I think I'm going to gag on this one! Has anyone heard from Howard Stern? He takes pride in his monogamous marriage. In the same interview when Trump talked about grabbing women's genitals & having a affair right after Melania gave birth to their child Stern talked about his lack of interest in other women. He loves his wife.
2
I am sure Trump has had a woman he slept with have an abortion. And he is getting good at abortion- aborting democracy, aborting truth, aborting civility, aborting treaties that make us safer, etc.
Does his base care? Silly question. The one true thing Trump said was that he could walk down 5th Avenue and shoot someone and not lose his supporters (especially if he killed an immigrant, Black person, Muslim, etc.).
8
It would be interesting to know how many abortions crooked Donald participated in because of his peccadillos.
6
Why do people still try to make sense of tRump's decisions based on past sentients? There is only thing that rives his decisions: pandering to the right-wing, gun-loving evangelicals and the wealhy corporate interests.
6
To be a member of the "Pro life" crowd in Trump's America is to also be a member of the "Pro AR-15" brigade. Same crowd, same dogma. Ask any frightened teenager. Trump's NRA tools continue believing this devil's paradox and applaud wildly whenever the matter comes up. Disgusting hypocrisy is the mark of a true Trump evangelist. History is going to have one tough time explaining this social psychosis.
10
The juxtaposition of Trump and abstinence is the epitome of dichotomy, irony, denial & delusion and flat out meanness. From morning to night, and well into the night, his mind circles around what will focus on “Me”? He plans and connives to do whatever he can to put the spotlight on himself. Whatever it takes. World trade, Paris climate accord, Kim Jong Un, Chinese laborers, immigrants, farmers in the Midwest, that blank blank wall, and even abortion, ad nauseam. You pick the headline and there he is; there he has maneuvered. He knows it keeps us, the world, all talking about him. He knows it keeps us up at night and keeps us scared. He knows this and loves every minute of our sickening fear. So, apropos this wonderful column by the wonderful Ms. Collins...., re Trump and abortion...it’s just another mind game; he could care less about individuals or babies. Whatever it takes for his “Me”, EVEN if it makes zero sense. He is one sick dude.
7
Making sure you prevent women from getting an abortion has less to do with "life" and more about control over people's bodies. Just the hypocrisy of the term "pro-life" is so obnoxious; what are the rest of us, anti-life? And of course he once said he was pro-choice, as he utters whatever certain groups want him to say. Let's not return to the days of the hanger in back alleys.
5
We have over seven billion people on earth with a lot more to come. I am much interested in protecting endangered species than in producing more naked apes. I see no moral issues with having an abortion. I truly believe that people make the choice that best fits their circumstances. I noted that when I was stationed in the very backward segregated south that evangelical holy rollers were not overly eager to end segregation or lynching or to expand voting rights for minorities, or to learn scientific facts.
10
Every woman that I know screamed, shuddered or regurgitated when they read the headline of your column. Finding out that it was just about losing their right to choose actually calmed them down a bit.
2
Gail - men aren't going to keep their pants on. Women should tell them, no sex education + no contraception + no abortion = no sex. Believe me, all that talk about abstinence will go out the window!
4
Irony; many ironies. Thank you, Gail, your column is trenchant as usual.
To me, the greatest irony of all in this domain is that people who don't like abortions also don't support birth control.
Duh.
Is there something wrong with their brains? Do they have any brains? Are they zombies?
Women must, in a sane society, have control over their own bodies. No one I know thinks that abortion is a good thing; it is usually a desperate last measure. And as others have observed, if men got pregnant, things would be different.
5
I say all the women in the country do a "Lysistrata" - which would take care of unwanted pregnancies, deadly abortions AND ridiculous men. Done!
Disconcerting that the Donald didn't know who Susan B. Anthony was...he saw her face on the dollar, right? One would assume a money-grubber like our president would know THAT.
2
I'd bet a year's salary that Trump has paid for at least one abortion... He is both a fraud and a hypocrite. The fact that the doesn't know the difference between HPV and HIV? Well, in his case, I'd hope for the latter. The idea that the is trying to undermine women's agency over their bodies- while being such a pig himself- is only one of many infuriating things.
4
If I recall correctly, the faith based initiatives that were put in play in part by G.W. Bush and the GOP, which gets much of the blame, in order to pander to the extremist religious factions preached abstinence only and reduced, if not eliminated, any education about STDs including HIV/AIDS and ways to prevent transmission short of abstinence.
Well, that program didn't turn out so well.
Well, here comes that grand man with the plan, the president of presidents with his, ahem, abstinence plan.
Well, gotta love it when history does repeat itself and no one is willing to learn. Again.
3
We went to Planned Parenthood, and the doctor agreed to the abortion, because my wife had massive migraines and was taking all sort of drugs, including Demerol for pain. So it was a dicey situation for a developing fetus to be in.
We had 4 miscarriages, but then two children. It was admitted she was locking the boy up in a bedroom, and turning up the TV so she could not hear the screams.
I raised both children as bottle fed infants.
I am a man. I include this because someone commented that a man should be made to raise a child on his own. I not only did that, I held a full time job, and my son ,who suffers psychosis due the abuse he suffered , has been given the special care he needs.
He is still with me, and daughter has a college degree and high teaches school.
Planned Parenthood is a good thing.
7
Tides shift continually and unwavering. Trump will fail to stop the tide, but will do damage in the meantime. Tuesday's elections are bringing forth the soldiers that will battle for the future of our children and our nation, and they are a more moderate reasonable group than we have in office now for the most part. For that we are grateful and optimistic.
2
Of all the sentences in this piece, this one rings most true for me: "Hardly likely he’s given all that much thought.' So very true.
Everytime I hear "Trump's done this" or "Trump's done that" my reaction is that he's getting "credit" for whatever outrageous thing's been done, but it's likely, in truth, he's given "it" much thought. More likely that one of his stooges has come up with some reactionary idea, put it on paper, and told him how great it will play with the base. Because it's "Hardly likely he’s given all that much thought."
5
Another snide cheap shot typical of your auto-anti-Trump column: "Although to be fair, that was way back in 1999, when he was still in his 50s and presumably hadn’t had time to work out a mature position on the subject." I seem to recall the Clintons you worship sponsored DOMA when they were 50 and 49.
I can’t even believe this is happening. This takes me back to 1963 when my teacher in a girls only health class told us, “I can only tell you how to get pregnant”.
There was no internet then to google anything.
44
Conservatives equate liberty with being able to live as they want, no matter who is hurt, and to be sure you live as they do. (Shhh... don't tell anyone about the abortion I made my mistress get though)
Liberals equate liberty with being able to live as they want, and you live your way, as long as no one else is hurt.
The problem is that conservatives see allowing others to live as they choose as taking away their freedom. Impugning their religion. If you are allowed to live that means you are be forcing yourself on them and taking away their freedom to hurt you.
6
Silly people. Sex exists for one purpose, and one purpose only: procreation. It should be practiced only within the sanctity of marriage, between an man and a woman, and should not, under any circumstances, be enjoyed.
Women who do not accept the obligation to be pregnant are to be shunned.
--Your friends from the 17th century.
11
Gail, you wrote "You have to ask yourself if Trump has ever examined his own true feelings about abortion." Other than himself, Trump doesn't have any true feelings about anything or anyone.
10
For all the rightwing anti-abortion males like family crime boss, Trump, whenever they start yammering on about abortion, I am reminded of the wonderfully accurate quote from activist Flo Kennedy who decades ago said " if men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament".
14
Mr. Trump's new-found moral position on abortion is amazing, but then he will do anything to please his new-found political buddies, who consider themselves pro-life but refuse to support SNAP benefits for needy families, family planning for those who are not yet ready for families (or a larger family) and the right of a woman to choose how to use her own body.
Oh, I forgot. Women don't have that right, as Mr. Trump acknowledged in his famous tape on his right to grope any woman he so chooses.
Sorry, Mr. Trump, women do have the right to be in charge of their own bodies. If you don't want them to have abortions, then give them the right to information and counseling before they are pregnant. Fund Planned Parenthood as we always have. In many communities, it's the only place a woman can get family planning help that works.
14
If President Trump took his oath of office seriously, instead of worrying about the security of his political base, he would worry about the security of America, the country he has sworn to defend.
To wit:
"The parts for munitions are increasingly made overseas, making the U.S. military more reliant on China for its weaponry. This is the second year in a row that the Pentagon has expressed concern regarding Chinese dominance in the munitions manufacturing industry. 'Nearly all DoD missile systems use Dechlorane as a component in the insulation for their solid rocket motors. There is no domestic supplier for this material; the sole source is Occidental Chemical in Belgium. Even more concerning is that the precursor to make Dechlorane came from China. ....' reads the 2017 report."
from:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/us-military-is-running-out-of-bombs/ar...
3
He is such a shallow thinker. On his first contact with new ideas and new historical figures (Susan B., Frederick Douglass), he imagines he is discovering unknown history. He will never understand how shallow his mind is compared with the mind of Barak Obama. But historians will have no trouble showing that in the 2016 election, America chose superficiality to succeed brilliance. Trump is truly our nation's drunk uncle. Sad!
9
The man is an empty vessel, which can be filled with what ever suits his handlers so long as it satisfies the base.
8
Dear NYT:
Unfortunately, The Times, Wapo, CNN and MSNBC seem to have built their business models on following Trump into every trashy corner of his domain. This lurid, tabloid focus is evident in Ms. Collins' recent use of a Stormy Daniels' teaser photo (in which Ms. Daniels bosom is falling our of her dress) to lead her column, and even today's column, tut-tutting about how low we have all gone. A little self-awareness, please.
