward was to find, deep in the column, the watchword for this Trumpian administration: "just cruel and stupid." Thank you, Gail.
7
Dear Gail, Thank you so much for your uplifting columns. today s wonderful 'birth control problem' will keep me from the terrible consequences to our democracy when he releases this 'fake' memo.
1
If what Stephanie Clifford says is true, it means Trump had unprotected sex with a woman he barely knew, while he was married. The editorial discusses this sordid affair in reference to Trump and his evangelical supporters' hypocrisy on the topic of reproductive rights.
But has anyone stopped to reflect that by having unprotected sex and then returning to his marriage bed, he put his own wife at risk for everything from chlamydia to hepatitis and AIDS?
9
Human overpopulation is the greatest correctable problem facing humanity and the biosphere today. What is driving climate change and global warming? Human overpopulation. What is driving the 6th Extinction? Human overpopulation. How many more humans are there living on the earth today, when compared with our pre-agricultural hunter-gatherer ancestors? 1850 times as many or 7,446,000,000 humans. What is driving our pollution problem? Human overpopulation. Is there even one politician brave enough to highlight this problem? No. The current ideology driven American government has cut off all financial support for contraception to the fastest growing segments of the worldwide population explosion. Please pass the thorazine. No God wants us to destroy His creation by the sheer weight of our hungry numbers and no religion can possibly support human overpopulation as God's Will. At least, no sane religion. Please pass the Kool-Aid.
7
This may sound paranoid... but didn't Speaker Ryan say recently White American Families need to start having more children?? The 'anti-choice' movement isn't really about repealing Roe vs Wade, it is about getting to the heart of what the SCOTUS used, privacy - Griswold vs Connecticut - where it said married couples had the right to privacy to use contraception. AND couple in the insistence by this administration that young women in immigration detention centers carry to term instead of allowing these young women, who raise the money and make the arrangements, no tax dollars are used to obtain abortions. These children would be born in the US and we, the taxpayers, would be paying the pre-natal care for these children. Evangelical Christians who are part of this Quiverfull movement - you know like the Duggers from Arkansas and are responsible for pushing the entire 'Home Schooling' trend among 'christians' are running all areas of our current administration. We had an OB-GYN physican run for the Senate in from NC and when that was a spectacular failure, he decided to run for Governor... also a crash and burn event. He and his ilk are looking the other way with the liar, grifter, cheater in the Oval Office to get their payoff, a country that makes the 'Handmaiden's Tale' look like an autobiography instead of a work of fiction.
4
I think Stormy Daniels sold herself short, I'm sorry, but $130,000 would not have been enough money to hush me up. $130,000 is chump change to a billionaire. Try $1,300,000.00, and I'll sign the non-disclosure statement. Less than that, no dice.
And you know that there have got to be other women who had extramarital sex with him. Odds are, he didn't make them all sign non-disclosure statements. Considering his views on birth control, he may have other children out there, too. Where are they and their mothers? On the other hand, if I'd had sex with this awful man, I don't think I'd want to admit it, either, non-disclosure statement or not. Like, ewwwww!
5
In Ivana’s defense, I too became pregnant with an IUD in place. The gynecologist pulled it out of me about 10 days before the baby was born so that it wouldn’t interfere with the birth process. We had decided to leave it in place because we were afraid that pulling it out would dislodge the plug in the uterine opening and caused me to miscarry. Later, I found out that IUDs were supposedly much more effective when used on a woman who had already given birth once.
2
Does Trump not realize that many of the beneficiaries of the Title X program are non-whites? Maybe if Dreamers agreed to use condoms? ...Just exploring arguments that might loosen Trump's strangle hold on birth control funding.
But Donald Trump is living proof that condoms should be readily available to everyone who wants them.
1
The position of the Trump Administration on women's rights to birth control and abortion is to de-fund programs designed to help women. In turn, that de-funding will have the most significant impact on poor people. As people of color make up a disproportionate number of the poor, the most likely outcome will be more people of color and fewer Whites.
Forgetting for the moment the burden this would place on the lives of the poor (which this Administration doesn't care about anyway), Trump will have promulgated a policy that will result in a population composition that the President who does not want immigrants from 's___hole' countries is trying to avoid. But, when you have no idea what you are doing and have no moral compass, you end up with consequences the exact opposite of that which you intended. If it wasn't for the unacceptable burden it places on poor people, I could almost root for it. Almost;
Brilliant sign seen at a pro-choice rally:
"You Won't Trust Me With A Choice But You Trust Me With A Child?"
18
Allowing your employer decide on your birth control choices because of his religion harks back to the time when the king decided religion for his subjects. Why is the bizarre idea that employers can enforce THEIR religious beliefs on their employees considered respecting religious freedom? Seems like the opposite to me. None of their business being in the bedroom!
286
The problem lies in the fact that the employers are being required to pay for some of that BC.
Universal healthcare may help some of these issues but not all.
For years I watched as signboards were set up every weekend, announcing religious services at the local public school. Thanks to a Supreme Court decision, my tax dollars are being used to promote a religion I might disagree with. But I always wondered why Planned Parenthood, or any other nonprofit, didn’t also take advantage of this tax-supported free meeting hall-school opportunity. Imagine thousands of Sunday morning birth control counseling sessions in every school. Imagine other learning opportunities, meeting in our public schools (atheists, included) . After all, aren’t these groups.... just like 4-H, FFA....?
3
Trump base sniffs at the catastrophe of unwanted pregnancy because this group is full of old goats who no longer worry about such things. Then, there are those who think a woman of child-bearing age should just squeeze an aspirin between her knees as "risk prevention." They talk as if an infinitesimal zygote warrants a baby shower; but they will readily sacrifice the life - the life - of a mother. How dare they be free to make such calls for every woman in the country!
5
Being pro-life and anti-birth control makes no sense whatsoever. Pro-lifers oppose abortion. Abortion would not be necessary if measures are taken to prevent the joining of sperm and egg. Did the proverb "An ounce of prevention" escape the pro-lifers?
8
If one is opposed to abortion, then logic would conclude that preventing the unwanted pregnancy would be first on the agenda. But not for Republican lawmakers. In their warped way of thinking, the use of birth control is akin to abortion.
How can you make an argument against this type of 10th century logic which totally defies common sense?
8
It would seem that if women really cared about their health issues they wouldn't vote for the republicans. Unfortunately men suffer from their votes as well.
4
I'm not what would be considered "religious" by any means. Nor am I an expert on the subject of the Bible. But it seems the last time I looked into the subject, the Commandment read "Thou shalt not commit adultery", which I was always led to believe meant "sexual relations between two people, one of whom at least is married to a person who *isn't* the one the relations are going on with". These people, however, seem to take it to mean "Thou shalt not...do it...unless the objective is to produce offspring." Then again, considering the American standard of ethics and morality can be summed up as "It's okay if *I* do it but it's a crime (or sin, or whatever) if *you* do it"--and for "I" you can substitute "a member of my party" and for "you" you can substitute "a member of the other party"--should we really have expected anything else?
4
Yes, and if a cake baker wants to decline to provide services to gay couples "for religious reasons," there ought to be such a standard for adultery, thievery, murder, etc. Want a cake? Provide a background check to prove you're not a crook! (Said only slightly tongue-in-cheek.)
Alas, your column perpetuates the lack of knowledge about condoms and birth control. The main reason to use condoms is to prevent sexually transmitted diseases, which are common. Condoms perform poorly as a method of contraception. Excellent info about about the effectiveness of birth control methods is available on the CDC website.
2
A "pro-life" stand should be consistent, not just for procreation. Pro-lifers should also be against wars, death penalties, and all kinds of barbarities resulting in political motivated deaths. I don't see them protesting when a soldier returns from war in a box, or protesting when a prisoner was put to death, or protesting in the capitols of our nation. Pro-lifers have the right to speak up, but need consistency in their message, or else, it sounds like they acting out of some religious or personal hangup rather than true conviction.
10
"I donate to all these charities ..."
The reason that Trump is a social outcast in New York is that he does NOT donate to charity unless he sees a return on "investment" and that is rare. The New York social scene has charitable giving at its core.
There is only one thing that Trump cares about; Trump.
10
Well Gail has managed to point out that Trump is as coherent about sex in his private life as he is in his politics. Mostly about what is good for Trump, as decided in his own short-term very limited views of what benefits Trump.
5
Groping and raping women is not the only kind of sexual abuse. Men not taking responsibility for the birth of a child leaves women impoverished and abused in their lives. This kind of abuse is often forgotten as it happens nine months after the fact. It starts with men not choosing to use a condum. Our society compounds this by often blaming the women for her sexual misconduct and forgives the man as boys will be boys. This kind of abuse is as old as human kind so often forgotten.
Trump shows the arrogance of males who think only of sexual gratification and their own senses claiming it is their right to forget outcomes for their own pleasure. And it is often men who deny the rights of women to control their bodies .
6
Everyone says she was paid $130,000. I bet $30,000 were legal fees- setting up the phony corporation and attorneys fees. She got just $100,000 which allows everyone to deny that she was paid $130,000 without lying.
9
Some anthropologists have maintained that women are usually (almost always) more invested in children than men are: they must carry and nourish them for 9 months inside their own bodies, give birth with some discomfort even in the most ideal births, and take care of them until they are able to be independent. In the past, this was considered to be the woman's first priority: to take care of her children. This is why women were readily excused from responsibilities like serving on juries and why work outside the home was frowned upon (at least for women who were not poor, as poor women have always had to work). Birth control meant that women could choose whether or not to have children and reliable birth control may have been one of the most revolutionary things to happen. No. This isn't about money. It isn't about caring about children. It's about a refusal to accept the equality of women and their right to make their own choices about their lives.
14
the only point in this column I take issue with is the description of Trump as a "former playboy." Doesn't sound like it's all that former.
8
I'm so glad you didn't refer to trump's relationship with Stormy Daniels as an affair. She didn't have an 'affair' with the president, she just had sex with him a couple of times. For lots of money. And affair would be almost legitimate in comparison.
7
Doesn't it seem strange that anti abortion folks almost always are against contraception> It is also strange that they call themselves prolife, but support the death penalty. They also seem to be against the ACA which keeps [people alive.
But it is hard for someone such as myself, that would hope no one would need an abortion and doesn't want to make judgement against a woman that may choose to have one. And that's because I'm a male and don't belong in the discussion. I also lack the knowledge of when life begins, but know we need to support life that is here with food, health care,education and the right to protection under our constitution all of their natural life.
16
Childbirth in the U.S costs more than anywhere else in the world, $10,000-$50,000, and maternal death rates are higher in the U.S. than all other industrialized countries.
Pregnancy and childbirth are life threatening and major financial sacrifices made by individual women. Loving and nurturing a child takes decades of commitment and selflessness.
How is it "pro-child" or "pro-life", to deprive women of the ability to determine when best to undertake such an endeavor?
17
Funny comments...if the current situation weren't so dire unjust for the better half of humanity, women. We men have no business telling women their needs, especially in the sexual arena, where we go on happy-go-lucky screwing things up (pardon the pun), given we cannot get pregnant. Let women tell all of us what is the sensible thing to do...and stop politicizing a deeply personal issue. Of course, contraception ought to be universally available, both to prevent unwanted pregnancies, and potential abortions, and possibly minimize venereal disease as well. It may be the full worth of your attention to read a poem by Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz: "Hombres necios que acusa'is a la mujer sin razo'n, sin ver que so'is la ocasio'n de lo mismo que culpa'is" (etc) ("Silly, you men so very adept at wrongly faulting womankind, not seeing you're alone to blame for faults you plant in woman's mind..."). It is inconceivable that, in the XXI century, we still have so called leaders (appointed by a sexual predator but no excuse) behave so stupidly, religiously fanatic and willfully ignorant, and so narrow-minded, as to trample on women's rights in such an insolently retrograde fashion. They should be ashamed of themselves...and quit a job they are incompetent to exercise, biased as they seem to be. Of course, Trump, a sexual predator 'per excellence', is irredeemably lost in his mounting irrelevance in recognizing his assault on common sense, and the prudence required to do what's right.
7
It does not matter who is in the White House, Republican or Democrat, the pro life movement will not go away. We have been gaining in strength over the years and this is what is so frustrating to the pro abortion people. We are also fortunate to have young people joining our movement. No amount of persuasion can change our minds. Thank God for the sonogram.
We see all life as having value and meaning and cannot fathom ending it. Contrary to what the opposition says, we do not stop caring for the mother and baby once birth has occurred. We will provide housing, employment, job training whatever is necessary to assist these families. They are never left to feel alone. Many are so relieved to be able to keep their babies and were so appreciative that someone cared. Many of these mothers become strong pro life advocates and join our cause.
We also have seen those in the pro abortion industry quit their jobs and join our ranks. They are some of the strongest pro lifers we see. We certainly have made an impact on the pro life cause but our work is not over.
Soon I will be participating in a 40 Days For Life Campaign that consists of men and women across the country and around the world. We stand and pray quietly in front of abortion clinics hoping to end abortion one day. We have seen many abortion facilities close due to our efforts. We take this very seriously and have made quite a difference. We still have our work cut out for us but we do not give up.
1
Until Pope Sixtus V ruled that a fetus was human upon conception in the late 1580's Church scholars mostly agreed that, though a fertilized egg was "alive," the point at which it received a soul was a hotly debated subject. The official Church position was that the fetus did not become ensouled - become a human - until "quickening" -when the pregnant woman could feel motion, in the mid-second trimester. Sixtus also tried,but failed to get the Church to institute the death penalty for adultery. He died in 1590. Pope Gregory XIV immediately voided Sixtus's ruling and reset the time of ensoulment - when the fetus was human - to 16 & a half weeks.
There it remained until 1869. Then Pope Pius IX was campaigning for the Church to officially grant Papal Infallibility and Immaculate Conception, but was blocked by French Catholics. He appealed to Bonaparte III, who was worried about a century-long decline in the population of France. Bonaparte offered Pius a deal. If Pius would outlaw all abortion, Bonaparte would drop resistance to Pius's changes. Pius accepted the deal & at the First Vatican issued a papal bull changing ensoulment to conception. It was not officially added to Church Canon until around 1917 & finalized in the 1960's at Second Vatican.
So, if you want to believe that a fertilized ovum is human, you are free to, but stop with the religious justification & don't try to force the rest of us to accept it. This was only official for the last 150 years out of 2,000.
234
You said it yourself: you stand and pray. If I reject your god, why would I accept your unscientific beliefs about life?
I’m sure you are sincere. I’m sure you mean well. That does not entitle you to use the power of the state to impose your beliefs on others. I don’t tell you how to raise your child. You cannot tell me I must raise one.
You’re absolutely wrong to suggest the right to life movement supports children after birth in any meaningful way. The cost of raising a child runs hundreds of thousands of dollars. Housing you say you provide? Really? For 18 years? That’s what the courts require in divorce cases. If you’re doing that for one person, it would be news. For millions of unwanted pregnancies, it would be social policy. But it’s neither of those. It’s pure fantasy.
Not that I’m surprised. Fantasy is the foundation of the so-called right to life movement. Fantasy about God. Fantasy about the meaning of life. Fantasy over the proper role we play in strangers’ lives. And fantasy that they’re somehow being helpful and kind by denying them the right to live their lives as the see fit.
18
No one has ever said they are "pro-abortion". They are "pro-choice". No-one thinks abortion is in any way ideal. What you, and others who think like you, need to realize is the birth control prevents abortion and that's a very good thing.
15
Other than children picturing their parents engaged in carnal knowledge, there is not a more disturbing word picture painted here then the visualization of Trump and Stormy going at it hammer and tong. Good God, I'm already disgusted by what I just wrote. Enough already.
Here we have Trump, sitting pretty in the Oval Office, husband, father, lecturing to US about making America great while he does everything in his personal life to destroy that greatness.
Trump loves living in the fantasy world of Reality TV, and so I'll recall TV dads of the past whom I still enjoying watching on ME-TV: Ward Cleaver, Andy Taylor, Ben Cartwright, Lucas McCain, et al. Men of character who portrayed the ideal father. Dads who, unlike real Dads, almost never erred. And yet when they did, were man enough to admit to it.
I'm older than dirt, and old-fashioned, but I still believe in those ideals. They are still goals one should aspire to. Trump represents the complete opposite of these aspirations. I would be so disappointed in myself if my sons and grandsons ever emulated Trump's children obsession with making money over doing some good for a world filled with so many people less fortunate then they.
DD
Manhattan
DD
Manhattan
23
Trump's history of risky sexual behavior is a hallmark of the psychopath, along with lack of ability to feel empathy or compassion from those he calls "losers," no conscience, compulsive lying, a need to punish or ruin anybody who opposes him. He expects total "loyalty" from all of his "subjects," yet gives no loyalty in return. He has a towering ego. He lacks the capacity for compassion. He sees everything as a zero-sum game, where, for him to "win" in any human interaction, somebody else needs to lose. It is even more satisfying to win by cheating, even if not necessary. He also must demean & try to damage the lives of those who have "opposed" him even for trivial or imaginary slights. He had classic teenage trouble (Trump was expelled from his boarding school at age 13 & sent to a military academy for troublemakers or slow learning sons of the rich). He claimed he was #1 in his undergraduate class at Penn's Wharton school (he lets everybody assume he has an MBA from Wharton), even though there is no mention of him in the list of honors from graduation day & few of his classmates remember him. He & his father hid their German roots, claiming he was Swedish - even in The Art of the Deal. Anybody on Wall Street who was conned into financing any of his early projects never did business with him again, & the Street always believed Trump is a third-rate scammer, cheater, & money launderer for oligarchs & the Russian Mafia. Since elected, he has told over 2000 provable lies.
6
Hammer and thong is more likely.
4
Dear Beartooth:
You most definitely have Trump pegged. Might you be originally from New York? You know him like a native. He and the entire Trumps stink to high heaven. Thank you for all the extra info. And keep fighting the good fight.
DD
Manhattan
It is worth remembering that effective birth control a sure way to prevent abortion. There are some who oppose both. Perhaps it is time tor them to choose the lesser of the two evils and push for universal access to birth control.
38
This is a war to enforce 2,000 year old superstitious taboos against "unsanctified" sex & sex for pleasure. The threats of unwanted pregnancy and STDs are primarily to coerce people from having sex in violation of their Iron-Age taboos. Besides, the more children born, the more potential souls to save for Christ.
3
Just another example of Republican voters would rather fight than fix it.
8
I don't believe they give a fig about the unborn baby. They certainly don't make any attempt to nurture the baby after its birth. Their real attempt to subvert women. That is their real passion. Their tears are crocodile tears.
7
It's all about control.
The so-called "Family Research Council" has been against people's access to birth control since its inception, yet it's a big favorite of Republican lawmakers.
Beware giving an inch to those who wish to press patriarchy on everyone...even an angry one.
209
While Donald's sexual escapades (yech!) are of little interest to me, what would be of interest is the women who have been aggressed upon by him coming forward with sworn statements and violation of any NDAs they may have been compelled to sign. In doing so, they would become heroes because they would be helping not only with the current MeToo wave supporting women breaking across our society, but would be helping to save our nation. That so many men who have only been borderline (Garrison Keillor, Al Franken) creeps, it seems the Donald is far beyond that, yet the office he holds demands that we play Hail To The Chief when he enters the hallowed halls of Congress, and somehow the press coverage has watered down to actually cover this man's actions as though he cared that he is a servant of the American people. In 1968 I was asked what I thought about the people who were protesting against Nixon. I said I respected the office he was elected to and we have a process to remove him if he is not fulfilling that responsibility. That statement is still true, though Trump has sullied power of the office, perhaps beyond redemption and the respect is on hold until it can be redeemed by someone more worthy. Stormy could also help that happen sooner rather than later, instead of working the media.
141
It would be great if your coverage of the Trump administration opposition to funding for contraception, it would be combined with the fact that widespread access to and availability of affordable contraception is the #1 way to reduce abortion. If they really care about abortion (and not just controlling women's choices) they would be promoting access to all methods of contraception (free). Instead, they have delayed refunding the vital network of 4,000+ Title X Family Planning service providers who provide this key function. This is a travesty and we should all be outraged!
356
Good point.
Conflating contraception, abortion to safeguard the life and health of the mother, and elective abortion past quickening as a method of birth control has been in my view a chief cause in the tribal polarization of American politics. Both the left and the right do it.
You might add that outlawing elective abortion as a means of birth control at some point in the pregnancy provides an additional argument for parental leave laws, additional resources to provide for the health of mothers and children, and the like. Those arguments work with me, for one.
On the left, when people add claims that the only reason people oppose any sort of abortion is to control women’s bodies, and that men have never been asked to take on sacrificial burdens reserved for men as responsibilities to family and community (this is not a straw man argument no one ever makes), it’s as if they were asking people to vote for Trump. Because these claims are clearly not the case.
Far better to make the point as you do.
2
In fairness, you're right: it's also because of wacko religious fanaticism on the Right.
6
Follow Up Questions
What I would like to know is how they settled on $130,000 in hush money.
What? ... Did they start with $150,000, Stormy was forced to negotiate, and they settled on $130,000? It seems like such a strange number.
Omigod, if Stormy had only known of some of settlements of Bill O'Reilly ($32 million in one case) and Roger Ailes (more than a few in the millions of dollars). That will teach her to crawl into the sack with a second rate businessman instead of a famous tv personality ... or even a famous athlete. I think Isaiah Thomas paid $11.6 million to settle a case and Kobe Bryant once shelled out more than $2.5 million in not-quite hush money.
Those "settlement" are just convenient ways for rich guys to stay out of jail.
But poor Stormy, she wasn't thinking on either end of her deal.
23
So, where is the Moral Majority, the Christian Right, the GOP, rightwing conservatives, and the rhythm method birth-control advocates as well as the just say no groups and organizations? Or how about the conservative PA representative that urged his victim to get an abortion? How come not one conservative is speaking out and condemning this immoral, illicit and repugnant behavior? Oh, I forgot. The rules don't apply to them and their party because they're busy breaking the rules. Rules only apply to progressives and left wingers. Especially birth control and abortion rules.
The next election will provide a "Stormy" session for conservatives. Wait, I almost forgot, conservatives have Jeff Session(s).
171
Well put. The christian right have made deals with the devil when it comes to Trump.
2
Let's not forget the president's epic struggle while others were fighting in Viet Nam--he was struggling mightily to avoid the scourge of venereal disease. His bone spurs didn't seem to impede his outside-of-marriage sex life.
Mrs. Trump is wise to have separate bedrooms in the White House. She has to protect herself from all of the diseases his one-night stands would bring to her marriage. Am I the only one totally fatigued by the endless sewer of low class behavior this president displays? I say we make America Great Again by bringing back the Obamas.
46
Stormy did not come over well in her interview with Jimmy Kimmel. In fact, it was a non-interview. Is there actually absolute proof of her stand with the Trumpster?
I do not know what to believe and at some point I would so I could further amp up my disgust level for our faux "leader."
2
On the other hand, Kimmel did ask her if she did NOT have a non-disclosure agreement with trump and she didn't answer no---which sure makes it seem like she did have one and that part of it was not admitting to the NDA.
1
If you want to up the level of your disgust google the Hollywood Access tape of trump bragging to Billy Bush of his abuse of women and girls. That should do it.
3
I agree 100% with Mor from California. What conservatives fear above all else is women with agency.
28
One should watch more porn!
Jesting aside, the irony is that the holier-than-thou Republican reactionaries tend to have greater aversion to people's liberty except their own. Instead of some honest to goodness sex education, they have been opting for the just-say-no oppression of what is natural for adolescent coming-of-age. Alas, the consequently, some people tend up seeking out porn on internet as a model of the sexuality.
To be fair, there are good porn, bad porn and sick porn. But it is really a sad thing a repressed society tend to have a black and white attitude categorically. Without any discussion and openness, this further exacerbates the situation. A genuine education is so important.
3
It's astounding that Trump takes the money from 65% of the US population, which wants choice for women and just stays, "no we are not spending the money on that, but on religious ideals...
15
If he loses the evangelical vote, he's done for. He'll no longer be the most important person in the world. That's all that matters to him.
3
Why would Republicans do anything that could possibly help or save the lives of women? Until they realize that abortion isn’t some “flippant” choice most women make when dealing with an unwanted pregnancy, they will continue to find ways to punish women who dare to think that they are in control of their own bodies.
32
One cannot help but wonder how many women the Donald has impregnated over the years, and who likely had abortions. Does anyone honestly believe Stormy was the only prostitute in DT's life? I don't have any doubt that the information in Steele's dossier is accurate. I also believe that Putin has something on Trump, or many things, which would help explain why Trump, who never met anyone he didn't like to insult, never has an unkind thing to say about Putin.
57
The pitiful amount ($130,000) that Stormy got for her silence is another indication that Trump is nowhere near as rich as he claims to be. My guess is that the Trump Foundation or the Trump campaign wrote the check.
42
According to Steve Bannon, Trump had about 100 women he needed to pay off in the months before the election. Steve was Trump's campaign manager, so I guess he would know.
26
Personally, I thought the ‘tighty whities’ thing was the most memorable part. Unfortunately.
7
That photo reminds me of Brando's line to the well-endowed young girl in "Last Tango in Paris," which was something like
"You're laughing now, but some day you'll be playing soccer with those things."
10
The original line was a bit blunter than your paraphrase, but you captured the gist of it. And the 'girl' was Maria Schneider, whose abusive treatment during the filming was publicized but somehow never provoked outrage as the recent spate of revelations did.
Stormy also calls to mind this line from Radiohead's 'Fake Plastic Trees': 'He used to do surgery on girls in the '80s; but gravity always wins...'
She's a walking monument to Sir Isaac Newton.
The un-united states of america is rushing headlong back into the dark ages in so many ways. I really worry about the future for our children and grandchildren.
25
Being Pro-Life is not necessarily anti-contraception. In fact, most rational people realize the best way to reduce the number of abortions in this country is to prevent the pregnancies in the first place. That means making birth control free, widely-available, and humiliation-free, coupled with comprehensive, fact-based, age-appropriate sex education for all students, including those in religious-based schools. Give people the information they need to make good decisions.
Unfortunately, the evangelical Christian wing of the Republican party has coupled abortion to birth control, despite being morally, ethically, and medically separate issues. No one has been able to convince them that the message should be: "Premarital sex is a sin. But if you're going to sin, at least be smart about it. Use birth control." They view it as an endorsement of premarital sex. Somehow that same logic doesn't work for concealed carry gun laws and gun violence.
25
Steve - That says it all. If having birth control available is an endorsement of premarital sex, then I guess having guns available is an endorsement of murder by firearms. Funny they don't use the same logic for both.
2
If, as it seems, the current administration is determined to cut access to birth control and also determined that every baby that is conceived in the US is born, then the current administration needs to step up and do the honorable thing and make sure that all those babies have adequate food, education and medical care until they are 18.
Oh, wait. That would mean expanding Medicaid and SNAP and giving more money to public schools. Oh, the horror.
The connection between unwanted births (which could be prevented by better birth control access and better sex education in schools), and the growth of, to use their own term, entitlement programs seems lost on this administration.
30
Pregnancy is a medical condition that can end in death or disability. Forcing a woman to continue a pregnancy is involuntary servitude or slavery. That is outlawed by the Constitution.
This really is the 21st century not the 16th.
36
Utterly absurd ... the presidency no longer seems legitimate - rather instead, the stuff of reality television - and bad television at that. Trump's presidency makes a mockery of the entire American political institution, with no help from Congress or the media. We're all spectators, trying to come to turns that we elected this guy who acts like a cross between a petulant child and frat-boy bro. We cannot be naive about the culture in which we live - one that has clearly condoned this man's actions, and we honestly cannot be surprised any longer with various histories that surface from the past. We must question why we give it any kind of attention.
13
While Collins does a great job of exposing the hypocrisy of Trump et al around sex, contraception and abortion, the thing she mentions in passing that should be the most politically consequential is the payment to Stormy during the campaign. The thought of our president having Stormy sex might be cringe worthy enough to distract a professional chess player, but it shouldn’t distract us from the real corruption of paying Stormy $130k to keep quiet. Where did the money come from? Who handled the transaction? Why was she treated differently than all those others who accused him of sexual misconduct? Someone, or some organization, with enough money to spare a few dollars, should make it worthwhile for Stormy to break her non-disclosure and tell the whole story. My guess, and it’s purely speculation, is people will be a lot more upset if the money came from campaign funds than by the thought of our president rolling around with a porn star.
Also it should be noted that the sexual double standard is alive and well, actually thriving, especially in the Republican leadership and evangelical community. It’s always the woman’s fault for a man’s behavior. After all, it’s not wrong for a real man to have sex with a porn star. Remember, a porn star is already a sinner. The man is just doing what comes naturally. Ask any of the numerous, recently exposed, sexual predators. They know that if it wasn’t for women, they wouldn’t have misbehaved.
29
Gail, I believe trump carried on and off with Stormy for at least a year, so it wasn't a one-night stand. Don't add to trump's ability to yell "fake news."
11
Fortune cookies, stupendous ineptitude, and sharks. That about says it all for the man who would be king. How can we possibly survive another three years of this tragic comic book character?
11
I wish there was more comedy/humor to be found in the Republican success of imposing their minority religious viewpoint on reproductive health care policy for US citizens and for aid programs world wide. Unfortunately the statistics for the outcomes of the Republican policies are not funny. The unnecessary deaths in childbirth and the unnecessary deaths of infants who live only minutes or hours are tragic. Denying education and the tools for birth control by imposing "abstinence" only policies is cruel. Denying the funds for care and food for expecting mothers and for infant children is bad policy.
After Trump and the Republican Congress are gone there will be new policies which respect women and their rights in making decisions about their own reproductive health just as men do.
7
If you want "health care" go buy and pay for it. Don't ask me to condone or pay a cent for your behaviour, good or bad. Isn't it hypocritical to whine about children's good health but murder the unborn by abortion to suit your convenience? Slavish selfishness is not a virtue despite the clumsy window dressing. After the rout of the midterms in 2018 you won't have a soapbox to stand on and spout phony" morality"
In all of this, we should not forget that birth control pills also address serious health issues such as ectopic pregnancy and endometriosis.
22
Question.
If, after Trump's one night stand with a pron star - sans condoms - she had gotten pregnant?
How much would he and his groupies have paid her to get an abortion, rather than have the spectacle of a pregnant porn star bearing his "sex" child, and then having to support the little tyke for the rest of it's life, haunting him at every turn? Reminding the world and his wife of his scorn for his vows and his sexual proclivities for many years.
$130,000 would be a pittance.
16
$130000? Now that's what I call a bonus. Kind of makes those checks for $1000 Trump keeps boasting about seem a little on the cheap side.
8
What an insufferably selfish "john" to refuse to protect a partner, thinking only of his pleasure. Sounds like a president I know.
26
The POTUS may be suffering from VD.
9
Probably why his wife seems to shrink away from him anytime she is forced to appear with him in public.
1
The Right ignores the sex crimes Trump has been alleged to have committed, all showing a pattern consistent with Trump's own admission of simply grabbing women by their genitalia. So its only natural the Right now apparently respects Trump's payout to Ms. Daniels. What's next? The causa belli is the horrendous FBI entrapment of Trump and his minions. But of course, those opportunistic FBI agents in alliance with the Democrats AND Russians concocted this sinister scheme. Republicans apparently cannot define the word, "responsibility."
10
I just... I can't even imagine.
This man is a germaphobe. He won't even shake hands with people and you're telling me he has sex? It's a messy business. Lots of fluids get exchanged. You touch things...
I'm sorry. I just don't believe it. I've even considered he might have used a turkey baster and a test tube to conceive his children.
Something here just does not add up.
11
I find it hard to believe that he has fertilized only five eggs from three women.
9
You fail to make a connection between Trump's failure to use a condom and the positions he has taken that you oppose. You use a tawdry picture and story to further your point. What a disgusting approach.
What a disgusting president, political party, and policy platform.
2
..."And I was really kind of upset about it because I am so, like, careful.”"
H'mmmm. But not careful that time. That's why women have unwanted pregnancies and expect the taxpayer to kill it--because they get careless of their own body.
1
It's time to switch my NYT subscription to Pravda. The reporting is somewhat more objective, somewhat less partisan. The NYT is not fake news, simply hyper partisan news from cover to cover.
When the paper chooses to report about ALL of President Trump's embarrassing issues, but rarely, and I do mean RARELY, report prominent Democrats' issues, always a free pass for Democrats whenever possible, it's the new normal.
The NYT has sold its soul to "progressive" politics, believing that the golden goose of business can forever lay more and more golden eggs for politicians, no matter the regulatory abuse imposed by Democrat politicians or worldwide competition. President Trump knows better. The NYT does not.