Poor women, young women, families, even men, unless you are wealthy, your family health care is going going gone.
Fetuses, you need to rebel. You need health care and family support **after** your are born.
These people don't care about that.
Meanwhile, the Trump/Broidy scandal erupts, and the abortions from wealth Republican supporters multiply. Who needs birth control for exploiters or rapists or incest or ill health? Let them suffer. Women are chattels, vessels to carry the all-too-commonly-unfortunate babies to term. After that, let them eat cake!
Coathanger abortions are coming back. Birth control is going away. The abortions will continue and women will go on being abused.
12
You conclude, rightly of course, "Hardly likely he’s given all that much thought."
"Who knew Presidential-level thinking could be so complicated?"
3
It's the votes he wants. He could care less about the issues. He lets Pence and his pals blather on and as long as they promise to vote for him nothing else matters.
As long as Trump is POTUS, he is betting on avoiding any and all legal consequences to past or current behavior. He may not have expected to win in 2016 but now he NEEDS to win. Self-preservation pure and simple.
5
Whenever I read stuff like this I'm inclined to donate more money to "Emily's List" candidates for the HR and Senate. What an ignorant government a minority of us have elected here.
14
Evidence, perhaps, that The Donald no longer has to protect others from the consequences of his virility.
5
Who is going to ever take Evangelicals seriously again? To call them raging fools doesn't even begin to describe how ridiculously they have shamed themselves with their fawning over this amoral clown. Of course, these are people who care more about a woman they don't know in a distant state having an abortion than they do about their children's schools being dismantled and destroyed.
13
If health plans are to deny women access to birth control, I say let’s deny coverage for Viagra and all ED medications. Why should pharmaceuticals enhance the sexual performance of men while women are denied control over their fertility? Why deprive them of modern tools to act responsibly, can’t rely on men to necessarily? Trump for example has sex with a porn star he doesn’t know and forgoes a condom. But his policies are denying women protection from becoming pregnant by such an irresponsible partner. Hypocrite misogynist.
This country returning to the dark ages rapidly.
12
It pains and embarrasses me that the majority of white women voted for this Buffoon and this step backwards for women’s rights. What were they thinking? I truly don’t get it.
13
I'm still waiting to hear about Trump paying for an abortion for one of his parade of "girlfriends". Isn't that the usual Republican chain of events?
8
Like all sociopaths, El Trumpo is not hard to decipher. He looks around the room to see where and who the people are that will benefit him, and says and does anything and whatever it takes to get those people to help him.
11
Gail is absolutely right. Donald Trump never had a fleeting thought about reproductive rights, birth control or how a woman deals with an unwanted pregnancy for any reason. His position is purely based on what his core supporters want to hear. The same applies to guns, immigration, healthcare, taxes, national security or perhaps the lack thereof or any meaningful issues of the day. His positions on election meddling and attacking the intelligence community, the judiciary or the free press is all an exercise in manipulation of the opinions of his pathetic base. All uninformed voters who don't examine the ramifications of the positions and how they'll eventually work against their own best interests. The real shocking event is how the Republican Party has become complicit in their silence or involvement in obstruction to the truth. An entire political party willing to place their sick agenda ahead of the greater good and best interest of their own nation. Trump is a moron. HIs enablers are despicable criminals who should be in jail.
9
These are the same people who thought the massacre of Palestians was fine and that people should be able to buy bumpstocks and AK-47's.
What hypocrites? Female legislators should outlaw viagra. levitra and the other erectile dysfunction pills because they encourage sex and see what these men do.
Trump doesn't care either way, he will say whatever he needs to say to maintain power.This is the same person who had a major campaign donor cover up for the abortion of another woman Trump had an affair with.
6
Trump is nauseating. He panders to the extreme right and their hardline opposition to birth control, family planning, sexual education, and abortion. This is contrary to his prior pro life opinions when he was a youthful 52 years old and his history of sexual promiscuity in which he likely favored and possibly paid for abortions from his own unprotected sexual activity.
He is truly an unethical and amoral phony. I can think of no American leader who is less thoughtful and balanced in his pronouncements. I feel he is the most despicable and unqualified man ever to hold any public office in America. He is a dangerous disgrace to the office of President and a sad reflection of the loss of civility in America! How he got so called elected is beyond my comprehension!
9
Trump will say ANYTHING to maintain his base and the unchristian evangelicals. And then he will then brand it and through repetition and burn his propaganda into their brains. He cares not a whit what PP is or the population it serves so well. The conman is a conman.
2
Isn't it sick? Isn't it bizarre? That our president is messing with American lives in our bedrooms, too? Gnashing our teeth and screaming "GET OUT!" isn't removing this worm-- our president -- from the destruction of America. Trump was a "very pro-choice guy" for years. But now, in his White House sinecure (thanks to the illiterate knuckle-draggers who voted him into our presidency) he is preaching to his choir that abstinence is the way to avoid the bigly "choice question". Nothing, to Trump is more important than his presidency (for "life"? like his fantastic pal Xi Jinping) or his dementedly wailing Tweets that are sinking America inch by inch. If ignorance is bliss, there is no more blissful American today than Donald Trump. Save us, Someone!
3
We will have to do the saving! No more prince on big white horse, thank you very much!
2
Gail, after reading just the headline, I'll need brain bleach. Industrial strength. Seriously.
6
We should ask Sheri Bechard how she and Trump view abortion since the $1.6 million payment most likely was from trumps impregnating her and subsequent abortion and not the cutout Elliott Briody as is being pretended. Love to get her under oath and with a lie detector.
7
Yes, I strongly believe that Trump asked someone he slept with to get an abortion.
6
Then, there's HOV and HAZMAT. How about HIPAA and HDMI? Oh wait, I forgot; HTTP, HDSL, HDTV and HTML. With all those "H" acronyms running wild (there are hundreds more), how's a presidential dude ever to distinguish between HIV and HPV?
C'mon. Be reasonable.
3
Brilliant.
2
Trump the hypocrite. Do as he says, not as he has likely done.
3
"How Trump Gets Into Your Bed".....
The mere thought of that makes me want to clean my clean sheets....sheesh.....
7
Changed his view on abortion at age 50, did he?
Did Obama not change his view on gay marriage at age 50?
1
The difference is Obama's change of mind helped more people enjoy the freedom to marry who they loved. Trump's change of mind makes fewer people eligible to legally get the help they might need...
"President" Trump, bordered on the N, E, S, and W...by Himself...imposes
Himself wherever Words allow. Meanwhile, we, the People, are simply
the observing Subjects Of our CEO being the chronic COA (Center Of
Attention). He does Not know enough to Care....or care enough to Know.
He is totally Enjoying Himself....at Our expense. Sorry I just wasted my
Words....but Nothing protects me from His.
1
Not enjoying the red color scheme of my house, due to my head exploding again
4
Something I just have never understood.If you don't want an abortion,don't have one.The moral outrage by the pro lifers,never seems to extend beyond abortion.Why not help all the hungry kids eat?Why not help the poor families,get a step up.Why not help the homeless,there are enough of them. Are they not worthy ?A bunch of hypocrites!
12
Donald cannot get pregnant so why should he care?
6
The banality of evil comes to mind when this vile excuse for a human being that is our president says anything at all.
3
It is really a crisis, do these anti-everything people he has allowed into the government actually represent the true needs of all citizens? Heck No is the answer
They represent the $$$$$ Trump and Republicans are receiving for staying in power. And it would be very easy to make an argument that if some female on the right with connections wanted to terminate, it could happen. The rest of you are out of luck
Now that is protecting the rights of everyone, right Mr. Trump!!!
2
Ha, promoting not having sex from this buffoon who pays off his extramarital conquests? Having a good laugh over that line, thanks Gail.
4
Speaking of Trump and abortion, two words: Shera Bechard.
David Dennison, Trump’s nom de NDA, got the Playboy Playmate pregnant and paid her $1.6 million to get an abortion and keep quiet about it.
Elliot Broidy, deputy chairman of the RNC’s finance committee and confessed felon (bribery) says he’s David Dennison and knocked up Bechard, but no one believes that.
6
These days he's antiabortion because it rhymes with impeachment. Will his Presidency come to full term or will it be aborted?
1
A few questions for Trump supporters: If a woman came forward and said "Trump paid for my abortion after he got me pregnant", would you call that fake news and then give him a pass on that too? If the death rate from reproductive cancer increases after defundung planned parenthood, is that just acceptable collateral damage to you? Lastly a statement. If poor women and young girls in America can't get birth control and their pregnancies increase, then I guess you will just have to live with an increase in the poor and minority populations in America. Oh, but I guess you have it all figured out how to deal with that unpleasant fact, don't you? I would just add this consideration for you to remember: Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. See you at the voting booth!
6
And we'll stop covering the cost of Viagra when?
6
I love your writing, but what this disgusting creep thinks or says is not worth considering.
2
One suspects that he'd have no problem killing Iranians, North Koreans, or Palestinians. But never, never, a fetus.
4
It's a woman's choice to have an abortion, no one else, period. Trump and his hypocrite followers and like minded fools need to shut their mouths.
3
The attack on women's health by the Evangelical "Christians" & supported by the entire GOP (& a few Democrats) has resulted in the emasculation of Planned Parenthood nationwide - usually the only source for ANY woman's health needs, including pre-natal health. Is it any wonder that, even if a woman decides to allow her pregnancy to come to term, the percentage of women who die in childbirth or immediately afterward in the US is far, far higher than in any other advanced country. And it should come as no surprise that Texas has the worst figure - 2.5 times the rate of deaths as any other state. So much for our "pro-life" culture (really a pro-fetus culture that just wants to make more "souls" for Christ & enforce abstinence by eliminating anything that doesn't frighten teens or single women out of having sex. Condoms don't allow the sperm & egg to combine, so there is no conception or "ensoulment." But, condoms prevent pregnancy & sexually transmitted diseases. I have never met a "right to lifer" who isn't against banning condoms as well. They want to be sure that there are as many fearful consequences as possible in having sex that isn't "consecrated" by their god.