2
Were you old enough to read when Bill Clinton was president? The NYT reported on the Lewinsky scandal and all the tawdry details nearly daily for months on end, as did plenty of other papers and news shows. Remember Gary Hart? John Edwards?? Both got tons of coverage, as have many others. This is a man thing, not a political party thing.
5
Are you confusing an "Opinion" piece with reporting the news? There is a huge difference, you know? Or don't you know?
6
If Obama had paid Stormy Daniels $130,000, would you be complaining about the Times’s coverage?
7
Donald Trump clearly lacks common sense. Every man knows that when you have sex outside of marriage, especially with a woman you do not know, use a condom.
Or at least, all men who respect women have this common sense.
5
Oh Gail, didn't you read that the evangelicals gave Trump a mulligan for his sexual indiscretions.
11
Trump has no morals, or scruples. He is a known racist, sexual predator and adulterer. Trump's unbridled support by Evangelists is proof-positive that they are far more interested in political power than the word of the Bible. Their hypocrisy is overwhelming.
11
So, tell us more about Valerie Huber. Does she have more children that the Duggars? Does her husband think sex is dirty or only for procreation and they already have enough children? Or is she in a same sex relationship where birth control doesn't matter? Or is she never married wearing sexy clothes with a big cross like Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham while pretending to be oh so pure?
5
I don't care what his doctors say. Trump doesn't actually have a brain. If Mike Pence drops in, he borrows Pence's brain and becomes Pence for a day, a puritanical patriarchal sex-a-phobe. If Kelly pops in, he assumes Kelly's brain, a ruthlessly über-patriotic nuke-first-ask-questions later warrior. Ditto for the rest of the cabinet that his baby-sitters have provided him with. If you have access, you can inhabit his skull.
12
Poor Donald, I'm sure he's so very angry with himself now that he knows he would have won the election without forking over $130,000 of that hard-earned campaign contribution cash (two criminal complaints allege), plus the fees for setting up the phony payoff company, etc. Yes, he must be thinking "I'm such a loser and how can I sue Stormy to get that money back".
And while public policy birth control was being destroyed, the Idiot in charge of undocumented immigrants who are in detention centres was wanting to force a teenager to undergo a non-approved procedure to reverse the abortion a Court said she could, and did, have.
12
A new low in journalism, even for Collins.
1
Well Paul, perhaps it's just sheer coincidence, but we've also reached a new low in the American presidency. At least until the next time Fearless Leader opens his mouth or twitches his fingers on his phone.
1
Evangelicals claim their beliefs are based on a literal and infallible Bible. However, they seem not to believe in the Creation story. Adam was not a living soul until God gave him the breath of life. (Gen. 2:7) Moses ordered Hebrew warriors to kill everyone who wasn't useful as a slave. Neither pregnant women nor their fetuses were spared. (Numbers 31)
Ecclesiastes 6:3 declared that unless a man has a good life and proper burial, abortion is better. The prophet Hosea prayed for God to punish wayward Israelites with abortion. (Hosea 9:14) If a man accidentally caused a woman to abort a fetus, then he had to pay the father for the loss of his property. However, if there were injury to the mother then it was eye for eye, hand for hand. If a man lies with his uncle’s wife or his brother’s wife, “they shall “be childless.” (Leviticus 20: 20, 21) Wouldn’t abortion be required? (Gen. 38), Judah impregnates Tamar, his daughter-in-law. When told that she is pregnant, he wants her executed on the spot, not allowing her to give birth before execution.
When God commands Moses to take a census, pregnant women weren't counted twice and God didn't want children counted until they are a month old. (Numbers 5). The Apostle Paul wrote, "First came the physical and then the spiritual. (I Cor. 15:46)
8
And Paul preached celibacy.. but if one could not resist, best to wed... a long held belife which is why orphans in prhanages in the Renaissance were wed to each other at age 14-- and their surname was appropriate Innocenti designating that they were the product of the orphanage Ospedale dei Innocenti...
Too bad that Donald Trump was not man enough to use a condom nor to get tube snipped nor gelded nor hormone treated so that he could not inflict his spawn on humanity.
9
Best birth control ever -- go to bed and think about the Donald. That'll do it fer shur.
13
Gosh, the plump playboy even lies to a one-night stand. He confides in her that he hates sharks. Fast forward. Now he wonders aloud "Where is my Roy Cohn?"
And he expects anyone to believe him about anything? Give me a break!
7
For the Donald, it's all about HIS button. I wonder how much he paid Marla to say, "best sex I ever had." Or, was that gem leaked to the press by his so-called publicist. How low are we going to sink? He slimes every person he comes in contact with, and now that includes the American people. What a ghastly role-model for our children.
9
Gail, I'm glad this came after we watched fake-president speak last night because the image of him without clothes is disgusting. Yuck!
5
There has been no mention that Ms. Daniels is a commercial sex worker that practices unsafe sex in a country where it highly illegal and considered base, and immoral. I read her account that said she hoped he would not give her money for the sex at the time. But happily extorted him for 130K shortly thereafter. I imagine her revenues are down from her prime time. Her behavior and continued behavior is gross, disgusting and unpatriotic. She should be embarrassed to show her face. I would like to hear the feminists on this. Or is anything OK and good if it is done by a female?
3
Oh Rich, don't be such a bad sport. Women have just as much right to be disgusting and revolting as men do. It's called equality.
6
Women got trump elected and now they don't like it? Too bad, deal with it. You can have all the marches and protests and wear dumb hats and make signs etc etc but unless you ignore the non disclosure papers/hush money arrangements and just come clean to the public and out this chief predator nothing will happen. kiss your family planning goodbye.
1
Oh Paul, don't be such a bad sport. Women have just as much right to make horrible decisions as men do. It's called "equality."
3
You really think that women who participated in the women's march voted for trump? Really? SMH.
1
I don't believe Donald Trump is against family planning. In private, I bet he would own up to family planning saving his neck a few times.
I'll go a step further, and say that I don't think most Republicans in Congress are against family planning or abortion. I bet their necks, or those of dear friends, or family members, have been saved in almost every instance. It is a fact of modern life, just as is substance abuse, and same sex attraction.
Republican positions on social issues are among the most bizarre manifestations of the unreality we live within.
They neither represent themselves nor their constituents. Its just a lot of noise and confusion meant to give themselves control of women and the world.
Brilliant, bravissimo!
9
I read the affair lasted many months, but who wants to research that? So this country elected a man who was having unprotected sex with a porn star while married, and probably putting his unwitting wife at risk. The Republican Congress seems absolutely smitten with him though. They smile and stare with stars in their eyes. They would follow him anywhere.
10
"I hope all the sharks die."
Well, there goes the shark vote.
8
It is way too early in the morning for anyone to contemplate Hair Duce's sexual habits. But it never too early to say to Melania Trump:he has humiliated you on the world stage with the revelation of this latest escapade, which would make any pre-nup niull and void. Take your son and get out of Dodge. You both deserve better. And come to think of it , we ALL deserve better.
17
I cannot believe he did not use a condom with Ms. Daniels. I cannot believe she didn't insist on using a condom. I mean, this despicable man bragged to Stern that he didn't go to Viet Nam but he fought his own war - staying away from venereal diseases as he bedded supposedly one woman after another. If he didn't use a condom he sure was letting himself hang out there without protection. Pretty stupid soldier in THAT war!
I can understand a person's religious belief that says abortion is murder. I don't agree but I can understand. But I do not understand the stance against birth control except that denying it is a way to control women. And that's really the main point of it for Republicans: to control women.
VOTE THEM ALL OUT!! Cast them out upon their biblical waters and set them out to sea never to be seen again!
14
Please stop posting photos of this woman's body. Not going to asset to the claim that all work is good work for women. Very sad that this is her venue for self advancement. Please, someone have that talk with this woman. #hertoo
4
Why doesnt the press ever quiz these right wing yahoos about the female anatomy and contraception they are so keen on controlling?? Get their answers out there.
Every year some GOP numbskull says something that lets the public know that they do NOT know what they are talking about- they describe a microscopic phenomena routinely as a full grown baby - the image of a youngster wearing diapers and in a stroller.
So YES, more follow-up questions for all of these guys, Trump especially- the guy who said his "personal Viet Nam" was avoiding VD back in the day.
7
$139k for a one night stand?
She must have charged extra for the "No Condom Option".
4
So exactly where is Jerry Falwell Jr. hiding his face these days?
3
If only Trump's parents had practiced the ancient art of birth control.
6
Could Trump be engaging in fake sex, practicing this as a legal birth control not requiring health insurance coverage? Otherwise, why not use a condom? Great column, Ms. Collins.
2
It's not only Roe v Wade that America's Christian zealots have been seeking to overturn. It's the Griswald case, in which the Supreme Court overturned the state of Connecticut's strictures against the use of contraceptives in the privacy of a married couple's home. That has been their Christian Sharia goal all along.
12
With the GOP, the right to life ends at birth.
14
oh my that pic of Stormy D. is so classy.
4
The one night stand - "boring"?
I heard he whispered dirty things to her in Russian!
4
Trump cheated on his first two wives. Then he cheated with Stormy while Melania was pregnant. Stormy was paid to keep quiet, but only after she'd already blabbed to the tabloids. Now Melania is mad. Looks like Trump would have been better off practicing Valerie Huber's “sexual risk avoidance.”
3
I have always wondered why rightist men want women to be anxious about having sex.
Makes no sense to me but then again I like and respect women.
I wonder why rightists don't.
6
Sex? Donald Trump? Gag. Your column covers the important topic of women's reproductive rights being curtailed, but the lead-in made me ill.
4
" we’ll have to spend a minute discussing the president’s sex life, and Stormy Daniels, the porn star."
How about spending a minute instead PROMOTING contraception?
Contraceptives should be freely supplied to everyone over 18.
THAT is more important than hauling Trump over the coals. Especially since "reportedly was paid hush money" is not actually a fact but merely a plausible conjecture. Plausible? Yes. Known? No.
Trump is not important. Contraception is.
4
Please, I'm eating dinner...
4
"The Presidents doesn't seem to know all that much about birth control".
I only wish that his mother had.
7
We just have to make it a law that ALL fertile Christian males need to have their genitals locked up until marriage. Then only unlocked for procreation. 24 - 7.
The other option is to require that all fertile males have pregnancy insurance. One million dollars minimum coverage, higher as you have more children.
Men are the most responsible make them be responsible.
9
"Men are the most responsible make them be responsible." I think you meant, Men are the most irresponsible make them be responsible. but that annoying auto-check kicked in right when you hit, "submit".
Dear women,
What did you do to republican men to have them treat you with such blatant disrespect?
5
We didn't do anything to them. The problem is that they all have a damaged gene. That gene forces them to make horrible choices when confronting a ballot box and similarly when the confronting a woman (they seem to see ballot boxes as females, you see.)
2
she's trolling america and making tons off talk shows, first she denies it, then she says it happened, then she denies it..who wouldn't pay this nut pocket change to leave them alone?
2
WSJ ran this story to quell the brewing mutiny in the newsroom over Murdoch's direction of the editorial page in its unscrupulous support of Trump and derision of Mueller.
2
Huber is a long time advocate of "sexual abstinence"? Oh, Ms Collins, this is rich! The Philanderer-in-Chief, who impregnated one wife out of wed-lock and has had how-many affairs while married to all three wives, appointed this broad? And let's see...Trump has had 5 kids, does not like using condoms, but clearly enjoys sex with good looking, bosomy, women.
This would make for wonderful tabloid entertainment if it were just Trump who was affected. The sad truth is that, as with everything in his orbit of exploitation, he is getting off Scott-free, and you, me, our daughters, nieces, and friends are the ones who have to worry and fret on how to feed another mouth. So this "Christian, St Donald" is saying, "In your face. No abortion for you. No contraceptive pills either. You can't afford more kids? Tough luck, I can."
5
I like Chelsea Handler’s theory about Trump. He has syphilis and that’s why he acts insane. It’s looking like an even more solid possibility, given that he isn’t using condoms and is sleeping around....
4
Trump is obviously an atheist pretending to be a Christian just so he can get the Evangelical vote. The Evangelicals have lost all moral authority, however, and their undying support of Trump is quite disgusting. Patriarchy has Christians by the throat, and it is obvious that all they care about is keeping women in their place and men in charge. Please vote against all candidates who do not want to allow women to make their own health decisions.
4
I, too, am shocked--shocked--that the Stormy Daniels story doesn't draw an investigation from the GOP and the evangelicals.
After all, their outrage was on full display when Juanita Broaddrick claimed Bill Clinton raped her; when Hillary supposedly killed Vince Foster; during the Monica Lewinski affair; when they claimed Hillary was having all kinds of lesbian affairs; when members of the GOP accused that D.C. pizza guy of holding kids hostage in his basement; and when Mexican rapists were allegedly roaming the countryside.
The GOP and its evangelical minions are very experienced in "investigating" all kinds of real and imagined wrongdoing. Why not here?
That's obviously a rhetorical question. Clearly, they will do anything they can to help Trump weather this Stormy. And they are stubborn like a Mueller.
3
Gail Collins: Why call him "a former playboy"? Do we know for sure that his playboy days are behind him? Just saying....
5
Who knew?
1
The subject of sex lives of presidents is a bore at best...except that it tends to bring out a hilariously illustrative amount of sanctimonious hypocrisy from the commenting readership. At least I never had to pay 150K for one night of meh sex.
So... I got THAT off my chest. If I brought up the subject at work tomorrow I’d stand a good chance of being fired by the end of the week,
3
My choice is A.
2
Health insurance should be required to pay for any type of birth control or abortion that the woman wants--because she's paying for it and because every woman incurs absolute, unlimited physical liability for pregnancy and childbirth, up to permanent mutilation and death, every time she has sex with a man or a man uses her for sex.
The responsibility for preventing unwanted pregnancies is thus entirely that of men, whose penii do not jump into women. If they are opposed to either birth control or abortion, they should simply never have any sort of sex, except with themselves or other men. (This includes heterosexual porn.)
If women are opposed to abortion or birth control, they need not avail themselves of them.
But the liberty and dignity of an individual woman is not up for other people to "debate."
6
No wonder the hard right wants to stop people having sex. Sex makes people happy, and happy people are more likely to be liberal, and to care about society and their fellow human beings.
11
No one believes me when I say I subscribe to the NYT for the articles.
12
I wonder if Ivanka has any half-siblings she’s not yet met?
11
In the picture dictionary, there is a photo of the orange-face, withered paradigm of hypocrisy with the Cheshire Cat grin. The question is whether he’s listed under hypocrite or corruption.
7
Isn't this something Ivanka was supposed to prevent? Why does she have an office in the WH anyway?
2
Trump is pro - choice. He has the freedom to choose whatever suits him at any given moment. Women only interest him when he can take advantage of them. Ergo, he cheats on Ivana, cheats on Marla, cheats on Melania. And the holy evangelicals like Tony Perkins give him a Mulligan.
The real Trump was revealed on the Access Hollywood tape. The real Trump was revealed in his one night stand with Stormy. So far all it has cost him is $ 130, 000. The old boys network- Paul Ryan, Tony Perkins, Billy Graham' s son , the President of Liberty University , Roy Moore remain solidly in his corner. No Condom nation from them.
12
How far backwards we've slid.
25 years ago, Clinton extolled the benefits of birth control as a common ground: "abortion should be safe, legal, and rare."
8
OK, Ms Daniels got 130k in 'hush' money and good for her. My question is, how much she was paid for the actual encounter. What with Mr. Trump being a would-be-stud in his own mind and Ms. Daniels having a well established field to play.
Just asking...
6
I think the sub-text was that she was hoping to get on The Apprentice. She said something to that effect at one point or another.
1
Our president doesn't know much about anything...this administration is not only governance by minority, it's presidency by committee...
5
Now be nice, people. You're looking at the next head of the CDC.
3
The Trump branded chastity belt coming soon to a store or online retailer near you. These are the air bags of the industry when it comes to safety and protection! The patented device has a a mobile app and RFID chip so you can locate it anwhere.
The valentine package includes Mar-Lago Chocolate cake. Come one, come all and wear your protection in Presidential style!
3
If I had the opportunity to publicly ask President Trump a question, I'd ask, Mr. President, have you ever, at any time, paid for a woman's abortion?"
7
And you think he’d give you a truthful answer?
2
The fact that more Trumpanzees might be conceived and brought into the world is horrifying!
5
This makes sense.
Without unwanted, uneducated children Wal-Mart and Koch Industries would crumble.