Scratch any pro-lifer whose 14-year-old daughter gets pregnant, & you will find a covert "temporary pro-abortion" woman at an abortion clinic. I've known a number, including a leader of Operation Rescue, a daily demonstrator in Chester, PA. She used a clinic 30 miles away under a false name, but was recognized.
8
We are unfortunate at this moment to have private moral issues in our lives left not "to the people" to solve for themselves, but to a man who has no morals at all, public or private. And no charity. And no faith. And lord help us, that leaves us with no hope. When he's gone and all this invasive controlling of others' private lives has been reversed and all the protection for anyone or anything not a big business owner or a repressive church, a generation will have passed and our country, our people, and the planet will be much worse off. Gee. And to think we could have used this time and our technologies now to do some real good.
5
Margaret Atwood was ahead of her time.
10
Dear Gail, do you really think this man has a sex life?
I somehow don't believe he does more in bed than eating cheeseburgers, drinking Coke, watching Fox 'News' and polluting the world with his silly tweets.
Which is the reason why it's so easy for him to cater to his pro-birther, extremist orthodox religious supporters, and advocate abstinence. For him it's no longer a choice, just reality, so why bother?
1
Trump isn't the first president to change his position on a woman's choice. George HW Bush was pro-choice, until, coincidentally, Ronald Reagan chose him to be his running mate.
4
I think for Trump human reproduction is an abstraction, and he doesn't seem to grasp many abstractions. Morality, for Trump, is what applies to other people. Being rich and otherwise privileged, he thinks he's entitled to do as he pleases, including restricting what other people do. He stiffed sub-contractors and suppliers as a real estate developer, he's stiffing the American people as president and pretending it's righteousness. MAGA: Making America greatly abused.
5
If men got pregnant, abortion would be available to all, free, paid for by the government - no restrictions, no waiting.
10
Trump has had remarkable success getting into the heads (if not beds...) of NY Times columnists. And rent free.
2
Yes, for the sake of human decency, the viability of our democratic government, our allies abroad, and the well being of the planet and all living things, get Trump and the GOP out of our beds, out of our bloody minds, and out of office in 2018 and 2020!
6
"This is the guy, after all, who had two meetings with Bill Gates and asked at both whether there was a difference between H.I.V. and HPV."
Obviously, at some point, when Trump had one of his little hotel "meetings," he must have left with something he didn't bargain for.
4
Thank you for calling out the fact that the so-called "pro life" contingent is more appropriately called "anti-choice." I have railed against this misguided terminology for years. I am strongly pro-life AND pro-choice at the same time; they are not mutually exclusive and never have been.
9
You're not alone in your convictiond, NT. I oppose abortion personally & have not only declined having one when it was once suggested to me, but I have consoled other women faced with this tragic choice. My religious/philosophical convictions are my own......and in this country, for the time being, anyway, no one has the right to impose such convictions on those who do not share them. And I will fight to keep it that way, in whatever form possible.
1
Donald Trump doesnt make a mature decision about anything because he’s immature. Hes the incredible shrinking immature president of all time. Add spiteful greedy belligerent ignorant to that and you have the president of the United States Donald Trump.
6
I often wonder how many "pro-lifers" are anti-execution and anti-war. Many innocent people are executed and many pregnant women are killed by bombs.
8
It seems to me unlikely that Donald Trump has ever paid for an abortion, but I am prepared to believe that Michael Cohen has.
12
If Trump and his right wing cohorts are pro war and pro life why does he send our troops to kill innocent babies in the process?
3
I don’t think there is any chance that Trump hasn’t paid women to have abortions and then paid them to shut up about it. We know he doesn’t even use condoms. Unfortunately no one cares and I’m starting to fear we are stuck with him another 4 years
4
Do not fear. All we have to do is vote for the Democrat candidate for President in 2020 and Trump will be history. (Can we not screw that up, please? That means no wasted protest votes or abstentions.)
And, we can neutralize him by electing a Democrat Congress in November. Then he can kick and scream and pound out tweets with his little fists all he wants to no avail.
4
I guess women in Wisconsin must get in bed with Governor Scott Walker then. Those seeking abortion must by law now, be shown and forced to look at their abdominal ultrasound.
All these men, jumping in those beds - but far from ever being invited.
9
Every time Trump has to address the public, the media should be forced to play the Beatles song, Helter Skelter!
2
Doesn't much matter to trump's base what sins, including abortion, he commits. Dear leader trump is a "baby christian" and entitled to redemption and forgiveness ad infinitum. trump was absolutely correct with his comment about shooting on 5th Avenue. His evangelical base has already shown they will forgive him anything - so far lies, cheating, scams, adultery, slander, gluttony, taunting, war mongering, bribery, rudeness, and ignorance. Doubt they'd boggle at abortion (for him) or worse.
6
Sock it to 'em! You Go, Gail Girl!
3
If you told his base that he had admitted to paying 3 different mistresses to have an abortion their reactions would be as follows:
1. That's fake news
2. The women were trying to take advantage of him.
3. I don't care
The abortion stuff might stir up his base a little but what really gets them going is his racism. As long as he's with them on that they'll send America down the toilet with him.
10
To anti-abortion proponents:
1) Do you remember being a fetus?
2) If life is so precious, do you not eat meat?
3
honestly it seems like trumps stand on abortion comes straight from Pences mouth having lived with him as governor here in Indiana look up HIS agenda from the past
4
I was laughing too hard to get past the first sentence of the second paragraph ....
2
Trump is catering to the evangelicals- he has no morals, no values, and is a man who pays for sex. He has no respect for anyone - especially women. We are expendable pawns in his ego trip.
4
no one should have a say on abortion
except those with a working uterus.
9
It’s a wonderful thing when Gail Collins is at her best — choosing to be deadly serious and dead-on funny at the same time.
5
It’s exhausting keeping up with Trump’s tales of womanizing, adulterous affairs causing girl friend Marla’s pregnancy (Tiffany), then their marriage. “I’m not the kind of guy who has babies out of wedlock and doesn’t get married and give the baby a name. And for me, I’m not a believer in abortion,” Donald told Vanity Fair.“
Although she was seen with a lifeguard at 4am. And him with Carla Bruni. Lordy. The Roman times must have been this way with sensory overindulgences, orgies, gluttony (they didn’t have Big Mac though). Americans now live in an alternate world of tabloids because their President provides the material, as people dig up his past behavioral tales.
7
How many abortions has Trump paid for?
2
The attack doesn't stop at abortion; the goal is to ban all forms of birth control. And don't doubt this group of ignorant arrogant self righteous zealots would love and definitely would fight to place cameras in everyone's bedrooms and monitor that (i) only married couples (= heterosexual) are having sex and then only when its scheduled at prime conception time; (ii) no one is having frivolous non-reproductive sex; (iii) no non-hetero couples are in bed together; (iii) is anyone else watching/reading The Handmaid's Tale?
6
Trump's hypocrisy is as great as his empty ego. He needs to be removed from office along with the entire GOP. Vote! Vote! Vote! Vote!
4
It is utterly unfair to say Trump has a war on women.
From puberty to about 35, he's open to attractive females.
Ready or no.
The rest, well sure.
3
Unfortunately his base continues to breed with abandon.
5
America invited this monster into its home and now it is stuck with him.
5
"You have to ask yourself if Trump has ever examined his own true feelings about abortion."
Excellent piece, Gil.
I have one question for you. What makes you think that Trump has feelings about anything other than him self? And as to the use of the word "true", Truth is whatever he wants it to be in any situation, so all of his examinations are automatically true.
3
Has Trump ever examined his own true feelings about abortion? Gail, what true feelings? As his actions and words described in your column so amply demonstrate, the man is a raging narcissist who cares about nothing except himself. The man is a psychopath who is good at emotionally mirroring the sentiments of the targets he is trying to seduce, but do you for one minute believe that he actually cares about any of it?
It is painful to read Maureen Dowd's column, to see her playing to Trump's ego by dissing Hillary as a pathetic loser and playing along with Trump's portrayal of himself as some kind of maverick who does it "his way". Once can't help but feel a kind of grudging admiration on her part for a person who is so willing to avoid answering questions without caring about the consequences. One can only imagine the excoriating terms she would have used to describe Hillary for such hypocrisy and refusal to come clean.
You raise a good question in asking whether or not anyone from Trump's past ever went for an abortion. And I wonder why nobody can answer that question. Surely, with other politicians, somebody would be to answer that and expose the hypocrisy. Surely the tabloids. Does Trump have them all in his pocket? Has he forced everyone to sign non-disclosure agreements? Or bribed them? Rich entitled people were worried about Trump because they were afraid he would make them look bad, but he's getting away with that as well. How come?
2
see, now... the right never accepted Roe and a woman's right to make her own health decisions. They chip away and never stop until they find a crack in the stone to root and grow into a tree.
Where are the democrats's efforts to whittle down Citizen's United and unlimited campaign contributions? The left seems to accept (or welcome?) the speech is money crowd and the way we fund -- and fund, and fund -- political campaigns.
If we got the money out of politics, our elected leaders would again work for the people and not for the money. Doors we never dreamed existed.
1
The US cannot solve any problem because that would destroy its utility for competitive fundraising. The more money dumped on its politics, the more ossified it all gets.