10
Wake up, Gail. Birth control problems don't belong to Trump. It's the one million humankind aborted every year. How much longer can this tragedy go on?
2
Yet we continue to hear crickets from the evangelicals who lecture about family values and would eviscerate a Democrat for the same behavior. At least they have been revealed for the hypocrites that they are.
The best way to prevent abortions is to make sure that birth control is affordable and easily accessible. But the patriarchal religious right can't accept that women enjoy sex outside of marriage and don't always want to be barefoot and pregnant.
I so hope that we can go the remainder of this presidency without discussing Trump's sex life. That's a mental image I could so do without. Our president is a randy pervert, yay America, how great we are.
9
The Donald's personal Vietnam war that even phantom bone spurs couldn't help him avoid.
3
It is oddly comforting to note that the publicly macho Donald has to privately pay for sex.
The Failing Trump experiment is a fraud in so many ways.
5
Tell me this is not about a Sinclair Lewis-like character, Elmer Gantry now surrounded by political pimps in Washington DC, in Congress , the Cabinet and the TV and print media. SAD
2
What is the point of this article? It seems to be all over the place. Is it stressing a tawdry sex life, birth control, abortion? Inquisitive minds would like to know.
1
Now, perhaps, can we get an explanation for how Mr Pence, who is so against birth control, only has three children? I calculated that he ought to have at least six kids, unless he's not telling us the something....
7
Trump, Ryan, McConnell, McCarthy, Nunes.....these people have no shame.
And they don't care that they don't.
ALL of these massive changes--no matter how many millions they they hurt--are done to satisfy this small cabal of Republicans who have hijacked our government.
1
Sounds like Stormy Daniels is a shoo-in to be Times Person of the Year for 2018
4
Okay. I get it. Stormy can't talk because of the stipulations she agreed to in the $130K settlement. Probably a big financial penalty attached. But, wait! What if we crowdfunded her to pay the penalty? Chances are really good (I mean 60+ million voters good!) that she get way more $$$ than what the penalty would cost. Just sayin'.
4
Back to the 50s....the USA is sliding backward ...all the wonderful advances made by science, medicine and technology are being ignored in favor of profits for corporations....oh yeah, they're "people" too....I forgot.
2
Birth control we need more of. But for some reason, the blood in the brains of those about to copulate rushes to the genitals and unprotected sex happens once again.
This isn't necessarily a problem if a child is born and loved and raised. Sadly,however,over a million humankind are destroyed every year by a mother whose privacy has been invaded decides she doesn't want the baby in her womb
For those who think the human fetus isn't human, go back and read your Biology textbook again. Tell us all when that pivotal moment of of humanity happens and the fetus has a right to life.
Birth control makes great sense.....BEFORE the fetus is conceived.
5
Can we please stop calling "Stormy" a star and start using the correct term: pornographic film performer? By using the glamorized term "star" , we are whitewashing another ugly aspect of our culture that erodes women's dignity: the pornographic material industry, where women are nothing more than receptacles of men's genitalia or secretions.
2
If Trump's dalliance with Daniels had resulted in another Trump child, the Evangelicals would have probably supported him anyway by saying he is pro life!
4
The Washington Post is rerunnning "classical" Doonesbury. This week is from 1990 and features Donald Trump and Marla Maples. Check out these remarkably prescient cartoons http://doonesbury.washingtonpost.com/
4
Trump reminds me of the song, What I would do for love.He is the epitome of a hypocrite,as are the Evangelicals that support him. The master groper isn’t fooling anyone. The entire world knows where those little hands have been, but a vote is a vote.
4
Refusing to use a condom strengthens Trump’s claim that he is authentically pro life. He is a purist, always open to new life.
2
Ugh. The images of Trump in flagrante makes me want to wash my mouth out with the Constitution.
1
Yes birth control is a sin because we need more white babies in this country so the population doesn't become more black and brown. C'mon women, hit the sack. It's your patriotic duty. Forget about your career and your ability to afford another child. Forget about the fact you won't be able to afford health care for that child. Forget about the fact you won't be able to afford college for that child. Ignore the fact that children born to poor Americans and poor women across the globe will not get enough to eat, have a poor education, and be more likely to turn to drugs and crime. And you will get woefully inadequate prenatal care Your country is calling. Better do it now before those tax cuts expire and your man's job is eliminated by automation. Who knew that sex was such a higher calling?
4
The GOP used the dime method. Clench a dime between the kneecaps. Problem solved.
1
Curious that so many "America First" people sound like English is their second language and they haven't quite conquered it.
4
Flies are to rotten meat as evangelicals are to power. That's why they cling to him no matter how rank the stench of moral decay. They lust for power to control women and their unruly bodies. And the money doesn't hurt.
1
I wonder if there have been any paternity tests on little Donnie's 3 oldest children; might be interesting. Then again, they all seem equally disgusting...so there is that connection.
1
Look at the photo of trump with Stormy. That was before he started the non-stop tanning machine visits to hide his Rosacea. Then, imagine what his face would look like today....see W.C. Fields' photo.
1
I'd put money on the fact that, sooner or later, a woman or many will come forward who had abortions paid for by ex-future-daddy Donald J. Trump. In his long and busy playboy life, he has undoubtedly funded an abortion for at least one girlfriend, and maybe for a wife or two.
4
Gail, as I paused to reflect on the image of Stormy before reading your article I couldn't help but wonder if the Donald would declare there is anything FAKE in the picture?
1
Wait'll Trump gets caught between the nation's moon & New York City come 2018, Gail. All this lovin' will be relegated to the third page. There is a tide in the affairs of men...
1
It is passing strange to consider men who objectify women in their youth often depend on them as (mostly female) nurses and nurse's aides in later illness and infirmity.
Perhaps the #MeToo movement will lead to more nurses choosing work in maternity and child care leaving the Trumps of the world to the ice floes on which they deserve to float into oblivion.
3
The GOP position is and always has been: life begins at conception and ends at birth.
7
He's a narcissist and the modern republicans are a party of narcissists.
How many abortions do you think The Donald has paid for? How many girlfriends, wives, and daughters of congressional republicans have had abortions?
If a rich girl gets pregnant, it's a mistake that shouldn't be allowed to ruin her life; if a poor girl gets pregnant, she made a series of bad lifestyle decisions and she should live with the consequences.
One set of standards for me, a completely different set of standards for thee.
13
Why isn't she afraid for her life?
2
Very arrogant of DJT. However, he wasn't President at the time. Further, why does the writer and others assume that Trump was the person responsible? I have always thought since the end of the laws against abortion in NY, before Roe Vs. Wade, that NOT getting pegnantwas the job of both the man and the woman. It was back in the days when I was doing things that were once seen as risky. So why, now some 40 years after the laws legalizing abortion, the laws making birth control legal among all people, not merely married couples,(once only a man could buy condoms )? It seems, increasingly, to be a problem for women to take any responsibility for themselves. Any woman might be trying for a second trip to the well,(so to spoeak), in the case of the married, apparently rich, non President Trump. If he is foolish enough to be so ignorant or arrogant to sow his seed with such abandon, he ought to expect there are millions of women out there waiting to take advantage of such an opportunity. That is, what I am told, DNA attempts to do-ensure it's passage to the future via the offpring of healthy &wealthy-if not wise humans
1
I appreciate your willingness to cut Junior some slack for his miserable childhood. That said, today I am grateful for the failure of failed birth control, which spared us all the need to muster compassion for the love child of The Donald and Stormy Daniels.
2
I think it's pretty clear that Trump family birth control failures had nothing to do with birth control and everything to do with a disagreement between partners about their desire for children. The wives wanted them, Trump didn't want his girl-toys sullied by pregnancy and subsequent adult responsibilities. Does Trump seem like a guy who wants to share the attentions of his woman? Trump enjoys porn stars, prostitutes, etc. because it's "no strings attached" carnality. What's a wife to do? Birth control "failures". How are all those Trump loving "Christians" able to square Trump's disgusting example of betrayal and unbridled lust with their so-called values.
As usual, lacking all understanding of the issues related to family planning domestically and internationally, he seeks to undermine the programs he doesn't grasp. If his base doesn't like something he'll get rid of it. Anything to keep the rallies rolling.
7
And it's time to play the Republicans' favorite hit game show. Ladies and gentlemen,
WHAT IF THIS WAS OBAMA?
6
Gail, this stuff makes me cry I feel so helpless.
3
The Republican Congress. The first time in US history that a train wreck has had a train wreck.
Should we thus say that this administration is a train wreck squared?
Just asking.
6
I wonder how many of these "pro-life" bible-thumping hypocrites and/or congressmen have adopted unwanted or seriously handicapped children into their homes? Raise your hands please. Hmmmm. I thought so.
7
Thank you, Gail this all makes perfect sense: A black US President cannot be a Muslim, but a white US President can pay hush money to his lover during his campaign.
Now we know why Trump did not want to release his taxes; he probably claimed Ms. Stormy as an entertainment expense.
7
Family planning? Don't have kids if you can't afford it. That's all you need to know.
1
Once again, Gail has given me a phrase I'll cherish to my last breath. (I still love her "sub-verbal" from back in the Palin-and-Family days.) Today, it's "went out of his way to be incoherent."
Actually putting an effort into it; testing every word before uttering; watching your audience for signs of understanding; rapid-fire editing and lightning-speed comma and/or slash insertion. Reaching for the heights of incoherence.
Thanks, Gail.
5
I'm sorry, but you're either pro-choice or you're no-choice.
The latter is what the strident anti-contraceptive, anti-abortion politicians (and their blind followers) really are.
2
Clinton was impeached for adultery, inappropriate sex, and lying about it to cover it up. For Trump, having those same transgressions revealed seems like an excellent occasion for resigning the job he did really want to begin with, and his wife certainly never wanted at all, and spending more time with his family.
3
When Bill Clinton was president, it was just about sex and not supposed to be a matter of public concern. I guess that thrown out the window when the president is a Republican (or at least claims to be one).
1
"Because of the flood of donations to pro-shark charities"
lol. I want to send a donation!
4
Where do we even start? We have people who believe that available birth control is the reason that people have loose sexual morals, and want to assure that women are the ones held responsible for reducing sexual encounters by putting them in peril or pregnancy by making safe and effective birth control harder to get.
So they elect a libertine as their front man.
Then they sit back and excoriate people - mostly women, mostly single women - who have children and cannot afford day care or healthcare or rent, for having had more children than they can afford. It's the old "you made your bed now lie on it." Children as moral punishment... that'll serve society well.
Birth control is probably the easiest conversation we can have. Help fund the tools to give women agency over their lives, to help them plan their lives, at a low cost to the national coffers.
People who think that God wants to punish women (and not men, never men) for their sexual drive have a very limited and unforgiving God. They will never rethink that they have misinterpreted their supreme being. Maybe we can finally shake loose and let them interpret His nature privately, while we publicly do what is sensible for the nation.
7
Trump's birth control policy needs a subtle change in light of his State of the Disunion. White men and women -- all actual or potential Republican voters -- must be prohibited from getting or using contraceptives. We need all the whites we can get. Others, not so much.
And yet .. women voted for this horror. If I live to be a hundred, I'll never get it.
7
The problem with the topic of contraception is that:
1. Our citizen birthrate is far too low and according to several studies will turn us into a third world economy by 2040. 2040 is 22 years away and we probably don't have time to avert the collapse. Shouldn't we be talking about this instead?
2. Many people don't care to know what is true about contraception in general.
They simply want to have sex and not worry about getting pregnant or
having to pay child support.
Did Bill Clinton visit prostitutes and did he pay to get them to hush up -
google Dante Williams and guess what you discover - yes he did.
3. So it seems like this journalist like most of them comes into the situation
thinking he or she knows what is going on and purports to inform the
rest of us how ignorant we are. Sorry - Ms Collins - you needed to do
some research. Your argument against the GOP hangs on a false
premise.
There is nobody who disgusts me more than any woman who continues to vote for these men.
8
If course he doesn't know anything about both control- he expects the woman to take care of all that . And children? They may as well be sharks.
6
“The wife Trump ditched for Marla was Ivana...” I believe the wife sequence is the other way around.
And here we thought that Donald Trump was devoid of goodwill towards his fellow human beings. His cavalier attitude toward birth control as reported by Ms. Daniels and others, proves that he is in fact just trying to pass on those “excellent genes” for the benefit of future generations.
Donald Trump “the Altruist” - Who knew?!
2
Perhaps the best evidence we have that DJT is now impotent. Why worry about birth control when it isn't necessary?
3
Trump is a user of people. Nothing more complicated.
2
Trump's birth control problems started with his parents: they didn't use any.
6
Hmmm. Threats of nuclear war, Russia infesting the life blood of our democracy like a cancer, large-breasted woman ... Yup, along with Elvis, expect the return of Abstract-Expressionism (or whatever its neoist coinage) and I'll be darned if we're not right back in the 50s. Of course, it all has the patina of simulacra, meaning none of this is natural, or better put, about as natural as Ms. Daniel's ... well, put another way: Trump era nostalgia is really nothing more than nostalgia for, yes, Reagan-era nostalgia.
1
Given Trump's history of aggressive sexuality, his lack of loyalty in his marriages, and his hatred of condoms, it would not be a stretch to think he may very well have gotten someone pregnant and pushed her to having an abortion. Not saying it happened, but given the realities of sexuality, I'd be surprised if it didn't.
Were it true and to surface. would the right to life movement turn against him or turn into a right to hypocrisy movement.
3
I'm probably too far into the psychiatry of it all. It's fascinating, really. But it's a good opportunity to talk frankly about sex, something lacking in normal discourse. Suppression of this subject has caused it to become about power and the brokering of power. Somehow, Stormy has taken the edge off her victory in this game. It's hard to consider this prostitution when she seems so light-hearted. However, knowing how the Koch publishing empire works, it's nearly certain we will be getting mail about her private breakdown and conversion to Christianity in a few months.
2
Here is a real story about how the Trump administration feels about women who have sex and get pregnant -
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/31/scott-lloyd-considered-c...
This deal with the stripper is all so.... interesting.
But there are real issues too.
1
I've surmised that Stormy Daniels found Donald to be intellectually lacking.
1
w/o reading past the 2nd para, i see she mispelled "bear". what's a good family newspaper coming to? Next i'll be reading that the "golf fees" issue is made up. Trump owns golf courses, and we know from Mar-Largo that he raises fees arbitrarily whenever he thinks he can get away with it. I'll bet the real problem with Mueller was that he is one of those golfers that has to find his ball in the woods. That holds up the whole show, all those other golfers behind him, having to sit in their golf carts wasting valuable time while he looks for his ball. Time is money. And if they are at Trump golf courses, they have to get back to work in order to earn the income to pay the fees and still have enough to donate to the secret white racist political committees to get guys like Trump elected, whether they're tea party or regular southern dixiecrats, now called Republicans.
And the Trump golf courses sell golf balls; every golfer who finds his ball in the woods is a lost sale. So you can see that fees at Trump courses is a serious thing and anyone who disputes them would seem biased by someone like Trump. And, a larger point here: WHO wouldn't be biased against a guy like Trump?
Then there's that thing about Mueller knowing other lawyers--they all do, and for many of them, they see their job as to uphold the law. It's no wonder that someone who is a perpetual lawbreaker would see bias and be worried.
1
Actually Gail's use of bear is correct. I thought she was mistaken, too. I should have known not Gail! Look it up.
Let us all pray that Donald does not produce any more children. But if he does, I am sure Trump will find a place for him/her in his Administration.
1
Stormy should speak! So what is she violates the NDA? Is Trump going to come out and sue her for talking? That would be a complete admission of everything he's so vehemently denying. Of course, the cold hatred of his wife is surely burning through his bluster like a laster. And now, if Stormy would only throw the NDA to the wind and speak openly, she would see that there's not much Trump could do to her and still pretend that nothing happened between them.
1
Juicy storyline for the press I still think JFK and Bill Clinton are in first and second place.
Former playboy? I don't understand where that came from. Former? That doesn't seem to fit the facts unless the author knows something we don't.
2
One of the understated elements of the war on women's reproductive rights is the fear that whites are becoming a minority in this country. If you prevent white women from getting access to birth control, then you increase the chances of more births of white babies.
But they can't say that. So they go after access to reproductive services, broadly speaking, knowing that it will at least keep white births on par with non-white births.