2
I have a feeling that as we find out more about Elliott Broidy via Michael Cohen (thanks to the Taxi King), light will be shed on Mr. Trump's relationship(s) with abortion.
(I never thought I would be posting about the Taxi King!)
3
How many of those fetuses/children that the religious right's beliefs have saved from abortion, have the sanctimonious, taken in, nurtured, and educated? The religious right protects them until they become babies that need food, love, and all of the things that humans, not fetuses need. Once the protected fetus is born to a poor women, then the RR rewards them with cuts to food stamps, Medicaid, head start, etc.etc.
7
The idea that this morally depraved president is so adamant about controlling women's private medical care is appalling. Of course he could care less about this issue (and was actually pro-choice years ago), all he has to do is superficially parrot the conservative stance and they are happy. Even in his limited intellectual capability, he must secretly be amused at how easy it is to curry favor with conservatives.
4
Gail: creepiest headline yet.
Nonetheless:
Trump was very pro-choice and pro-birth control before he became president. After all, he was having plenty of sex, although it seems to have cost him a lot of money. You might say he was "all-in" on the topic. Ahem.
But now, all his past sex partners are either suing him or forcing him to abstain (Melania can't be a happy Trumper right now). Thus, everyone else should avoid sex since he can't have any. After all, what's good for Trump is good for the country.
6
First of all, nobody "likes" abortion, and by the way the abortion rate is half what it was in 1981.
I taught students in the health professions and medicine for years, and am appalled by these anti-abortion politicians' grandstanding cruelty and ignorance of women's reproductive health, the complicated medical reasons for abortions, and the agonizing decision involved when an abortion is necessary. I wonder how well they would do on a quiz on these topics?
Second, Trump and these Republicans really cannot call themselves "pro-life." "Misanthropes" is more accurate, because while religious zealots and conservatives wring their hands over fetuses, they consistently vote against providing any kind of help for children born to poor mothers (food, preschool, domestic violence, etc). Now really, what Jesus would recommend?
And you cannot call yourself "pro-life" when you:
fight against gun control and gun safety & support the NRA
cheer capital punishment and terrible prison conditions
claim climate change is a hoax--etc.
It is ludicrous: Who better to demand an end to abortions, women's reproductive health services, and even contraception than these hypocritical GOP political letharios, such as Trump and those GOP politicians who get abortions for daughters, wives, and girlfriends, but then deny all women the right to an abortion, plus, then to pour salt into the wound, by proclaiming abstinence is the ONLY form of birth control the gvt. will support?
Fed up!
8
Our Vice President is a sworn opponent of Roe v. Wade, and has expressed great glee in getting it overturned during this administration’s life cycle.
5
Yes. And woe is me and thee....he might become our president. I am paralyzed at the thought.
I wish you would stop calling them pro-life. Pro-life people would decry massive cuts to Children’s Health Insurance. I doubt anyone in that room even cares. Call the anti-abolition crowd what it really is pro-birth. Only the fetus interests them. Living children, particularly if they are poor or color, are of no interest to them. They’d sooner give a tax break to the wealthy than spend a dime to feed a hungry child. And like every one of the phony “Christians” of the GOP they can find a Bible verse to justify their monstrous cruelty.
In my view, pro-life people are some of the worst people to walk the earth.
8
I will start taking the so-called “pro life” people seriously if and only if--and when--they recognize that it takes both a male and a female to create a pregnancy! We now have the DNA technology to determine paternity--which male impregnated the female.
When the "pro life" people start insisting that the impregnating male step up to support the unborn child at least financially for at least the first 20 years of the child's life, I will begin to listen to them.
And if they refuse to allow the woman to decide if she can deal with a child with significant birth defects, they must also require the father to personally care for the child at least 12 hours/ day throughout the child's life. Then, I will begin to respect them.
Otherwise, it's just their usual misogynistic attempt punish the woman by requiring her to bear the entire burden for the consequences of the shared sex act. Why do they say absolutely NOTHING about “responsibility” on the part of the man?
Their narrow focus on “life” in the womb ONLY is shockingly vicious--hypocritical misogyny cloaked a veneer of twisted, “righteous” morality.
5
Anyone with half a brain knows that Trump's views on abortion are only aimed at securing his alt-Right base. I doubt that he has any views on this matter at all, except for espousing what is politically expedient. Someone told him that if he even slightly went "soft" on family planning, much less abortion, he would lose points in the polls. That tells the whole story. Trump's own sexual behavior is, of course, totally contradictory of his stated views on this, but he also knows that the MAGA-heads don't care when he totally contradicts his own views with his behavior. Hypocrisy is the coin of the realm for Emperor Donald the Dumb.
3
Trump is worse than a racist. Trump and his billionaire allies, like the Mercers who fund Breitbart, manipulate racists, misogynists, and the anti-LGBT to divide the People against ourselves.
They create scapegoats to be blamed for the damage they cause while they loot the country. Instead of blaming the boss who fired you, they want you to blame the immigrant who he hired to replace you.
Trump's base likes the Confederacy better than the Republic. They are more comfortable with KKK terrorists than. civil rights advocates.
Cultural Norms in this country used to be for slavery, and for terrorizing people based on sex, gender, race, ethnicity, etc. Then we changed the cultural norms to be about tolerance and equal justice for all, ratifying Constitutional Amendments through democracy to extend the rule of law to all.
"Political Correctness" is just an insulting word used to deride these new cultural norms. Now Trump is leading a rebellion against these norms and the Constitution. If you are on the left, don't use the term PC.
China is a totalitarian capitalist state without democracy. Russia is a totalitarian capitalist state without democracy. Trump and those that support him are trying to turn the USA into a capitalist state without democracy.
There is no compromise with these self declared enemies of our government, because they accept no compromise.
They believe in hate, fear. greed, and violence. The left believes in love, courage, sharing, and peace.
PICK A SIDE.
4
Because they are calling for a practice that is nothing short of torture, Trump and his Republican pro-life sycophants should fear Karma requiring them (in future lives) to carry babies to term against their will.
54
This purports to be a piece on how Trump gets into our beds--yet ends up demonstrative of how Trump lives inside progressive heads. They can't shake him, they are consumed in a conflagration of hatred--and the more he achieves, the more unhinged they become.
Our country is embroiled in an ugly discussion--between people who want to use government to control nearly every aspect of our lives--who would prefer to throw all the money into one big pot and share it equally--and those who would prefer to be left more or less alone.
The Left hated Reagan--and thought him stupid
The Left hated Bush 1--and thought him stupid
The Left hated Bush 2--and thought him stupid
The Left hates Trump--and thinks he's stupid
You see...it doesn't matter at all, about the people behind the label--may they be angels, may they demons. If doesn't matter what is said or how it is said. If your view is that government is less good than not--they will come for you--on the floors of congress, in their newspapers and cable shows, on the sidelines of football fields, in the colleges and universities.
Hang in there, Mr. President. By their outrage, you will know progress is being made--in disrupting the long, slow glide-path to failure, American liberals would have us follow.
3
You are right but have it backwards. It is the Conservatives like you that want to control every aspect of our lives, from abortion and family planning to kneeling at a sporting event.
97
I don’t get you. It is the liberals who want to be left alone and Trump and his supporters who want complete control of women. Maybe you just don’t count women as beings that should have free agency.
66
I believe your paint brush of Left hate for the four amigos you've identified is more than a little over stated when one considers the contributions to the American scene by these presidents. There are a lot of dead bodies, Alzheimer's, bad economics, private pains, bad economy, and well, being conservative really doesn't need tp destroy the lives and opportunities of so many Americans. The actions of these men has both positive and negative elements. Sadly, history is being rewritten by conservatives to ignore their failures and paint them as successes. While I do not consider myself a Lefty, I really do think Trump is stupid and crude, unimaginably poorly informed for the position and un christian; he demonstrates it every day. For the others, a lot of bad decisions, bad advisors and broken promises.
For Trump, "Hang in there," may prove to be historically accurate.
The tiresome drone regarding redistribution of wealth is genuinely ridiculous. Redistribution is constantly going on in a stable and free marketplace. When a government tips the scales in favor of the rich the genuinely harmful redistribution is in force. Perhaps, it is better to voice your concern that Americans get too much free money or are on welfare? Sadly, for the bigoted, the majority ion these recipients are white.
Lastly, that long slow descent to failure by American Liberals is a conservative dream preached to instill FUD; fear, uncertainty and doubt. It isn't real, its fake.
48
As noted in this column and elsewhere, Trump is always playing to his Base. Recall the adage "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." When Trump makes statements such as those in the following paragraphs, are we witnessing self-revelation, imitation of the Base, or both? When Trump said during the campaign "We love the poorly-educated", was that self-adulation, an embrace of the base, or both?
"Last year, when the White House held a celebration for Women’s History Month, he asked his guests if they had ever heard of Susan B. Anthony,"
"This is the guy, after all, who had two meetings with Bill Gates and asked at both whether there was a difference between H.I.V. and HPV."
1
A YUUUGE part of THe Donald is his poor vocabulary. He somehow equates regressive policies driven by the Religious Right with gains.
Exactly when was organized religion ever on the correct side of any social issue?
The whole point of organized religion is the control of people through fear and mysterious illogical allegories.
Walking on water?
Endless supply of fish and wine?
Parting the seas?
Creationism?
Only men can be priests?
Women are the rib of man?
A snake made Adam want to have sex with Eve?
4
During the recent primary elections in Arkansas, some local pointed out that the Republicans were running on guns, abortion, and Nancy Pelosi. Abortion has been the Republicans most effective scam since 1973, and we will hear a lot about it between now and November. Republican attacks on Planned Parenthood, data based sex education, and access to contraception are already driving up the rate of unwanted pregnancy and abortion, but as Ms. Collins said, we're past irony.