2
Its also a way to get women out of the workforce and to silence them. They not only are "taking" worthy "mens" jobs they are also now getting "uppity because they are not so depend on others )men and husbands) for their financial well being. This is a common blue collar red state white male view as they have or are losing their "head of household" status as they lose their blue collar uneducated predominately white male only high paying coal mining, steel, oil rigging, etc jobs and it is increasingly the woman's income that is supporting the household. This is something Trump is 100% capitalizing on and inflaming. Its no surprise hating Hillary Clinton is such an easily manipulation by so many on the right.
4
The rule, otherwise known as the Mexico City policy, requires NGOs to certify that they will not perform or promote abortions anywhere in the world as a condition for receiving US family planning funds. Every Republican president since 1985 has implemented it. If I'm not mistaken this often includes any family planning at all.
By 2060, the population of sub-Sahara Africa could be as large as 2.7 billion people. Compare this demographic shift to Europe's projection of a declining population—from 738 million people in 2010 to 702 million in 2060. ... Until recently, on average a woman in sub-Sahara Africa had 6.5 children over her lifetime.
Know what this means? Starvation, mass migration, and worse.
6
Its impossible to see the "pro-life" stance in this move that the people on the right so vehemently proclaim for themselves.
1
Given the Trump's poor luck with birth control, I wonder how long it will be before we learn that he has also paid for an abortion or two (or five) himself. But who cares? Even if it comes out that he has, I am pretty sure the evangelicals in his base will give him a pass and continue in their glowing adoration of him, per the example set by their Vice-President Pence.
In the meantime, Trump, Hannity, and all Trump's Congressional enablers will go into full attack mode to destroy the life and credibility of anyone who would dare come forward to point out the history and the hypocrisy of our dear leader, the Most Magnificent and Munificent Donald.
Yes, he could and would survive such accusations, just like he has everything else. None of the laws of heaven or earth apply to the Great Donald, as we all should have learned by now.
1
Hard to know where to begin: The republicans hate the thought of lots of brown and black people running around and, possibly, voting. So why would they support a system in which the access to birth control depends on financial means. Don't they understand that this will lead to lots of kids of all colors running around. And since having kids for a large segment of the population will be not a matter of choice but a result of unaffordable birth control, are the republicans OK with allowing these kids to be malnourished and uneducated? Where is that in the evangelical bible? At a minimum, they will have to double down on voter suppression efforts which they are clearly willing to do. But as this country descends into banana republicanism, they might consider the humane alternative: making birth control affordable and acceptable so that all children are wanted and loved. I know, I know, a foreign concept but one worth striving for.
4
This will be the group of very poor uneducated, starving Americans that will take the place of undocumented workers who do the lowest of the low jobs in America that have little pay, are very dangerous and have no security or benefits.
2
america is a country of entertainment junkies. take away some health care rights. who cares. take away some immigration rights. who cares. take away some retirement funds. who cares. take away television sets....now we're getting into some serious territory that warrants caring. "stormy and trump."
now that's a show that would keep donald in the office for at least another 7 years. we're still the flinstones. we just refuse to evolve.
8
Being pregnant can kill you. The US has the highest maternal mortality rate of any developed nation, and rising now that so many rural hospitals have closed due to lack of funding. This is intolerable.
5
There is another explanation for those Trump pregnancies Gail. He is the healthiest, strongest person ever so no birth control is a match for his nuclear button.
4
If Hobby Lobby’s religious beliefs get then out of providing healthcare including contraception, how come Quakers have to pay taxes to buy weapons of war?
9
Not enough money to support GOP campaigns.
3
Marla and Ivana: What! She got $130,000 for one night?! We needed better lawyers.
4
Well, in 2002 I was on the same honorary committee with him in support of the UN Population Fund which he obviously supported then but now has defunded. And all UNFPA does is make sure mothers around the world survive childbirth and have access to family planning NOT ABORTION! Please look up www.34millionfriends.org of UNFPA and take a stand. We started in 2002 when Bush defunded and we're still going. You can take a stand for the women of the world.
4
And Mike Pence won't even eat lunch with a woman who's not his wife ... yet stands by and praises Donald's every move.
Just one more example proving the moral majority is neither.
10
"Torpedoing critical programs that help women to avoid unwanted pregnancy in the first place" will obviously increase the abortion rate. This is the kind of thing that proves that these people don't actually care about decreasing abortion. It's hard to understand just what they believe, unless it's just that women should just shut up and put out.
7
Positions like this will further erode the base ,the constant worrying about unborn babies while ignoring those already born in a economic sense sounds practical in a bottom line way of looking at things. However being a hypocrite is trumps calling card served with hype sauce.
1
Gail, as always, a great column. Based on the information you have provided I have a new hypothesis for why Mr. Trump’s behavior seems so erratic: paresis.
2
I am sure that a man with now self control and limited executive function has impregnated many women who did not want to keep the baby, or whom he did not want to keep the baby. In other words his anti-family planning posture is like most of his postures, just for political expedience and to cement his popularity with the lowest common denominator.
I surfed over to the pornography sites to see Ms Daniels in action. Very very odd implant movement. Very very odd look, for a very very odd president.
2
This braggart in his State of the Union show said that his Administration had gotten rid of more burdensome federal regulations than any President in history.
Yet he is enthusiastically okay with the government and Congress going after women, particularly the right of women to control their bodies (from among others, predators like Trump himself). As Gail's column today proves, when it comes to sexual encounters, our President gets a teflon-coated mulligan every time he needs one.
7
Stormy Daniels can learn something from Donald. He is notorious for breaking signed agreements. Contracts are to be litigated, not honored. Stormy can do a lot better than $130K for her nondisclosure. It's time for her to cash in and declare "Me too!" You go girl!
Meanwhile, Melania is rereading her own prenup, while Bill Clinton must be wondering, "Where are Newt Gingrich and Kenneth Starr now?" The rest of us are wondering, "How can we endure three more years of this madness?"
8
Trump may not know much about birth control. But from other reporting it appears both he and Trump, Jr. know all about adoptions.
3
I so far as Trump voters are concerned what I find most disturbing is the hypocrisy. The moralistic Christian right could not wait to crucify Bill Clinton getting their congressional toadies to impeach him. The hatred was so great, I'm convinced they held Hillary responsible for Bill's actions 19 years before. Hatred has a long memory. The acceptance of Trump for his escapades gets a free pass. It's hard to be encouraged by the actions of the American electorate.
8
So let me get this straight—the billionaire playboy who said dodging venereal disease as a single guy in the 1960s and '70s was his "personal Vietnam" put the U.S. family planning budget in the hands of a woman whose position on the sex lives of poor married couples is "just say no"?
The forgotten man indeed.
2
First, the GOP is all about protecting a fetus and the egg and sperm it comes from. The SAD, VERY SAD!! reality is that once that fetus turns into a free standing person they could care less about its health, education, living arrangements, financial health and only really like the ones that turn out as white males.
Second, after living through a year of hearing and reading one story after another showing how really low our present president can go I really long for the days of having a decent, family minded person as president in the form of President Obama and his gracious family. Its SAD, VERY SAD!! that as a country we have so quickly lost our way.
9
Abortion should only be illegal if the Government agrees to financially support and provide free child care for all unwanted children born. The "family values" adherents think nothing of the 20 years following an unwanted pregnancy when a woman is forced to give birth against her will. Coincidentally, the most vocal critics of birth control and abortion are often the ones that have great trouble keeping their pants up.
1
No. Abortion should always be legal. Women are not breeding slaves.
2
So let me get this straight, according to our president, if you sincerely are against something, you don't have to pay for it?
Thanks. I'm sincerely, religiously opposed to the obscene amount of money the US pays for armaments. Can I deduct my share from my taxes?
2
This isn't complicated.
If you want birth control, purchase some. It is cheap.
And if somehow you cannot afford the already inexpensive options that are readily available, you can always choose the $0 option: abstinence.
There is absolutely no reason to put taxpayers on the hook.
And before you bother to mention costs of pregnancies that, under current policy, might accrue to the taxpayer, let me begin my "pre-buttal" : those programs need to be pared back significantly and reformed as well.
1
Thanks to Gail Collins, we all know more about government policy on contraception, Title X and the failure rate the average IUD. I would never have learned and understood any of this, had it not been for the introductory groundwork about Stormy Daniels. Not to mention the accompanying photograph.
Question. If Stormy violates the hush money agreement will Trump take her to court and demand his money back plus money for pain and suffering ?
5
GET out of my BEDROOM. Unless the government wants to regulate MALE sexuality - other than to provide them Viagra - they should be allowing FEMALES to control their body which includes their reproductive health. There are just too many possible situations that this should be something well served by blanket legislation. The story of Trump's affairs show what a double standard he adheres to.
3
The bigger existential mystery is how Trump got any women to consent to have sex with him.
After all, he's been married thrice, and apparently has had at least several other affairs or liaisons. (I'm only counting the presumably consensual contacts here, not the many nonconsensual ones that have come to light.)
I am at a loss to determine what these women thought they were getting out of Trump. Money? Reflected fame? Introductions to further their careers?
Either there's simply no accounting for taste, or there are some women who are willing to put up with all that comes with the Donald (pun intended) in exchange for something else they want . . .
3
Existential mystery, Glenn? Allow me to solve that one for you: M-O-N-E-Y. The Green Poultice. The most potent pheromone known to humankind.
3
Ignorance about basic biology is nothing new. But Trump and his supporters have refined it into precise art. If it allows women and couples to regulate and improve and enhance their sex lives and relationships, it must be opposed. Of course, the President should then be exempted from any responsibility at all. Who is the actual father of all his children? Perhaps a surrogate?
2
Actually, I don't think Trump cares one way or the other about birth control. His current position is just a sop to evangelicals and whomever else he counts as his "base." It is cynical and calculated. But then, so is everything else he does. We certainly have learned not to believe anything Trump says he espouses.
4
Yes, let's talk about men and their relationship to contraception and abortion. In many situations, men and women make a mutual decision to use birth control. Not in Trump's world, obviously. Why don't men speak out about reproductive rights? These are issues that affect women's bodies and the decisions must ultimately be made by women, but these decisions affect men's lives too and men should start vocalizing their support for birth control. Women's rights are human rights and the right to contraception affects all humans.
1
The photo of Ms Daniels is quite an eye-opener at 5 am.
I do wish that the parents of most of the worthies in the Trump administration had practiced SRA. Sadly, we have to suffer their progeny.
3
The "pro-life" movement is just going to hurt a lot of men who might accidentally impregnate a woman while 'sowing their oats' as teenage young men. There are few men who are willing to wait till their wedding night! Also few women! These men are going to then be on the hook, so to speak for 18-21 years of child support. I have young sons and have warned them to never have unprotected sex. That's right, I am advocating for young men who might slip up over a moment's passion. I also have a family member who ended up in that situation in his early 20s, he was not planning on having a child, that choice was taken from him, he should have used protection but did not.
Men, if you do not pay court ordered child support there are serious consequences, the courts can take away your professional license, your driver's license, etc. I am surprised that President Trump, a man who was no stranger to lots of pre-marital sex and post-marital infidelities would advocate for any of this. In my opinion we should be giving out free birth control for all who want it. I don't believe in bringing children into the world if you can't afford to have them or are not mature enough to have children.
In the end it's the children who suffer if their young parents can't afford to support them they will be supported by the taxpayers.
We are not going to stop teenagers and college aged people from having sex by withholding or restricting birth control. It will never happen.
3
Even thinking about Donald Trump in connection with sex is disgusting and difficult, actually.
But let’s put it this way. Cécile Richards, the long time Director of Planned Parenthood, just resigned, retired, whatever. She led the way for years, trying to assure women of safe healthcare, reproductive, and otherwise. She is to be commended. Who could be expected to try to make sense of this endeavor while trying to combat the mind, or lack thereof, of Donald Trump and his crew?
Anyone would be exhausted, Cécile. And many of us women and men, say, “Thank you for your service.”
As far as Stormy, I cannot help but feel very sorry for young Barron Trump.
8
Yes it is all about Patriarchy with President Little Fingers and the Republican Party. What I do not understand, however, is why a majority of American white women continue to support the Patriarchy than controls the their economic, political, and religious lives. It would appear these women really do not want to think for themselves.
1
Americans' hallowed history of sexual puritanism (the other side of the sexual guilt and obsession coin) has kept our policies on sexual health trapped in those moral dark ages. Every conversation about reproductive health care is twisted away from health to sexual behavior and from sexual behavior to guilt, shame, and Christian redemption if possible - most often by politicians who know little or nothing about sexual health and far too much about guilt and redemption. Now, our national reproductive health program has been kidnapped by these medieval moralists, tied to the same stake as access to safe and legal abortion. We have to call it as it is: "We have a right to high quality health care, including sexual health care, without religious interference." The bishops and all of their ilk can limit themselves to persuasion and keep their regulations and phony "religious freedom" for themselves.
4
The administration's other contraception problem? How about reducing the budget for family planning assistance in foreign countries down to zero? These are countries with huge unmet contraception needs where the miserable lives of women is one of being constantly pregnant or nursing --
unless they die in childbirth, which is common. These are countries whose populations are doubling every 20-30 years and which are destabilizing before our very eyes from the combination of population explosion, exhausted natural resources, and climate change. But yeah, who needs family planning?
5
As far as I'm concerned, becoming pregnant before you're 23 or 24 is a good way of staying or becoming poor. IUDs should be given to all girls beginning around age 12.
Either that, or all young men should be given vasectomies beginning at age 12. They can have them reversed around age 26 or 27. Or later.
Why these ages? Why not? By then, most people are grown up enough to have finished their schooling and gotten jobs and found partners with whom they believe, at least for now, they can raise families with. Or, at least, they'll have found jobs that would allow them to think about having a child and supporting him without government assistance.
And certainly, if Viagra is covered by insurance, birth control should be. The so-called pro-life movement believes a man's sperm is God Himself. A little weird.
3
"...a former playboy, our president doesn’t seem to know all that much about birth control."
Don't you understand, Ms. Collins? Playboys and "real men" don't worry about birth control. That's the woman's problem. Everything is "her problem" once the guy gets the momentary event around which his life is oriented. These attitudes did not die out in the 1950s nor with the passing the of patron saint of endlessly coupling men, Hugh Hefner. They persist. As long as some men can get away with it, they live on and on.
As for the larger social issue, the irony is that the same people who oppose all abortions also oppose most forms of birth control. Duh? One, birth control, helps to prevent what they say they detest, abortion.
At base, the anti-abortion movement is motivated by a desire to repress human sexuality (thus, abstinence!). The goal is to re-attach consequences to something we humans find so engrossing and to, at long last, make people behave. That human history has shown this to be a hopeless task is no discouragement because it means the battle can be carrying on and on, never ending.
6
Very good; You went through that editorial on balance. Impressive.
Trump's 'conversion' to anti-birth control smells like fish. Or more accurately, a combination of old age and Mike Pence.
Pence avoids the unwanted pregnancy problem by making sure there's a chaperone when he's around a woman he's not married to. Trump historically made any lurking chaperone to wait outside and guard the door, but face it. The guy is in his 70's, is in awful physical shape, and there's ample evidence he's found new activities to amuse himself in his midnight hours.
What this boils down to is that dried up old men supported by crowds of other dried up old men are the wrong people to be considering women's reproductive rights. Especially when they have lots of money and have never lived the hand-to-mouth life of an ordinary working American.
6
I already donate to Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Emily's List, and Planned Parenthood. I hope the World Wildlife Fund or the Sierra Club qualifies as a "pro-shark"charity.
We need Gail's humor in these "Stormy" days for our Republic and "president".
1
Trump, naked, in bed.
I I were gay, it would give the term “scared straight” new meaning.
Rim-shot.
But more seriously, I look at the rollback of women’s reproductive rights and insurance coverage and I wonder why. And then it becomes pretty clear.
Obviously not all women support broad reproductive rights and benefits, so there needs to be a coalition of women AND men supporting them.
But men have no skin in the game.
My reproductive rights weren’t changed by Roe v Wade. If it disappeared tomorrow, it wouldn’t change any of my rights regarding an unwanted pregnancy.
If the contraceptive mandate in Obamacare disappeared tomorrow, I would still be paying the exact same amount for my (limited) contraceptive options that I am today. And my insurance premiums will be lower because a portion won’t be used to pay for women’s reproductive benefits.
So- why should I or any man care?
Sure, there is a societal benefit to broad reproductive rights and free contraception for women. and some men certainly will find this sufficient to fight for them.
But there is no direct benefit to men, and voting- done in the privacy of the voting booth, with no one looking over your shoulder- is an intensely selfish “what have you done for ME lately” activity.
Want to keep contraceptive benefits and abortion rights? Figure out a way to make those benefits and rights more relevant to men. More relevant to me.