3
Well Gail has made clear that Trump has no interest in the subject of abortion at all, and has flip-flopped when it suited himself. However, he is assisting those opposed to abortion, and has promoted their view that the argument against abortion is that every fertilized egg has a right to proceed to life.
Where that “right” originates is biblical in origin, part of the “go forth and multiply” (Genesis 9:7) view of evangelicals, interested in more kids becoming believers, not so much about under what circumstances they may have to grow up.
The imposition of this view is, of course, a violation of the constitutional separation of Church & State, essential to moderating conflict between rival religious believers in their very own versions of the “one true faith”.
Promotion of intolerance is, naturally, the forte of demagogues. It ain’t the issue that matters, but the divisions the issue can engender.
3
Trump does not really have any solid positions on any matter, because he has absolutely no interest in any subject that is not himself. He doesn't care about abortion one way or the other, because he will never have to have one.
The only reason he is against it now is that the people who really oppose abortion will vote for anyone who agrees to clamp down on it. If women who supported Planned Parenthood made up his base, he would be out there supporting Planned Parenthood.
For Trump, it's all about pandering to the voters who will keep him in power. Increasing his power so that he can enrich himself even further is his main goal in life. So he will do anything to get votes. Anything. To. Get. Votes.
6
Susan B Anthony is an example of someone who did an amazing job and is being recognized more and more...
3
Welcome to the Monkey House. I guess Kurt Vonnegut is also spinning in his grave; he intended that to be satire. Thanks, Gail!
2
"You have to ask yourself if Trump has ever examined his own true feelings about abortion." Wow! So much to unpack about that sentence it's almost like trying to correct a line of Trump's multi-layered lies. "You have to ask yourself..."? "...Trump has ever examined..."? "... his own true..."? "...feelings..."? Let's just say, No.
5
"Yes, a Donald Trump presidency is pushing a no-sex agenda. Cue the irony."
Delicious irony. I want to laugh. I want to cry.
10
These hypocrites say they are pro-life if the issue is about abortion but when it comes to gun control, not so much.
A sincere and committed pro-lifer would stand up to the NRA and demand gun control laws that would stop the killing of school children.
9
Single-issue-Trump-voters are easily played.
Today's NYT Editorial on the NFL banning kneeling during the national anthem feeds the faux-patriot-chicken-hawk crowd who, like Trump, would dodge the draft if the option were available. They are led by a draft dodging man who mocks real soldiers both living (John Mc Cain) and dead.
Now this. A man who spent a lifetime bragging about his sexual conquests, and, as you note, heads into the challenge without a 'raincoat'.
'Fine', say the lemmings. 'He shall be our abstinence spokesmen'.
7
"You have to ask yourself if Trump has ever examined his own true feelings about abortion."
Dear Ms. Collins:
Get a grip, please. Trump has never examined his own true feelings about anything other than his innate greatness and his deserved place in the history of the world.
As for his place in the history of the world that might not look all that good a hundred years from now.
4
Trump voters, it appears, believe that he has a lucid opinion on everything. This despite the fact that this amoral being is only interested in one thing, complete adoration. His fragile cowardly ego needs constant massaging. Without it he will suffer a complete breakdown. Now to the topic of abortion, I would like to see all these hypocritical 'right to life' people march en masse to adoption centers and offer to either foster or adopt one of these unfortunate foundlings. Don't see that happening though, these religious zealots would rather force their misogynistic views on everyone instead of helping those in need.
2
Having two female siblings that voted for that republican is mind boggling.
Don't know why they have no self esteem?
4
Cruel upbringing can explain low self-esteem.
Some women feel guilty about their own abortions and want to assuage it by denying others that which benefited them.
2
Maureen Dowd once asked Trump whether he was “ever involved with anyone who had an abortion?” "Such an interesting question,” he responded. “So what’s your next question?”
Let's fill in the true answer. "Yes, I have; many times." Just don't tell the hypocritical, southern Evangelical Christians. They're fine with Trump shooting someone on 5th Avenue, or just about every other despicable thing he's said and done. But, when they find out he's paid for multiple abortions? Can't wait to watch that show.
6
Trump was totally for the UN Population Fund when Bush took away $34 million in 2002. He and I were on the same honorary committee in support of UNFPA at that time. Of course not now. On no, that horrible UN and that horrible reproductive health care!! Actually UNFPA furnishes 40 percent of the world's contraceptives and is NOT involved in abortion. Go figure. Oh that's right His BASE base.
4
I agree with Steele Magnolia. This is all about punishing women, poor women in particular. Women who have the money will ALWAYS be able to have an abortion. It’s called a D&C. Your gynecologist can “order” one for you if he/she “thinks” you “need” one for “medical” reasons. This has been going on since before Roe vs Wade.....
7
Perhaps the reason trump is pushing abstinence is because Melania has decided that she will no longer allow him to have sex with her. Of course, what's good for Melania is good for the country.
3
Abortion should be as obtainable as Guns. Right, GOP ??? Apparently, Guns have actual Rights. Women, not so much. Seriously.
10
My first thought when I read the headline was how people are losing sleep with worrying.
3
Beware the continuing mix of religious dogma with the laws of the land.
It's what makes the term "Holy Land" so ironic.
4
Remember the old saying: "If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament." We are seeing a systematic dismantling of our rights to self-determination while our GIC (groper-in-chief) panders to the self-righteous. We are careening toward a theocracy...not so different from Iran, neh?
3
“It’s highly, highly unlikely that Trump ever mulled this matter.” Or any matter. Ever.
Stew? Fume? Froth? Perseverate? Yes.
Mull? Nope.
1
You have to ask yourself if Trump has ever examined his own true feelings about abortion.
Trump? True feelings? One day he's telling a parent of a murdered high school student that he's going to take on the NRA and a few weeks later he's regaling the NRA with adoring dramatizations of shootouts. The only true thing about Donald Trump is that he is truly the greatest threat the civilized world has ever known.
4
I ask anti rights people this question: you are on a sinking ship, on the ship is a container with 5000 human embrios, there's also a five year old child, there is only time to save one. Which do you take in the lifeboat?
3
Trump is president because his base is inherently afraid of powerful women. They are appalled when a woman speaks out of turn. Their place is in the kitchen they have made clear. When they feel that this mentality gets challenged? We end up with Trump. His parents failed.
3
Trump is sounding more like Willy Loman, every day.
1
When it is quite likely substantiated (i) that Donald Trump is the father of the child aborted by Shera Bechard and (ii) that Elliott Broidy was 'compensated' for being the fall guy with rewards of Qatar contracts, will (i) the evangelicals finally dump Trump (if not, what will it take for them to live up to their Christian principles?) and (ii) the GOP realize that 'their' president (never really a Republican, a kind of Democrat but mainly just head of the Trump Narcissist [some would use another word, close in pronunciation] Party) is someone who is leading them into oblivion?
1
With Trump's well-known history from jumping from one-night stand to one-night stand, one can only imagine the trail of abortions that he has both paid for or offered to pay for throughout the country.
I am sure that if he got some girl pregnant today, he'd have her at an abortion clinic faster than you could say "sex."
2
Ewe Gail you title giving me creeps !
The man the accidental President is an over weight sloth , mean spirited, with crazy eyes, also never uses any sorts protection .
We as a Nation would like to know the results of trump having sex with multiple women without taking any sort of protection .
How many mini trumps are running around in this World ?
Or did those women got abortion by his instructions ?
We as Citizens needs to know when trump is trying to cut funding of Planned Parenthood for unwanted pregnancy .
Please someone spill, would you ?
3
I love to read Gail Collins; I never miss her columns.
But I have to ask the question I keep asking my fellow liberals. How can Trump be so stupid without our being even dumber? As he never tires of pointing out, he won.
We need to listen more and talk less or this will keep happening. We need to stop saying he's dumb and start learning what he got right and we got wrong.
Sure, it's fun to make fun of him. But our country can't survive our self-indulgence in our "superiority".
1
Because god created Adam first and gave him dominance over Eve, we men therefore have scriptural authority for doling out healthcare to women today. We were also given the power and right to sell our daughters into slavery. Or handle poisonous snakes in church without fear of being killed.
Those Bronze Age scribes knew what was what; they had an organic Virtual Private Network with the creator of the universe. It's comes with manhood, I guess. (I'm personally gifted with being able to sit in the same easy chair for hours and hours.)
Wonder what the Bible would have been like if women had written it. They wouldn't have each had hundreds of husbands, would they? Or make us get pregnant? Or stone us for our sins? Women can be so cruel.
1
It is impossible to support a family on the weekly paycheck from a full time job at McDonald's or Walmart. Raising a child from birth to age 18 costs on average around $233,000. Those who want to force women to bear children against their will should be willing to put their money where their mouths are and pay for some or all of that $233,000. Otherwise, it's all just empty talk with a faux-religious topping from people who should be minding their own business.
3
Women should be brave and bold in responses:
Here's a man who pursued a life of dalliances, with ample women as belt notches. He's on tape bragging about that very aptitude. There've been random women, models, playmates & porn actresses--plus admitted pay offs for silence, and who knows what else.
With no regard for personal rights of women as to their reproductive future, he's been a moralizing puritan in office, obsessed with the evangelical vote. Many of us view his presidency as the most dangerous ever for our rights.
Despite being accused by as many as 17+ women of sexual assault or advances, he holds the highest office in the land.
With TrumpCare, he was fine with insurers not covering maternal care, pregnancy and the cost of birth.
A womanizer against access to birth control and abortion??
You wonder if Lawyer Cohen's tapes, papers & phone records involve the cover up of his client's role in pregnancies
that were stopped from coming to full term.
4
This person cannot even differentiate between HIV and HPV. From a supposedly educated person, that is gross ignorance. Emphasis on the gross. Just saying.
4
You laugh and joke about Trump's hypocrisy on contraception and women's right to control their own bodies but the really scary person is VP Pence. Trump just says and does things for his audience of groupies.
Pence on the other hand is a true believer, an ideological terrorist who has said he thinks we would end abortions within a few years. He really believes he can make the whole "thing" go away. He is a Dominionist Christian who thinks America should be a theocracy.
I think it best not to impeach Trump But to vote the whole repugnant lot out in 2020.
4
I wonder if Trump will say... "Next question" each time Mueller asks him a question.
2
Well, let's say Trump manages to get everybody else in all of America not having sex. Doesn't that leave the field completely free for him to have all of it?
1
After reading the title of this piece I’m sleeping on the sofa tonight, after taking a Pepto.
1
I think that those who are unable to get an abortion due to Trump and these archaic rules should leave these unwanted children at HIS doorstep. Force him be responsible for financially supporting them until they are 21 years old.
2
I ask anti rights people this question: you are on a sinking ship, on the ship is a container with 5000 human embyos, there's also a five year old child, there is only time to save one. Which do you take in the lifeboat?
2
Trump is clearly a hypocrite who sees one set of rules for we little people and pretty much no rules at all for overlords such as himself. But he does have one redeeming grace in that he is almost always 100% wrong on every subject. He thereby provides an easy way to analyze things and decide the correct course of action by rejecting everything that he believes.
1
could it be possible that Michael Cohen payment of 1.6M settlement for Broidy to cover up for an abortion was a cover up for Trump? His base would not like him paying for an abortion.
3
Dear Gail,
With the All On assault on Democracy, the Constitution, Freedom of Speech, not to mention the insults, name calling, lying, and propaganda machine called Trump, I need at least 3 columns a week from you to keep up my spirit and give me a brief laugh at our dilemma.
Thank you, keep up the good work.
2
Abortion is the Republican political gift that keeps on giving. They revel in sanctimonious fund raising while denying less privileged woman their inherent rights. Old white men dictating to women...that's the satisfaction they get. Once about personal "freedom" the Republican Party is now about oppression. Pulpit beating wife beaters, united into one.
2
Women, it’s time we demanded Viagra be removed from Medicare and “insurance subsidies”. What’s food for the Goose is clearly good for the Gander, too!
2
So many people wonder why conservative Christians keep riding the Trump Train, no matter how much is revealed about his perversions, his infidelities, his corruption. This is why. They got a government that will push their agenda of theocracy, misogyny, homophobia, and racism.
MAGA to them means Make America Gilead Always.
3
The only reason the liberal media is talking about Trump's sex life is to try to win the next election. There was no negative media coverage about Bill Clinton. More hypocrisy. Why should we believe the liberals can rule when they are so biased and willfully self deceived? This election proves how much they lie. And they try to cover up the truth.
1
“. . . he asked his guests if they had ever heard of Susan B. Anthony, as if he was delivering exciting new information.” That would have been a perfect opportunity for someone to pull out a few Susan B. Anthony dollar coins and do a one-upsmanship on Trump.
Ms. Collins, I enjoy your articles tremendously, but this headline “How Trump Gets Into Your Bed” truly creeped me out (yet I felt compelled to continue reading). Thank you for another enlightening article.
2
I wish he could be forced to answer Maureen Dowd's question about being involved with anyone who ever had an abortion, under oath, and under pain of death if he lied.
And besides all that, I wish his own mother would have considered having one.
1
Donald Trump changes his opinions faster than a chameleon changes its color. So, the fact that this one-time “very pro-choice” person has now become a poster boy for the anti-abortion crowd should not surprise anyone. He know that the crowd is an important part of “his beloved Base, which,” as Ms. Collins says, “currently needs to be roused for the fall elections.”
Let’s go back to “his adultery days.” Like Ms. Collins, most people do wonder whether “Trump didn’t at some point send a partner off to have her pregnancy terminated.” Here is hoping that one such partner shows enough courage to come forward and expose his hypocrisy on this issue too.
The vociferous, self-righteous anti-abortionists, Mr. Trump counted first, should know that pro-choice people are not going around advocating abortion. As Ms. Collins says, “The goal of groups like Planned Parenthood is to help women have children when they want them and avoid getting pregnant when they don’t. And when a woman seeks abortion, to make it safe and readily available in order to avoid those late-term procedures Trump has now discovered he hates so much.”
1
Can anyone explain who are the women who join the Susan B. Anthony List and willingly pay to hear such a blatant, hypocritical, serial adulterer laugh in their faces with his babbling incoherence about his “beautiful” election?
It’s one thing to oppose abortion. It is quite another to be a gullible fool.
3
Thank you, Gail, for plainly stating the truth that federal money does not go to Planned Parenthood for abortions.
Thank you for pointing out that "anti-abortion" most certainly is NOT "pro-life."
And thank you for sounding the alarm once more that the same group intent on outlawing abortion also is anti-contraception.
Now if only people who are anti- Planned Parenthood, anti-abortion and anti-contraception could and would read this most reasonable and informative piece. But we know how that will go. Or won't
11
The joke about GOP diversion and division initiatives is that we the people take them more seriously than those promoting the values often do. And that is by design.
The GOP pays fealty to guns, killing planned parenthood, football players kneeling and alleged Christian and white victimization because it keeps the weak-minded from complaining that they went from good-paying jobs with benefits and possibly a pension to part-time service jobs with a 401k and Obamacare which they are trained to hate.
The real GOP is less about the God and Susan B Anthony of their imaginations and about real-life worship of donors. The real joke is about saving jobs. The Carrier jobs Trump tried to save went away for the most part anyway. Harley Davidson is a perfect example: tax cut benefits to ownership and another shuttered facility with workers now out on the street. The GOP can be brazen about screwing workers because it has perfected distracting them. While attacking dependence of the poor on government, they promote dependence on strong white men to take back all the middle class has lost economically and culturally. The joke is these voters are voting for the guys taking everything away. There are real fascist tendencies in the GOP that anger and fear are used to distract and manipulate millions into complying with their continued insecurity. They have discovered that the more insecurity they create the more support they garner for the phoniness they sell as solutions.
16
This is basically what happens when you let religious zealots form national policy. I will have a good laugh the next time these jokers criticize the policies in Muslim-majority countries, the hypocrisy is off the charts!
Less government intervention in the life of the individual? Oh, but that doesn't extend to women's healthcare, doesn't it, because only old men are most suited to deciding how a woman should take care of her own health.
Abstinence as a form of birth control? Have fun trying to get that across to teenagers when the TV's full of everything else. Oh, and I'm sure the people in Fox News are full of pious holy folk who do not touch women against their will.
Women should not have abortions at all? Then let me ask these evangelicals, just who the hell is going to provide for AND look after the kid? People who are not in single-parent families? What kind of utopic la-la land did these evangelicals come from?
Basically, while I've nothing against religion being the foundation of forming policy, having religion as policy is wrong, just wrong.
6
Susan B. Anthony has been spinning in her grave for years! From the blithely uninformed women who said that they would vote for Romney because 'he looks presidential' to the college women in Tucson who wouldn't vote for Hillary because her shoes were so old-fashioned, women have shown that they are no more intelligent, thoughtful or insightful than men. And unfortunately for women and families, that lack of engagement in political thinking has resulting in a rolling back of women's rights - particularly in conservative states. Women my age - who fought for the Equal Rights Amendment - are tearing what's left of their hair out because of younger women's unrealistic expectations that they will be treated fairly without putting some 'skin in the game.'
10
Part II of II
If the state determines to impose its will over the free choice of adults, made in consultation with their doctors and other support partners, then it is obligated to accept the burden exercising that power imposes: provide the necessary funding to the mother or the personnel and facilities needed for the child to be raised and cared for, to adulthood, by the state, because in many cases, adoption will not be the probable outcome. To do otherwise is both immoral and negligent.
Faced with this obligation, conservatives who are not hypocrites might wish to more closely embrace their tenant of “less government.”
5
Part I of II
It is appropriate to note, in any conversation about government (Republican-party) intrusions into bedrooms, doctors’ offices, and the spiritual practices and beliefs of women and their families, that any successful effort to block abortions is inherently hypocritical and discriminatory because it only affects women of difficult economic status who can’t easily afford to travel to other states or countries to get the medical services they need, which everyone else who desires it will freely do. In this, Republicans encourage these women to seek underground, sub-par or even dangerous treatments, endangering them and the infants while promoting a criminal enterprise.
Additionally, a relevant factor about prohibiting abortion is that if the parents do not want the child, it is highly likely that if the choice is removed, the child will suffer the ill will of the parents, reflecting in varying degrees of substandard care and attention. In some cases, one or both parents with this initial outlook will learn to love and accept the child, but the majority will not. That’s just the reality, and reality is where we live, so that’s where laws should be focused, not upon wishful thinking or the idyllic.
4
Any woman having sex with Trump would want him to know the difference between HIV and HPV. All women want him to not have anything to do with their healthcare which is not the business of anyone but themselves and their doctors. Forcing doctors to lie is what Trump has already done with his healthiest president who ever lived congratulatory health report or his blessed genes which could have him continuing for 200 years id not for fast food. Term limits are a very good idea.
So far this has been a year of the woman, partly catalyzed by Trump. The enormous women's marches, the Me Too movement, the strong women candidates and their nominations changing into candidacies.