Otherwise, I’ll just go vote on foreign policy and education issues.
Sorry!
1
The only unusual part was that she said Trump did not use a condom: “And I was really kind of upset about it because I am so, like, careful.”
After reading this quote, I would combine the offices of Secretary of Education and Surgeon General and nominate Stormy Daniels.
2
Hypocrisy is not surprising in the President or in some vocal evangelical ministers supporting him. Take your pick of either or neither.
March from the pews.
March to the voting booth. Do both!
1
To men like Donald Trump women are a cross between a fashion accessory and a toy. They aren’t real people deserving of respect or true affection. That’s why he’s able to so casually discard one wife for a new one or pay a fling to shut her up, and it’s why he can thoughtlessly embrace the position of anti-abortion or anti-contraception advocates just to get their votes when his entire history suggests he couldn’t care less about the merits of the case.
624
I agree. Trump doesn't seem to have any core values except self-promotion and aggrandizement. His most lasting policies seem to be bullying and lying.
4
Is there a way to move this to the top of the comments? This says it all -
6
I am in favor of effective contraception to prevent the births of unwanted children to parents (or parent) who are unprepared for the responsibilities of parenthood. However, contraception services are famously included under Obamacare (see Sisters of the Poor v. Burwell). Planned Parenthood is largely funded by government monies. Contraception services are available under Medicaid to "low income" families (up to $50,000, depending on factors such as size of family and State law). The author bemoans the fact that the Trump administration wants to reduce Title X funding for contraception. Isn't there some duplication here somewhere? Government programs are often (usually) inefficient, poorly run and costly. I know the liberal Gail Collins will not agree that reducing or eliminating duplicative government programs is a good idea. From the point of view of the taxpayers paying for such duplicative programs, it is a good idea.
Ah, but think of Trump's expectations of his base and his policies. He wants them to make a lot more little trump supporters, indoctrinated by government approved home schooling and in charter schools, raised on a steady diet of belief and Fox News.
21
...and fried butter.
1
Family planning and health planning are the same thing, because family planning is a preventative health service, just like vaccines, clean water and public sanitation. One must understand that everyone is now here and alive due to sexual reproduction. This is an integral part of life, and promoting safe and healthy sexuality should be as important as any other public health measure. Measures which support sexual health include mental health services, safe and well paid employment (with benefits), and medical services which include family planning. The GOP poster boys for an "Unhealthy America", Ryan, McConnell and Trump, seem conflicted about their own morality, which they then project as health policy. Or is it all about money and tax breaks for the rich? They love to cut family planning services, but then also prenatal services, and then, in a final blow, services for women and children. The Christian Right equates health with rigid morality, but then fails to apply those moral standards to any elected official from the GOP. Let those who profess great faith question the morality of those who oppose health care for the many. That is a real birth control problem.
37
"so, like, careful"!!!
Donnie is not "so, like carefuil"? And his supporters, while rabid about fetuses, don't care much for families and children once the unwanted baby is born, they wash their hands of any kind of support for that.
Forgiveness? Only for serial adulterers who happen to be Republican legislators, and other high-rollers takng widow's mites for profit.
Monty Python has a lesson about all this. The precious emissions of these important men (including rape and incest) must be protected:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUspLVStPbk
20
Trump's positions and actions don't torpedo critical programs that help just women avoid unwanted pregnancy, they also torpedo programs that help women, men and families avoid unwanted pregnancies and nurture healthy ones.
Put another way, he'd like to make it very difficult for loving partners to enjoy their intimacy, plan for cherished children and get very important care that insures reproductive wellness.
There is something bitter in his resentment and contempt for family planning and healthy enjoyment of physical/emotional bonding, and it's sad to imagine the profoundly lonely place that springs from, yet it's very understandable.
17
There was a dramatic drop in abortion rates in the US under Obama. The pro-life movement claims it has been because of closing abortion clinics and passing laws to make getting abortion harder. The pro-choice says that the drop in abortion rates were due to greater access to birth control and reproductive health.
Trump is giving us a chance to test these claims. If the abortion rate continues to go down, then maybe the pro-life people are right. If it goes back up again, then they are probably wrong. Interesting. I will be waiting for the result with interest.
4
Geez, Tony...prolife people are right because the fetus is human, not because, the president changes.
1
First of all, I think that getting women pregnant while they're on birth control is a story Trump can tell that demonstrates virility, something he seems desperately afraid we won't see so he has to keep talking about it.
Second, as Gail says being against abortion in particular, and women's health in general, is simply table stakes for a Republican. Trump could care less about that stuff, except that it keeps his 38%.
But, basically, they're unrelated.
14
I thought this an appropriate place to mention a bill that's been on the congressional docket for some time now. The Life Begins At Conception Act has been gaining co-signatories in Congress, including one Democrat, since before Trump's selection and warrants attention from the public. Mustn't forget that Trump himself told Chris Matthews he believed there should be 'some punishment' for women who choose abortion. Yeah, 'some punishment', like the death penalty or prison? Just how many more times will the public be gobsmacked by the next brazen Republican crackdown on human rights? Republicans: pro-life, until they're not.
549
cat Thank you
4
Life Begins At Conception Act in Congress? What about the rights of tissue in cell culture media? They are alive, and if born in the USA, has rights of citizenship. Right now, tissue living in culture media have the same voting rights as citizens living in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
Fetal rights should extend to tissue rights; if the whole has a right, then a part of that whole must have the right also.
3
Be thankful that the bill before congress isn't 'Life begins when your partner rolls over and goes to sleep.'
3
How out of step are Trump and the GOP with Americans' attitudes about women's reproductive rights?
75% of women in a 2010 CBS poll said they had used birth control pills.
89% of Americans in a 2015 Gallup poll said birth control is "morally acceptable."
Results from a March 15, 2017 Kaiser Family poll:
71% supported the mandate that employers offer copay-free insurance for birth control.
82% said women “should be able to get birth control coverage through their health insurance even if their bosses morally oppose contraception."
Only 15% said women would be positively affected President Trump & GOP's policies on women's reproductive rights.
75% said federal Medicaid payment should continue to Planned Parenthood, including a majority of Republican women and men; only 22% said the federal payments should be stopped.
"Among those who think all federal Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood should be stopped, about one-third ... changed their mind after hearing that this would make it difficult for many lower-income women to access certain health services, including treatment for sexually transmitted infections, cancer screenings, and birth control.”
7 out of 10 Americans support Roe v. Wade--the highest it’s ever been--saying they believe a woman should have the right to safe, legal abortion.
https://www.kff.org/health-costs/poll-finding/kaiser-health-tracking-pol...
GOP: Wrong, arrogant & dangerous!
30
I recall that 9 out of 10 doctors smoked and recommended Lucky Strikes. What's your point? Lemmings follow their leaders.
What about the right to life of the human fetus. Who speaks for them?
1
The GOP are in power and state by state they are trying to make abortion which for them includes Plan B to be illegal. The Taliban put women who have sex outside of marriage in jail and a current GOP hopeful is running on the message that sex trafficking can be traced to the 1960's Women's Movement and the acceptance of sex outside of marriage.
Unfortunately liberal thinking people are out minding their own business and living their lives and the narrow minded are banding together and voting and looking to punish. Of course they pull back on the punishment and employ forgiveness when one of their own is caught in the church parking lot with a minor.
One of the many mysteries of the anti-abortion movement is why they do not seem to feel that a woman failing to make her best effort to ensure that as many of her viable eggs are fertilized as possible is preventing "human beings" from existing. After all, they claim personhood begins at conception. Thus, abstinence is murder!
10
I suspect that for Stormy Daniels the real issue in the use or nonuse of condoms is not contraception, but the avoidance of sexually transmitted diseases. I expect that one with her lifestyle would rely on something like the pill or an IUD to protect against pregnancy.
8
NDAs - non disclosure agreements should be made broadly illegal. Exceptions for patents and technical specifications are obvious.
Also obvious is that any and all illegal activity cannot be protected by cloak of such an agreement. Immoral activity may fall into a grey area that better legal minds can flesh out.
7
Making NDA's illegal is a double edged sword given that the conviction rate for rape is only 2% and that is from the 32% of rapes that are actually reported.
1
A wonderful article!Tthank you and keep up the good work.
3
Who is providing the names of these extremist administration members like Manning and Huber? Who’s running these side shows? Someone is. We know that Trump, while certainly acquiescent, isn’t coming up with these names. So who has stepped into the great Trump vacuum to staff and control key positions in the government that impact the lives of millions of Americans? we have a right to know who these extremists are.
18
It's my understanding that the Heritage Foudation, the Federalist society, and Trump's lawyer, McGahn are responsible for most of the cabinet and judge picks.
1
Probably Mike Pence is the one providing these extremists people.
1
My guess is Mike Pence is providing the names to Mr. Trump to ensure they are anti birth control.
1
I really struggle with people who are both Anti abortion and Anti contraceptives...
People, from teenagers to married couples, having been having without necessarily wanting children since the dawn of time and will continue to do so. Therefore the best way to reduce abortions is to make access to contraceptives easy.
Anyone who cannot accept that fact is so out of touch with reality that their opinion should just be ignored.
18
Anyone who cannot accept that fact is so out of touch with reality that their opinion should just be ignored.
----------------------
Remember, it was once the offspring of unwed mothers who could not afford their children that society chose to ignore. Your attitude will only return us to those days. Men will always be loyal to their own tribal offspring first, and to ignore that is to discount reality. If you want taxpayers to help as needed, you need to stop financially discouraging men from playing a role in providing for their families, and stop celebrating women who create and choose to raise the offspring of men who can only procreate with government help.
1
So no new grants to help women get contraception and a strong anti abortion stance in this administration. Seems like there's going to be a lot of babies coming. And I don't see very many programs being introduced to help poor, and sometimes very young mothers raise and educate these children.
And guess what Mr. Trump, many of them are black and brown and American citizens.
12
The evangelicals took very little interest in politics until liberals, trying to protect Roe vs Wade, announced that "religious issues" violated the First Amendment, implying that people with strong religious beliefs were second-class voters . (The announcement had no legal validity; it was a propaganda trick made to make opposition to abortion look illegitimate). I'm hoping that evangelicals will lose interest in politics once Trump's judges overturn Roe vs Wade. Until then we're stuck with all of their obsessions, like opposition to birth control.
3
Not the case. The turning point was the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which made discrimination and demonization of non-whites illegal. After fishing for months for a new trigger cause, the religious right came up with "Abortion kills babies," a statement that is as polarizing and incendiary as it is false. And they've been riding that hobby-horse ever since.
1
Nine years passed between the Civil Right Act and Roe vs Wade. Not "months".
Roe vs Wade created a precedent for the government to remove issues from democratic control until voters have little control over their government. Citizens United advanced that agenda a lot further by legalizing bribery of elected officials. Why shouldn't people protest that?
Do women in the US care about access to contraception as a matter of priority? Their voting patterns and Republican dominance in the presidency, congress, and state governorships and legislatures don't seem to indicate that they do
221
I think American women care about contraception, women's health, and the health of babies and children (men too value these things!)
I think the disagreement comes from whether or not American women believe that the State plays a bigger role in family creation and support than women and family members themselves making these important planning choices, and being there in the end to fully raise the young lives created.
It is said... the State that supports the child in childhood often imprisons him once he becomes an adult. Best to wean families off of State aid as soon as possible, or to have the State's help not be needed at all in healthy family formation. Those families last. State-raised families often splinter many times before they dissolve. See the social science studies.
Young women seem to believe that contraception access is safe. As long as they can get their pills and their men can get their condoms, they are satisfied. When those things begin to be attacked, you may see a change.
6
ger·ry·man·der
ˈjerēˌmandər/Submit
verb
gerund or present participle: gerrymandering
manipulate the boundaries of (an electoral constituency) so as to favor one party or class.
6
Trump's pre-,peri- and post-marital escapades provided much of the material for his appearances on Howard Stern's radio show. It was as much a part of the Trump image as tastelessly flaunting his wealth. Now we're supposed to believe it was all fake news. Give me a break.
13
The most upsetting thing about Gail's essay is its tone. Lifeless, exhausted, as though she's writing in a state of increasing depression. This is increasingly true of most people's essays on Trump. There's a feeling that it just doesn't matter what anyone says or does--we're doomed, everything is terrible, and there's nothing to be done about it. It's certainly how I and everyone I know feels, so maybe it's me, not Gail. But I don't think so.
8
Ladies need to integrate themselves again into American society, with men, other women, and children. You really can't do it all alone, and your ideas often fizzle upon exposure to the light.
If you're down and out in this current economy with so many people's boats rising and so much employment right now, then you need to get out more in society and experience the national uplife. Stop voluntarily segregating yourselves, sisters.
1
Two questions:
1. Donald Trump has a history of arranging abortions for women. Have any anti-abortion activists called him on this?
2. As all of his books were written by ghostwriters, why would anyone assume that Trump has ever read any of the books that bear his name?
8
Donald Trump has a history of arranging abortions for women. Have any anti-abortion activists called him on this?
---------------
It's like the old tax code system. Unless they were illegal, any alleged abortions would have been "arranged" under the system set up by the liberals to help women. Don't blame the player, blame the game, and those who think of sex as a transaction-oriented act.
I have never received a coherent answer to why the Catholic Church is against birth control. What on earth is wrong with parents trying to control the size of their family to suit their desires and situation? No wonder studies have shown that otherwise committed Catholics largely ignore the rule. Some women take the pill because of unrelated medical problems. In addition, condums reduce the likelihood spreading disease. Some Catholics have told me it is related to preventing God’s Will. In that case, why wear seat belts when driving? I am not Catholic, but I would like to know the basis for this seemingly irrational rule.
14
It goes far back in history to the 15th century. It was simple. More Catholics make the church more wealthy.
I have never received a coherent answer to why the Catholic Church is against birth control.
-------------------
The Church supports natural birth control. The Church believes sex is an intimate act worthy of respect for the woman. Birth control commodifies women, and puts sex into an entertainment/transaction category. If you love your daughters, you don't give them a handful of pills or condoms and let them loose amongst men to practice. You teach them to value and respect their own bodies, and to share the intimate pro-creative act when they are mature enough, with a partner who loves them enough, to support the lifely offspring of a biological pro-creative act. Later in life, there are family planning methods that mature partners can employ to share their sexuality with one another and to prevent further children being born -- this too is natural family planning, and involves the woman's fertile times.
Please, if you have read this far, don't say you don't understand why the Church is against tossing condoms from helicoptors in Africa as a means to prevent the spread of AIDS, and instead insists of educating the women to the value of their bodies that demand respect before undertaking voluntary sexual relations with men.
1
Midway, you've got it all wrong....still. But at this point there's no earthly reason to try to straighten you out....or any unearthly reason, either.
2
From the State of the Union:
“Tonight, I call on the Congress to empower every Cabinet secretary with the authority to reward good workers—and to remove federal employees who undermine the public trust or fail the American people.”
Trump is asking carte blanche to enforce only the laws he wants to enforce, and employees better like it or else. Wherever Congress has entrusted the Executive branch to enforce a law, from the judiciary to the EPA to Title X, the President wants to choose. We can see that Trump did just that when he chose to ignore the law imposed by Congress to impose additional Russia sanctions. What are they going to do about it?
Trump will get rid of the governing structures he doesn't like, not only related to birth control, State Dept., and EPA, but related to public health, public housing, social security, IRS, and census. By the time he is done remaking the executive branch, we will have a police state.
20
Why more people are not terrified of this evil man and his republican enablers baffles me. We are talking destruction to our Constitutional foundations.
2
One of the core issues among the current crop of Evangelicals and the anti-choice movement in general is rooted in a very primitive kind of sexism. To them, the notion of sex outside of marriage without a consequence is simply wrong. To them a single woman's pregnancy is simply a kind of biblical justice. That child born out of wedlock is a punishment for that woman's failure to be, in their eyes "moral". We keep trying to argue that we can minimize unwanted pregnancies with birth control, but to a large number of conservatives that loss of a consequence is simply wrong. It's a frighteningly primitive belief system and also explains why they're perfectly happy letting both mother and child suffer after she's forced to give birth. To them, that child and all the years taken to raise it, are simply living examples of the consequences of "sin". I suspect that the male partner in this equation is seen as the victim of a temptress (like Adam tempted by Eve) and he gets a pass.
18
As that famous statement made in the Watergate movie, follow the money", where did the $130,000 come from? So it applies here. Campaign funds? And how was the figure of $130,000 decided? There is more here if a curious reporter wanted to ask the questions. Unfortunately, for many more important reasons, there are more serious issues that need reporting.