Voting comes next. Every Republican must be voted out. As Texas and other anti abortion states show, maternal deaths rise to third world levels, teenagers have more babies beginning a poverty cycle, STDs rise causing public health epidemics, and those regions spiral back in time. Every vote counts. November 6, 2018. Take our nation forward.
6
Although the president isn’t a deep thinker or able to remember the difference between H.I.V. And HPV, he certainly does think about women a lot. Bill Gates was creeped out over the man’s level of interest and knowledge of his daughter, and now he’s a champion for Susan B. Anthony and her never ending fight against abortion. We will be paying for this man’s absurd level of audacity for decades to come.
7
...and of course no male is forced to give up his reproductive rights or carry a fetus to term no matter the circumstances of the pregnancy, the health of the fetus, the outcome of the pregnancy or the mother's health.
What is a more fundamental right than the right to choose to have a child? Trump & his Base only care about their own rights. They care little for the rights, health or well-being of others...because they can afford what they want or need or think that Trump will keep his word and get them those great paying jobs with the benefits they need including pregnancy and child birth coverage.
I can't wait until the day when women make up half of all legislative bodies, perhaps then ALL people will be treated with the dignity of deciding what is best for them. Its time ignorant white men stop making the decisions about and for the rest of us.
Isn't everyone tired of the "Do as I say, not as I do" crowd?
8
Perhaps Trump's next stance will be to deprive the right to vote of women who are pro-choice? Anyway, he's doing his best to abort democracy since he lost the popular vote. The people must be punished!
4
Trump’s warped egotistical compass of judgement on sexual matters has guided him throughout his life. He is not a model of advice on any sexual issue or morality.
In a 1997 interview with Howard Stern, the following article states:
“I’ve been so lucky in terms of that whole world,” Trump told Stern of avoiding STDs. “It is a dangerous world out there. It’s scary, like Vietnam. Sort of like the Vietnam era. It is my personal Vietnam. I feel like a great and very brave soldier.” (Trump reportedly avoided serving during the Vietnam War by getting student deferments and a medical deferment.)”
Donald Trump Calls Sleeping Around, Avoiding STDs His ‘Personal Vietnam’ in Resurfaced 1997 Interview
August 1, 2016
By Sierra Marquina
http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/donald-trump-calls-sleepin...
Then and now, where is and what is going on in Trump’s brain ???
7
It is amazing how swamp king who is from New York City seems to have no understanding of how the real world works. Doesn't say much about the international city that never sleeps. Women don't care what he thinks about there sex lives and by the way we know enough about his to last a lifetime.
If the law was enforced where men responsible for life had to support these children then it would be another story however, since they don't and wont this is a non discussion.
2
Wait a sec. I've read in multiple places that Trump was always very concerned about contracting any kind of VD. How can someone with that particular personal fear have no idea what HPV is versus HIV. If Ms. Daniels is being truthful about his disinterest in condom use (with a sex worker - let that sink in) and that was typical for him, then both those viruses are something he should be pretty familiar with one way or the other.
2
Not since women won the right to vote have we been in such danger. This is a regime that wants to muzzle our voices, restrict our movements and shut us up. The trouble with the far right here is that it looks the same here as it does in Iran. Am I the only voice in this wilderness that has become my country?
5
The beautiful evening coming up in November, 2018: please VOTE!
9
You have to ask yourself if Trump has ever examined his own true feelings about ANYTHING. But as a second thought, you don't. Because you already know the answer.
4
Not even the least bit amusing. Trump's disregard for women is absolute, having this kind of whaddya think conversation is debasing even for you Gail.
2
Government has no legitimate role in the “family planning” business; pay for your own birth control. And health insurance – like all insurance – exists to attend to expenses people can’t be expected to deal with as a matter of course. Your auto carrier doesn’t pay for your oil change; your health carrier shouldn’t be paying – or be forced to pay – for a small, routine expense (which, generally, has essentially nothing to do with “health”.)
60 years ago, people were, presumably, having sex. They were doing it without a taxpayer-funded subsidy. And they were not cranking out babies out-of-wedlock (or offing their offspring) as they are now. How, do you suppose, our grandparents’ generation did it? Perhaps, just maybe, they exercised a modicum of self-control which, you seem to believe, is utterly unrealistic to expect from mere human beings?
If XX wishes to have sex, great!! But if XX is not my wife, what she does is none of my business, and none of my responsibility. XX should pay for her own birth control (or, perhaps, politely suggest that her caring and devoted partner do so) and, like an adult, assume the consequences of her actions, without visiting them on either the taxpayers or the child which might result.
In short, sex is a private, adult game, none of the government’s concern. At all. Act as you see fit, but don’t expect a subsidy, and don’t foist the consequences of your own stupidity (or bad luck) off onto the child such actions tend to create.
How much history do you know? 60 years ago, 80, 100 years ago women were faced with little or no choice in the matter of sex or childbirth. Many women were forced into multiple pregnancies because they had no choice. Women were more likely to die younger because of complications from pregnancy. Desperate women faced with the fact of another pregnancy died due to botched abortion attempts. Young single women did have babies, behind secret doors, out of sight, then forced to give the baby away because of the “shame”! Look to Ireland’s morbid history of how the Catholic Church forced unwed mothers into forced servitude to atone for their “sin”. Magret’s Sanger’s crusade to protect women from the ravages of early death or multiple pregnancies led to Planned Parenthood, teaching women the fact there is a choice.
40 years ago two young women each faced the choice of an unplanned pregnancy. One was 17 the other 21. One was sent to a home for unwed mothers and delivered her child only to hand it over to an unknown family and never to know it’s fate. The other choice an abortion at 8 weeks. One still mourns her loss and wonders where her child is and has become. The other rejoices at the later birth of three wanted and dearly loved children and now four beautiful grandchildren. That is what choice is all about.
2
It’s time for Viagra to be removed from insurance and Medicare “subsidies”. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander....
2
I'm sure you'll understand then that I object strongly to any of my tax and premium money going to treat your lung cancer due to your smoking, your problems due to drinking and drug abuse, any injuries you sustained in a car accident of your own fault, etc., etc.
3
Donald Trump is a tsunami of national destruction. Just when one thinks the damage he created has ebbed, he powers up and produces more from, what appears to be, a never ending supply of debilitating ideas and proclamations.
His choice of cabinet secretaries is a freak show worthy of Barnum.
We are living a wide awake nightmare of frightening, national consequences.
11
So-as usual, right to lifers continue to regulate a legal right- a woman’s choice -Roe v. Wade- but also want no regulation on right to kill- 2nd Amendment (NRA interpretation).
9
Donald Trump, this fraud of a man let alone president, continues. What else is there to say?
8
Since the nation does now know POTUS indeed "isn't that careful when it comes to condoms," or downright just doesn't prefer 'em, I almost expected some questions to be raised--and they will be, shortly, about Elliott Broidy's quite lavish $1.6 million alleged payment to "help her financially in this difficult period," perhaps suggesting not that the RNC is a boys' club where you have to sleep with a bunny to join, but that some fancy friends are covering for they guy who doesn't like the condoms, but whose story would really be worth spending $1.6 million to prevent it getting out in early November 2016.
5
"Yes, a Donald Trump presidency is pushing a no-sex agenda"
Stormy Daniels et al would like to argue otherwise.
6
Wow, Ms Collins, thank you for framing the Republican agenda of banning contraception and abortions as " Donald Trump" interfer(ing) with other people's intimate affairs." That sure puts a whole new spin on the old white man's Republican agenda! Evidently when "doing" isn't as easy as it used to be because #MeToo women do tell, the next step is to stop everyone else from "doing" even those who "do " within perfectly legal marital relationships.
While most of us realize that trying to turn the 2018 midterms into an election on "abortion" with a pathetic attempt to turn out Trump's Republican base, (How is all that "pro-fetus" legislation working out, Trump?) is a sign of desperation, it is a good distraction from the Republican "tax-cut" for corporations and billionaires they are afraid to promote.
Preventing women in the US (and through foreign aid bans, the world) from having access to contraception and abortions as part of their medical rights to control their own reproductive health is discriminates against women in poverty and those who live in rural areas. Many more women will live with unnecessary pain because the medicine they need also can be used as birth control. Many other women and girls will experience risky pregnancies which endanger their future fertility and their lives because Donald Trump does not understand biology and thinks only of pleasing the Evangelical men in his base.
Vote Democratic in 2018 and bring balance to the state houses and Congress.
5
I wish someone would publicly ask trump how many abortions he has paid for. some women who've been identified with him over the years might come forward, you never know. that would be further evidence of his hypocrisy and that of the pro-lifers who support him.
7
What did we ever do to deserve this Trump fellow?
And how will all this vandalism ever be undone?
7
One of the many things I don't properly understand about anti-abortion crusaders thinking is how they rationalize that in 1973 a solidly conservative Supreme Court, after careful study, concluded that there was no objective reason to assign "personhood" rights to a developing fetus prior to viability at the end of the 2nd trimester. It was only after Roe v Wade that the evangelical community decided that Catholics were right and the Gerber baby popped into existence at the "instant" of conception (it's a process, not a spark) and that the political right adopted all things evangelical. Yes, I know, there's a huge number of buckets full of fallacious propaganda, pseudo-science, and poetic rhetoric to get them fired up and allow them to contemptuously ignore the facts, but what do they imagine was going through the minds of those conservative justices in 1973?
4
he believes in nothing. he does crave, wealth, adulation and power. none of the things he is doing to create chaos mean anything to him.... he is completely entranced by his image in the mirror...... with which he never breaks eye contact.