6
As that famous statement made in the Watergate movie, follow the money", where did the $130,000 come from?
------------------
From the Russians, of course.
Wait for the movie -- it will explain all of this!
1
Knowing how quickly our Tweeter in Chief changes opinions for facts, confuses them is a better term, I just plan to wait for the end of his term to listen to the disclaimers on his disclaimers on prime time cable tv. Perhaps that will finally be the moment of truth, and we all know that the truth shall make us free, don't we? Well, actually all don't, some do know.
2
Thank you, Gail, for your humorous perspective on what appears to be just one more in a series of allegations of philandering that have been made about the current occupant of the White House.
But for all the smiles your column evoked, it is no surprise that he "doesn't seem to know all that much about birth control." It's just another piece of evidence of his chauvinist misogyny. Why should the man have to worry about the outcome of such dalliances? It's obvious that he does not see this responsibility as anything other than the woman's. (Note: He married Marla Maples two months after Tiffany was born - well after the media circus that preceded his infidelity to Ivana by several years.)
Nevertheless, the incredible support from evangelicals/pro-life factions that he enjoys is truly beyond the pale. If such revelations were made about Ford, the Bushes or Reagan, there would be an ear-splitting uproar from the these same people. I seem to remember that Reagan's divorce and remarriage was a factor that negatively affected his initial runs for president.
It is not only DJT who lacks any principles - it is the entire evangelical/pro-life movement. They care not one whit about his personal life - but see him as the easiest pathway to impose and enforce their religious/philosophical beliefs through legislation and regulation. So much for the old Conservative/GOP stated position of not allowing government to intrude on our personal lives! Their hypocrisy knows no bounds.
27
Love how this article & others about women's rights and birth control ALWAYS skew the facts. The facts are that many forms of birth control are WIDELY available, AND NEVER were in jeopardy of not being available. It is only the "Morning after pill" that some employers such as Hobby Lobby, have opted NOT to pay for. They still offer many other forms of birth control, yet the main stream media never seems to report the real truth. Only their skewed version of it, to hopefully outrage the public into turning liberal. TERRIBLE.
1
Since my mom works at a Catholic hospital, I dutifully paid $10 per month for the pill for 3 years before I got an IUD. I'm happy to because I am able. This is quite expensive though, especially for large or poor families. And especially for families thay have worse or no insurance. Meanwhile my friend who is quite well off walked into a Planned Parenthood and got the pill and a dose of Plan B for free, yet voted for Trump. Go figure. We need Planned Parenthood. We need contraception to be a reliable part of insurance plans.
2
Sorry, but $10 a month is not expensive.
Go into WalMart, and see all the ways poor people can spend an extra $10 a week when the paycheck comes...
Where there's a will, there's a way. Congratulations to you for taking responsibility for your own health care needs, and for being a grown-up when you decided to have sex and paying your own way. You are on your way to an independent lifestyle. (You don't need Planned Parenthood, or insurance to cover your needs, and sounds like: neither did your friend. Would you have been miffed if every month she asked you to pay her the $10 directly into her pockets to pay for her needs? When you start thinking of it that way, you won't be so generous.)
1
OMG, thank you, Gail. I was in hysterics by the time I got to the part about the flood of donations to pro-shark charities.
8
When discussing important issues, equating apples and oranges is just sloppy. Countless Americans oppose illegal immigration. A tiny minority opposes all immigration. Countless Americans oppose reverse discrimination. A tiny minority favors discriminating against minorities. And countless Americans oppose abortion, but only a tiny minority opposes birth control rights. Those oblivious to these distinctions are quite oblivious, indeed.
1
I disagree. I live in a very conservative county. Most people I know are against birth control and against abortions. To me, that makes no sense. Work the problem, not the political polemics. To reduce unwanted pregnancies make birth control available to everyone for free. Then you can sidestep the need for most abortions.
But here, where I live, it is about something different. People want to control how other people behave. It's about control.
12
Report on "Preventivmedel" I make no comparisons, simply report that after reading Gail's column I typed 1177.se and was instantly at a national website where I can find medical information in Swedish and sometimes other languages.
I typed "preventivmedel" (means of preventing pregnancy).
All females 21 years of age or younger can obtain advice and a variety of methods for preventing pregnancy - FREE. In some areas even up to age 25. That is to say if you are female in Sweden.
All the information at this website is also available in one other language, Thai. If you wonder why, I think I can explain in a reply.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Dual citizen US Se
6
The part, 'avoid unwanted pregnancies', has to become the rallying cry of the pro-choice movement. Educating women (which leads to later and fewer pregnancies), sex education and access to contraception has helped bring down the number of abortions more than any abstinence programs or laws outlawing them. Yes, let us avoid unwanted pregnancies; we all agree on that. Let's focus and talk about THAT. That is pro-life.
143
I think that's what they meant when they named the organization Planned Parenthood. That doesn't make a dent in the anti-choice crowd.
8
Wait until we start educating women that the best way to avoid sexual assaults by friends is to wait to have sex until you know that the person respects you and wants to be with you in a truly intimate way. Strong families and healthy communities already do this, and their young women experience far lower unwanted sexual assualts (all sexual assaults are unwanted, and many can indeed be prevented with education and proper planning...)
Wait until more women are taught to respect their bodies, as they are valuable and precious resources to serve them throughout their lives. More men would get the idea too, if only this were accepted as basic knowledge. Women are not commodities. Women's bodies are not toys or playthings. Sharing oneself sexually should be an intimate, mature, healthy act between peoples. Not just "safe sane sober and consensual" though that's a good starting point...
1
Exactly. And the brilliance of this is that is reveals the right's true objections to contraceptive and abortion access: making sure women only have sex for procreation, period.
3
Wonderful article, thank you so much. I am looking forward to reading more from you in the future, hopefully with better news as the subject matter.
Like you, I am appalled at the lack of personal responsibility, common sense, and above all, lack of empathy for others detailed in your article. It honestly makes me amazed anyone could have ever believed, or believes now, those shortcomings should exist in any person who takes on a leadership role. They're not virtues, we are detailing massive liabilities in leadership shortcomings which are hate based and going to cause each and every one of us personal pain and disappointment for the benefit of a tiny fraction of a percentage of us. The big question is when will it end? We're seeing the how, but when?
75
Like you, I am appalled at the lack of personal responsibility, common sense, and above all, lack of empathy for others detailed in your article. It honestly makes me amazed anyone could have ever believed, or believes now, those shortcomings should exist in any person who takes on a leadership role.
---------------------------
Did you vote for Bill Clinton?
You've never read Gail Collins? Well, I'm so glad you finally found her. She's the best.
3
She is the best at elevating trivial issues you mean.
Her support of dogs' rights overrode her support of Mitt Romney's record as a moderate Republican in a liberal state, and his strong record of conservative economic issues.
This time around, voters elected Donald Trump because he keeps no pets that Ms. Collins could object to, elevating that into a national issue for her readers. Welcome to the show!
One of the best kept state secrets of this White House barely broke public notice: Planned Parenthood noted the White House issued a negative Kemp-Kasten Amendment determination on the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), paving the way to cut U.S. funding to the vital UN agency. The Amendment prevents coercive reproductive practices, but Trump used it to eliminate U.S. funding to UNFPA and undermine women's access to voluntary family planning and maternal health globally. He has cut the State Dept. budget for family planning and women's health. Overall, the cuts exceed $2.2 billion for women's health/reproductive care/HIV-AIDS care and prevention globally, esp. in the poorest countries. He has extended the global gag rule (no funds for abortion) to all women's health funding, even when organizations use other funds.
By the scattered statistics of the balance sheet, Trump uses a favorite GOP trick. Hide death and disruption, weaken health and distablize communities one virus at a time. Beside life is a liberal cause; security and a billion dollar wall of imaginary fears is more important. Trump's politics of grief and blame doesn't include Gold Star families or women's lives or their children.
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How unusual. A President who enforces the law as written, in contrast to his predecessor who just made it up as he went along.
If the Democrats do not like the law, they are free to propose legislation that changes the law. They are not entitled to have the President change laws.
G.W. Bush should come out of his painting studio and speak up, directly to Trump, about HIV/AIDS care and prevention, because Bush, and his daughters, have touted his administrations action on AIDS as one of the major accomplishments of his administration. Bush should move to protect his legacy from the wreckage being wrought by Trump and the Trumpsters. Or, has he gone completely into hibernation?
4
Health insurance should not be required to pay for birth control or abortions.
Why?
Because a large number of voters are opposed to it and we need their support to get universal insurance implemented, to reduce out of pocket, to make sure preexisting conditions are fully covered, etc.
8
Health insurance should be required to pay for birth control.
Why?
Because only a small fraction of voters are against birth control, and birth control is much cheaper than paying for maternity care. All that is needed is somebody who can present the facts to the public.
600
Maternity care provides an end product: a healthy baby born to a healthy mother which makes for a healthy society. I'd prefer if family planning decisions and support naturally included men, who have an equally valid role to play in keeping the baby and the mother healthy during her pregnancy. We seem to have relegated fathers to second-class status, take 'em or leave 'em, to the detriment of so many children and their mothers.
17
Oh, please. The same people who oppose contraception coverage also oppose universal health care.
105
Remember how The Donald had some of Bill Clinton's former accusers sit in the audience during one of the debates with Hillary? So why didn't one of our Democratic legislators return the favor by extending an invitation to Stormy to join him/her at the State of the Union?
391
What makes you think she would accept their invitation? Does the woman look as if she needs a charity ticket to the ball?
2
Because Democrats have class and decency, which is exactly why Republicans are running over the country roughshod. No tactic is too base, no lie too big.
5
The Democrats were too cheap to pay her price for the appearance.
1
I'd like to have a chat with Stormy. First thing I'd say is "Girlfriend, only $130,000?"
799
I wondered for a nanosecond about that sum, myself, C. Wolfe. Figured that it was all he had in his wallet at the moment.
2
I was thinking the exact same thing. And then it occurred to me that perhaps Stormy was expecting an annual installment. And may her call to collect didn’t get through the White House staff - so she went public.
6
Trump only pays wholesale. So unlike Wynn.
3
No one I ever knew considered me a prude, but tRumps sex life I find just disgusting.
I see someone what has to continue proving to himself that he has some sort of male existence.
We are not talking about passionate affairs here no matter how short, his sexual escapades are nothing more than masturbation. Self gratification, no emotional connection between him and his chosen sex object. What a sad state of affairs not to be able really enjoy sex. But we know he is a narcissist and a sociopath, devoid of joyful emotions, a personality resembling that of a cabbage, and that might be an insult to cabbages.
Someone should write a book, "The Love Life of Cabbages," the central character would be an overweight orange haired vegetable.
494
Wouldn't be interesting, though,because as you say, there doesn't seem to be any actual love involved.
1
Lol. But this is mean. Nevermind, he deserves it.
1
If Trump weren't a narcissist, he'd have no friends at all.
6
Alas, there is a very good reason why the rightwing is excusing Trump's sexual libertinism and betrayals of his wives at the same time that they push for punitive policies against women's reproductive rights.
It's called patriarchy. As long as men are the decision-makers, it is fine to permit sexual escapades for powerful men while imposing sexual restrictions on ordinary women.
1484
And along those lines, why are contraception and abortion rights even part of politics? These are healthcare issues, shared privately with a provider and patients. And in response to ttrump, the education needs to be not only for women, but for boys and men, too.
103
It's not because of "patriarchy". Trump and the rightwing leaders made a deal: he would fight against abortion, and they would hold their noses and give him the votes that he needed to defeat Hillary in the Electoral College.
And none of this would have happened if Democrats hadn't removed abortion from democratic control, forcing conservatives to go to extraordinary lengths to vote on abortion policy..
1
"And none of this would have happened if Democrats hadn't removed abortion from democratic control."
Oh. I see.
I didn't realize that civil rights and health care were under "democratic control." I thought they were part of those unalienable rights . . . .
6
"sexual risk avoidance"
Tried it once. Doesn't work, just ask son number three.
263
I have one of those myself. A daughter.
7
Your son is a product of poor planning? So we should ask HIM to explain his existence? That's some logic you have going there, parent... (Did you consider adopting him out as an infant, if he was unplanned and you refer to him in this manner?)
1
@Midway: Antonin Scalia once said on 60 Minutes that he and his wife had a large family because they played "Vatican roulette." In other words, they used the rhythm method and it failed. I wonder how his kids feel about that.
7
If Trump would have unprotected sex with an adult film star he barely knew, then the purported recording of him with Russian prostitutes really doesn't seem far-fetched. So much for him claiming to be too much of a germophone for such indiscretions...
1203
No, he WATCHED.
1
One would think a germophobe would insist on condoms.
3
...germophobe?
1
Mommy issues?
111
Ivanka issues, according to Ms. Stormy.
4
Way too much information about the Donald!!!
97
I'm so confused, Gail. Someone named Stormy had sex with a climate denier?
1071
Nancie, your confusion has swept over the Atlantic, gaining momentum along the way and knocked me to the ground in a great big guffaw.
8
Nancie, he's only a tempest in a teapot....
6
Comment of the year right here! I don't even care if it's January, I'm calling this one now.
6
Thanks for the Images, Gail. I'll need brain bleach. Bigly.
508
I might have to poke out my mind’s eye.
4
And we used to complain about Seamus....
4
Something almost all of us can agree on!
1
In the Trump era, the definition of birth control is to just deny that the sex ever happened.
567
It only works for males.
3
Sharks, poison, germs, immigrants - they're all the same to Donnie. He is stuck in the cooties phase of his childhood, and it informs all of his policies, from fornication to immigration. There's not really much more to it, that I can tell you.
636
Best comment of the day.
5
Gee, Gail I'm pretty sure that Trump doesn't really understand the birds & and the bees very well, and I know he doesn't understand anything about haploid gametes. He thinks they're homunculi of Trumps like in the Russian Dolls.
So why would he use a condom? He would have to be sued over illegitimate children and the other party would have to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Like his taxes, they're staying unseen. And of course a condom is just a nuisance since he's survived his own personal Vietnam already. I doubt that Trump takes responsibility for anything.
I'm amused to see Daniels cashing in on it again though. Trump gets burned by a woman twice! So much for the Great Negotiator!
288
Yep, she collected her first downpayment, then she carefully chose her moment to call in the rest. DT could learn a thing or two from her on "negotiating."
7
Show me on the doll where his narcissism touched your depersonalization.
Burned?
Stormy Daniels is no Monica Lewinsky.
1
The most flagrant way America hates women, we're 2nd class citizens you all, just so you know, god forbid we make our own health care decisions!
195
You do have the franchise now, which you should consider exercising in November.
4
American women are free to make their own health care decisions, Louise. You just have to pay the price for your decision-making, both in terms of finances and consequences. And, you don't get to dispose of viable babies once they can be healthily delivered and survive outside of your wombs. Premature babies are surviving at younger and younger ages, so women need to start calculating their choices faster, while they are still the primary decision-maker, with no fathers or babies to account for. Choose wisely, sisters!
1
Midway - I pay the price. My health insurance is part of my employee compensation package and I've earned it.
I'm no longer able to get pregnant but I rely on contraception to treat health issues that could force me to have expensive surgery and miss time off from work.
Contraception is affordable, reliable medical care that saves both me and my employer money.
3
Pretty soon, women will start coming forward with evidence of their bearing Trump's illegitimate children.
How sad, destructive and embarrassing all of this is, for all of us.
108
Actually, it may be only a matter of time before women come forward who have had post-Trump affair abortions. It will be fascinating to see how the evangelicals and Republican leaders deflect that one.
13
Somebody out there, perhaps more than one, could confess to aborting his kid. Remember, when asked if this had ever happened, his response: "That's an interesting question. What's your next question?"
5
Brings back uncomfortable memories of the Ira Levin novel (and later a film starring Gregory Peck) entitled "The Boys from Brazil", which revolves around a plot to create genetic clones of (ahem) Adolph Hitler in order to create a new Fuhrer to continue the Third Reich. Did Trump have a similar plan (one he was determined to carry out personally)? Only time will tell.
1
Who knew sex was so complicated!
207
Burt Chabot wrote : "Who knew sex was so complicated!".
as anyone who's 1/2 intact and has not practiced " sexual risk avoidance" knows that actually, sex is not complicated at all. just go out in nature and observe the sexual practices of primates & other creatures and you'll be reminded of how au natural sex really is. but when it comes to politicians ( not only American), sex remains an enigma. as something they can't seem to manage, make peace with or simply practice it as most intact creatures do. normally, like any other basic need.
it seems that the reason for that is socio- cultural. but that's waay beyond Gail's
original intentions in writing this briliant piece. JFK, Clinton, and other presidents had their sexual liaisones,( that those we got to know about). the present concern however, is, that with trump, the sexual dysfunctions ( yes, with the S at the end) are only a small part of his fulminating pathologies. the REAL concern is, that now that Muller is on his way to relieve us from him, the Republicans are ready to sacrifice pressing national security issues on the alter of saving trump.
THAT - IS THE REAL CONCERN.
4
Whoot!
1
Our president doesn't seem to know much about many, many, so many issues.... except, of course, the issue of Himself. It's been suggested he is an idiot savant. No, I'm sure not.... but didn't H. L. Mencken make a prediction fourscore and seven or so years ago?
79
There has never been any indication that Trump has any characteristics of a savant. Please.
4
The suggestion seems half right
“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their hearts desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”—Henry Louis Mencken (1920)
4
Though you giggle at Teresa Manning, Trump's appointee, now departed, to over see the administration's contraception program for saying that "contraception doesn't work," you apparently forgot that you also giggled at Ivana Trump's trifecta of failed IUDs that gave the nation Ivanka, Eric and Donald Jr. Who knows? Maybe Manning was on to something, or the Trump family is inept when it comes to applied birth control.
55
We can assume she was using IUD's with Donald's knowledge and consent.
Did he not want children? How un-American.
Cause. behind all the pious "pro-Life" posturing lurks a strong suspicion that women must continue producing the next generation of low-wage workers and shoddy-goods consumers without which (we are told) we are doomed to become Japan. Pity so many financial geniuses and deal-makers can't work out a model for prosperity without growth.
But why else would anyone oppose both abortion AND birth control?
6
@Steve: Uh, okay, here's the thing. The IUDs didn't fail.
My sister used to work in a children's clothing store in Houston that catered to very wealthy women. She became close friends with some of her customers. After she got off work, they'd go out for margaritas and talk.
One of the interesting facts she learned: the conventional wisdom among women who marry extremely rich men is "Get pregnant ASAP." It's a necessity if you want to get your hooks into the fortune. And even if he starts cheating on you, the more children you have, the harder it will be for him to divorce you.
For gals who marry guys like Trump, unilaterally planned pregnancies and bogus birth control "failures" are the norm.
12
Steve, I think you missed the point with Ivanka's "failed" IUDs. The failure rate for IUDs is about 0.8 percent -- so the chance that they would fail three times for one woman is very small indeed. Could it be that she was hoodwinking Trump about using them in the first place -- maybe in hopes that having so many kids would 1) tie Trump to her and make him a more faithful husband or 2) beef up the future divorce settlement?
8
Trump's alleged "partying" with Stormy makes you wonder whether he had indeed also been "partying" with those Russian ladies in that Moscow hotel room, as salaciously revealed in the infamous Dossier. The Fake President's rebuttal to that scandalous foreign allegation was that he was a noted "germaphobe". Trump's condomless liaison with the porn star Stormy calls that concerted concern, over his personal health, seriously into question.
423
@John Grillo: I had the same thought.
Some infectious disease specialists have suggested that Trump's obvious cognitive deterioration over the years could be the result of undiagnosed brain syphilis. Just saying.
6
His gastronomic habits have already indicated Dotard's lack of concern for his health.
6
I wish I could give this 100 recommends. I suspect Trump becomes a "germaphobe" when it is convenient.
4
A) "It is a capital mistake to ascribe to malice what can be perfectly explained by stupidity."
B) "Against stupidity, the gods themselves labor in vain."
164
You should accredite Isaac Asimov with that quote. And they ‘contend’, not labour ‘Yet another Russian.
2
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."
A. Einstein
11
I've never understood why any of these people, are against birth control and giving assistance financially to those who need it. I don't understand companies who want to prevent their health insurance providers from covering birth control either! It makes no logical sense. It makes no economic sense. In the long run providing birth control to employees cuts down on absentee at work, better health care, fewer unwanted pregnancies. Isn't that better for a company? I do understand an employer who is against abortion, for religious reasons and their own conscience not wanting to contribute to that. I'm not personally in support of abortion. But being against birth control broadly seems in the extreme. In those terms in my opinion, an employer is imposing their conscience onto their female employee. That's totally dictating another person's life and conscience. It just doesn't compute to me!
255
It is a puzzle. People who are against abortion are always, it seems, also against birth control. If birth control was freely available there would, it follows, be a minimum of abortions. I find that people I know who are anti-choice are also pro death penalty and pro war.
So I don't think it is about logic at all.
It's about control.
20
It’s about the economic control of women. That’s all. Who can work if they’re giving birth every year? You’d be completely and absolutely dependent on others. But not the government. It’s never been about protecting lives. Except those if men.
4
I think the very sad answer is parenthood keeps women subjugated and the children supply the armed forces.
4
Too bad she didn't save her dress.
Some questions:
Why do Evangelicals hate women and sex?
Why do we have to agree with Evangelicals to call it religious freedom?
Isn't denying one religious group the right to control our lives the real issue given the conditions in Europe at the time of the Revolution?
359
"Too bad she didn't save her dress." Haha, that's a good one, Craig. I suspect that Stormy, once it was over, vigorously scrubbed off every last trace of Trump from herself and her clothing that she could. I know I would.
6
Those who can do, those who can't preach.
Have you taken a look at some of those right wing politicians and "religious" leaders?
My guess is that without abortion rights (or, the equivalent access to abortion that has always been afforded to the wealthy), Mr Trump's family would be a great deal larger.
Perhaps, his current animus towards such rights, is regret that his family isn't bigger.
65
I'm not sure about that. Dotard seems averse to children. He has said that he didn't bond with his father, or he with his older sons until they apprenticed in the family business.
4
Honestly speaking, Trump is a form of contraception for two reasons. After the sexy, fit, savvy, intelligent Barack Obama, Trump the man is such a turn-off. What woman needs contraception? Then there is the depressed state any intelligent woman finds herself in once she realized what was done to the best and the brightest of her kind in the 2016 election. Truly a mood killer.
Perhaps Mr. Trump is actually concerned about the dramatically declining birth rate? Not a chance. That would require his entertaining a thought.
181
There are, sadly, always women who will go for the money. It is not the least unusual to see a very young woman with and older extremely unattractive man. While it is always possible that the man is a fascinating intellectual, I tend to doubt that it is anything other than the thickness of his wallet that is the attraction.
7
Trump (and the Evangelicals) don't want to encourage unmarried sex, except for DJT. They also are against unwanted pregnancies; apparently they are God's gift. But should a fertile embryo be created, they are staunchly pro-life. Then, when a child is born, they are adamantly against welfare, child support, (and if they told the truth, C.H.I.P).
Suffer the little children unto me, indeed.
477
Oh, the little children do suffer . . .
2
Don't forget that Ann Coulter says that Republican women have much greater sexual satisfaction than Democratic women. I wonder what drives her; I take that back, I don't want to know.
But he was not playing the birth control card, of which the religious right would disapprove (he needs them). He was playing the Bible card for them ("Be fruitful and multiply.")
31
Has anyone offered Stormy $130.001 to break her nondisclosure agreement?
310
That would be a large sum of money spent so she could tell us what we already know.
1
Yes Craig, V.P. Pence with his own n.d.a. firmly in hand. Pious Pence can't stand waiting until the impeachment. (He's in love with Air Force One and that green helicopter.)
2
Great idea for a Go-Fund Me campaign!
5
"Cruel and stupid" describes anyone who says their votes are morality based because they're 'pro-life', and yet voted for 45.
149
"Deplorable" also remains apt.qq
4
Trump, if he is a populist, should probably understand that unwanted pregnancies keep the poverty-stricken stuck in poverty. It then carries on to the next generation.
62
that's what he wants. more for him and his rich buddies
7
@Anthony: He doesn't care.
That's why it's so easy for Republican politicians (including Mitt Romney) to completely change their position on abortion. For them, it's an issue of no consequence. So they give the right-wing extremists what they want in exchange for votes.
6
No, no. Its punishment for having sex.
1
The misnamed “pro-life” movement has never been about “babies”. It has always been about misogyny, the prudish fear of sex, and the inability to come to terms with the fact that one’s existence depends on a woman’s whim. Conservatives simply cannot abide the self-evident notion that each one of them is alive only because one day a woman decided to have a child. But what if she had decided otherwise? This fear of female autonomy and agency drives the crusade against abortion and contraception. I make no distinction between the two as they are on the same spectrum: abortion is a second line of defense against an unwanted pregnancy if contraception fails, as it apparently has done with depressing regularity in Trump’s various marriages. This column is not as funny as some of Collins’ other efforts are but this is because the subject is so serious. Without contraception and abortion, women are incapable of being equal and productive members of society. If you cannot control your own body, you cannot control anything else in your life. And this is precisely what conservatives want.
2199
Wouldn't the world be a better place if we addressed the arguments of those who disagree with us rather than engaging in character assassination? On what type of observation is your claim that all pro-lifers are misogynists based? A careful survey? Anecdotal evidence? Imagination? I suppose the answer might be that anti-abortionists must be misogynists, for there is no evidence to support the pro-life / anti-abortion claim that the fetus/unborn-child is a person with rights. To such an answer I would reply that most of the time (when folks are not thinking about the abortion issue), folks who believe in human rights believe that the possessors of these rights have them simply because they are human. And the fetus seems quite human.
To talk of those who are against abortion as having no reason other than misogyny is to treat them with a profound lack of respect. And such disrespect is interestingly consistent a willingness to ignore the possibility that the fetus might just be a human being, worthy of our concern and protection.
3
Extremely insightful and powerful. Thank you.
10
Actually, I think some of them, and many, many others, are alive because women were forced to have children. It's women's access to birth control that we're talking about here.
6
This should be big (and scary) news to those millions of women of child-bearing age, who are counting on methods of birth control that have been available for many years. A “sexual abstinence” proponent as head of the office dealing with this?? Another of Trump’s chickens guarding the hen houses—in Interior, Enviornment and so forth. Except that in this case, it is women who can’t get birth control who will suffer. Oh, it’s just women . . .
115
It's not entirely true that it is 'just' women who will suffer. Your young son who 'makes a mistake' will face a financial burden for almost two decades and an emotional burden for life.
7
If women want to buy birth control products, the market is healthy. Taking away government funding does not take away the products. It just stops transferring the costs of who will pay for those products on to those who choose to use them. Men who benefit should be asked by their intimate partners to pay their share too. If they can't, women should move on and find a partner who will. Your choice means your responsibility too.
Are these people aware that married women have sex, and use birth control?
Do they practice abstinence in their marriages?
4
We see the results of Dr's prodigy other than his youngest, who does not deserve to be subjected to judgement until he becomes an adult and chooses to follow suit with his adult siblings, we should be so lucky that he would show any propensity to be responsible enough not to have children by using birth control. It goes without saying that he has no concern for anyone else's real need or right to have it available if it buys him a block of hypocritical and ignorant "Christian" votes...
30
Remember. Condoms are not only for birth control. George W. Bush understands that quite well. If Mrs. Trump was unhappy before, she should be outraged by now.
114
I know this story is important for the potential illegality of the hush payment to Stormy Daniels, but the images conjured by all this talk of Trump in the act are disgusting to the point of vomitous.
98
It is astounding that Stormy Daniels was the introductory part of this oped. Can you imagine if President Obama or Clinton had been thought to have bought the silence of a porn star over their extramarital relations? Safe to say, we would have heard of nothing else from the GOP. Yet barely a nod from the Christian Right over Trump, save a copout generality that the nation has a sin problem.
The level of depravity from Trump elicits barely a whimper from the same group who claim the mantle of judging everyone else's morality.
2838
Trump has sexually assaulted 16 women who've spoken up publicly and raped a 13-year-old. If Steve Bannon's slip is to be believed, Trump has also had paid sex with over a hundred prostitutes and escorts, for which his obligating lawyer(s) have covered. Millions do object to this depraved man and his enablers. And millions more surely will--with each new revelation.
73
Unfortunately, democrats have been silent too. I don't understand that. Are they afraid of offending anyone?
1
Are the GOP as morally bankrupt as their leader D. Trump? I suspect that publicly they are righteous to a fault but in private they are no different than their illustrious great leader. Corruption, self-interest, blind political and financial ambition will rise before any true public service agenda. The public good will take a back seat to personal needs. It's a fact and it will not change; unless the people think before they vote and understand what public policy is and how they are impacted by it. The US can put a man on the moon but cannot figure out health care. Go figure.
5
Trump doesn't seem to know all that much about birth control and he doesn't seem to know a lot about much of anything. For instance, he's an admitted mysophobe ( a person with an excessive fear of germs,) yet he's promiscuous and a serial adulterer. What better way to catch a venereal disease or other STD than by fooling around with people other than your wife, or in Trump's case, wives? He's endangering not only himself but all his sex partners, including his wife. Is promiscuity worth potentially giving his wife cervical cancer? It makes me wonder if Trump is capable of caring about anybody.
383
Yep. Hopefully one of Melanie's friends will turn her on to www.chumplady.com
13
I wonder if Trump has syphallis. That could explain his bizarre behavior.
3
Only himself, only himself.
4
That was a lovely account of Donald's insemination history.
"I have great respect for women. Nobody has more respect for women than I do." - Donald in Oct 2016 commenting on his "Access Hollywood" vagina-grabbing video
"I respect women more than I respect men... I have great respect, admiration, and I cherish women." - Donald in 2015 after making fun of Carly Fiorina's appearance
"My mother was one of the great people of the world. Maybe the greatest, ever, my mother." - Donald babbling in 2015
After the NYT reported in 2016 on women who Donald groped, Donald said: "I was so furious at that story, because there's nobody that respects women more than I do...I treat women with respect."
"I will say this, and I think — I think a lot of people will confirm it. Nobody has more respect for women than I do — that I can tell you. Nobody." - Donald babbling to Sean Hannity in 2016
"Stormy...here's $130,000 to shut up about fornicating with Donald" - Team Trump 2016
"Enjoy your forced pregnancies, poor women of the world" - Donald sentiments when he signed the Global Gag Order on January 23, 2017 which curtailed US funding to women's health centers
"No really, enjoy your forced pregnancies, poor women" - Donald's sentiments when he cut US funding to the UN Population Fund to 150 countries worldwide in April 2017.
Trump Translation: Male ejaculation is a woman's problem.
Donald (and the Grand Old Perverts) have tremendous respect for forced pregnancies.... and their own semen.
984
It seems the the people Trump says he "loves" the most and says are the "greatest" people are the ones that are evidence of those he really hates the most. Projection.
7
Socrates. You missed the Presidents personal Vietnam
10
“Every sperm is sacred.”
3
Heck, just being this clueless doofus should be the best birth control known to man. But apparently the scent of money is an aphrodisiac that some women simply can't resist.
Our president is a randy fellow who may be an ignorant waste of protoplasm, but he’s got the manipulative sociopathic aura of a low-level mob boss that some women find attractive. He could have easily had a career stiffing laborers or setting up fraudulent real estate “universities.” We’re so lucky that he chose to be our president.
The Stormy Daniels affair (in every sense of the word) is the sort of thing that would normally bring down a president. Just consider Gary Hart. A picture of him with a starlet sitting on his lap derailed his run for president in 1988. But our president was accused of sexual misconduct by a slew of women, and confessed on tape to the unwanted groping of starlet crotches.
Yet this guy not only won the presidency, he won the evangelical vote as well. Teflon bows and slinks away in embarrassment, unable to compete with whatever he’s coated with. It may be slimy, but nothing sticks.
There is no Stormy Daniels, no porn queen payouts, no ignorant utterance, no racist vulgarity, no neo-Nazi sympathy, no catalog of lies or incompetence that can do him in. It’s as though people were starving for rotten meat after the refined, tasteful sustenance provided by President Obama.
Personally, he makes me gag.
2002
He could have easily had a career stiffing laborers or setting up fraudulent real estate “universities.” We’re so lucky that he chose to be our president. I do so love this snarky and sarcastic comment. :)
123
So, you're saying you don't like Trump?
30
Your metaphor illustrates just how corrupt are the GOP types who are his backbone support in Congress. They all need to be flushed from office...
9
Self-centered as ever is Don
At lovemaking he's the only one,
The Woman is there,
So is his fake hair,
And he's having all of the fun.
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