7
Elliott Broidy may know a little more about Trump's supposed opposition to abortion than he's letting on.
6
Trump only ideological principle is himself...whatever benefits his political or economic career that is what he supports. If pro-life gives him a point in the polls so be it; if one of his mistresses become pregnant, well you fell in the blank. Whether it is tariffs, or tax policy, or climate control, or gun control, whatever his base is "thinking" he is for it---big time, until they aren't.
4
“Such an interesting question,” he responded. “So what’s your next question?” Donald Trump. We all know Trump deflects when asked to tell the truth. The anti abortionists know the real answer. They have to know but when you sell your own soul it the purveyor of spin and manipulation, it is easier to hide in the bubble than to see the truth. All those affairs... come on people.
4
Not sure who is the greater narcissist, Trump, (who wants power for the sake of pure greed) or all those white evangelical guys in toupees, (who are greedy for power over our minds).
There's a mutual scavenging between them. Trump hates and hurts anyone it pays him to hate and hurt. Evangelicals are financing him, with votes, loyalty, and money.
The scary thing is that neither greed will ever be satisfied.
6
If President Trump took his oath of office seriously, instead of worrying about the security of his political base, he would worry about the security of America, the country he has sworn to defend.
To wit:
"The parts for munitions are increasingly made overseas, making the U.S. military more reliant on China for its weaponry. This is the second year in a row that the Pentagon has expressed concern regarding Chinese dominance in the munitions manufacturing industry. 'Nearly all DoD missile systems use Dechlorane as a component in the insulation for their solid rocket motors. There is no domestic supplier for this material; the sole source is Occidental Chemical in Belgium. Even more concerning is that the precursor to make Dechlorane came from China. ....' reads the 2017 report."
from:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/us-military-is-running-out-of-bombs/ar...
4
The man has no moral core and thus no convictions--he has positions of convenience.
4
Oh Gail, Trump doesn't know the difference between HPV and a SUV.
7
Just yet like with gun control, the anti-abortion supporters are single issue voters. They don’t care about where a politician stands on other questions, but only about their “pro-life” stance. Trump has no moral rationale for his positions. His only focus is to maintain power and he will continue his collection of single issue voters, using them as his “base.” He is all about winning at any cost, and has no personal morality or even an interest in governing effectively. He always finds someone to blame.
6
No doubt Trump has paid for abortions for the countless women he slept with using no protection. Countless. And he no doubt has children with women we don't know about and isn't paying child support.
6
What else should one expect from the hypocrite-in-chief? Democrats will not run on a "we're going to undo every thing TЯump did" platform. But there should be no mistake that this is what needs to be done starting in 2018. This can be done with a positive message. In this case it should be "restore common sense into women's reproductive health policy". But we also need to get stories like this one more "fox news-ified" to surprise the right wingers. Imagine them clicking on a headline that reads "The government wants to control how you have sex" or "The government is telling your doctor how to practice medicine" or "Woman dies after being forced to deliver rapist's child". If the story is written with the gotcha "this is the policy that you agree with" only at the very end, it might get through to some of them.
4
So where is our First Amendment protection when a health care worker is not allowed to talk about conception or abortion? I guess it only applies to government employees who are allowed to deny marriage license applications to LBGTQ applicants.
By the way, while it may only be a tabloid story, it will be interesting to see what further details come out about Boidy and whether he was the baby-daddy of the gal whose abortion and hush money he paid for or if the baby-daddy might have been someone else. There have been hints, since there is a connection through Michael Cohen.
5
Long ago in a land far away (New Jersey) my wife volunteered at Planned Parenthood. Because of the stories she told me, we now give to Planned Parenthood. You don't have to wait until November on this issue--send PP the biggest check you can afford today. That's what I'm doing.
6
Mostly, DT slithers into America's beds by creating enough headaches and anxiety that no one wants to engage. No doubt we'll see a decline in blue state births.
3
So unfair to criticize Trump for his evolving views on birth control and abortion. Remember Obama and Hillary changing their opinions about gay marriage? Why Trump's evolution? First, it seems possible if not likely that Melania has erected a Great Wall that enforces presidential abstinence -- an exemplar to us all. Second, the rightward swing of the Supreme Court evidences hope that it will reverse its pernicious decisions eliminating governmental regulation, if not prohibition, of birth control devices, extramarital sex, abortion and same-sex marriage. Third, Trump's Great Election Victory -- by unprecedented margins -- followed by his inauguration and continuous post-election campaign rallies and tweets -- viewed by unprecedented millions of Fox News followers -- have exhausted loyal (legal) Americans to the point that we have almost no time to even think about sex and no energy to follow through on any such thoughts. America First!
There is no such thing as “gay marriage.”
We just call it ‘marriage.’
1
I always respond to gay marriage with "Yes, my friends do look quite happy and joyful, don't they?"
A political philosophy written on a Mobius strip.
3
And here I thought Trump got into our beds the same way bedbugs do. It's an infestation. It starts small and spreads.
5
Your headline made me immediately think about running upstairs and throwing every piece of linen into the incinerator. What stopped me in mid throw was the idea that he probably owns the incinerator company.
Oh how I long for the days when the top of the news cycle was LBJ pulling the ears on Him-or was it Her. Anyway it was one the the Beagles and we,the Americans, were incensed.
Remember when the possibility of nuclear war was enough to ruin your week? Now it would hardly make the local section of the NYT. Woe is me.
1
Defunding family planning programs allows increased funding for post-birth abortion programs which are favored by conservatives.
It's like fishing. You have to throw the fetus back until it reaches the minimum size limit. Then you can club it with a clean conscience.
4
Hmm. I have a feeling that being "pro Trump" and "pro life" is quite an oxymoron. Pro life for the Dreamers would be more redeeming, even though they have lost their protective fetushood.
3
What I don't understand is why a woman (women) hasn't come forward. Given his behavior, we know someone (someones) is out there. Maybe they (she) are more embarrassed than angry.
4
@jo: Well, making child support payments or payments for abortions contingent upon the women signing a non-disclosure agreement may stymie most, if not all.
If you were bullied into signing an agreement with a powerful man - who apparently hires thugs to threaten women who speak out, as Stephanie Clifford has claimed - you have allowed yourself to be intimidated into silence.
2
"Women must take power.' from a previous comment. Seriously? 53% of white women voted for Trump despite him laying out his very clear agenda and presentation of his character prior to the election. I would say white women have taken power. They willing gave it to Trump.
1
Sorry ma'am, but you are giving the president too much power in women's sex lives. He's not our lover or partner.
Any smart, even poor, American woman of fertile age knows how to prevent pregnancy. If she's ambitious, she can find birth control methods to employ too. To pretend the president is preventing anyone, including his own women, from preventing conception is ludicrous. It also insults and disempowers women. Why?
1
If you've ever gone through an abortion yourself, either as a man or a woman, you probably came to realize that birth control is a *much* better alternative, both physically and psychologically. And while you may fight for the rights of others to have abortions, you would not want to repeat the experience ever again.
Especially in a country that cherishes the value of human life so much that once a baby is born, it is immediately imperiled by Trump and his Trump-like wolves.
The GOP is a party of liars and cowards. We need to be vigilant in protecting the rights of all women. It's really as simple as that.
3
Frankly I don't know anybody who is "pro abortion". especially the women I know who have had them.
When my younger sister was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer she was encouraged to try a fairly radical procedure from Duke university, the only problem was she had also just learned she was pregnant with her third child. The procedure was guaranteed to kill the fetus and likely to kill them both.
She had a choice to make, try and save her own life and be able to be a mother to her own two small boys and terminate the pregnancy , or try and carry the fetus to term and probably die if not in childbirth then certainly afterward from deferral of treatments (any treatment not just the recommended one).
She chose to terminate her pregnancy and tray and live long enough to raise the two boys she already had.
Sadly it was not to be, the treatment did not work for her and the cancer prevailed and we lost her in 2002.
Try and tell me my sister was pro abortion
Go ahead, I'll wait.
236
Thank you! The Rights of Women does not mean “pro-abortion”!
4
She was pro life- the life of her two already-born children.
7
It seems to me that part of the problem is that there aren't many of us around who remember when abortion was illegal - or perhaps just not willing to talk about it. But I do remember-sitting in my living room holding my roommates hand while she waited for a phone call from a friend who was somewhere getting an illegal abortion. The person performing the abortion was supposedly a hospital intern but did anyone really know that? When the phone rang and her friend was on her way home, we both cried and I didn't even KNOW her friend! Of course we didn't think about what might happen the next day-an infection perhaps-we were just relieved that she was ok that night. My point is that even if abortions were illegal, women would still find a way. My roommate's friend was fortunate because she could afford to pay someone who at least claimed to know what he or she was doing but what about women who can't and use "homemade" methods to terminate their pregnancies? And destroy their ability to ever have children or at worse die? It hurts my heart to even contemplate such a thing. I just wish we could go back to the safe, legal but rare idea of the Clinton administration. And don't get me started on the anti-abortion folks who are also against birth control!
3
Why in all this discussion about birth control (sex) is there no comment about viagra and it’s availability and funding for it? Are organizations refusing to let their insurance cover it? Seems only fair or they could be charged with discrimination for only controlling female sexuality.
Why is male sexuality never discussed and vasectomy recommended? It is always women’s sexuality and women’s choices that are fair game for everyone to comment on and legislate. I’m beyond tired of it.
Then there is the issue of rights. Why is there so much focus on the supposed “right” for everyone to have a gun, but the right given by law for women to make reproductive choices is constantly infringed.
4
The right to bear arms is an explicit Constitutional right". The right to bodily integrity is not explicit although it has been argued as arising from other parts of the Constitution.
Short of a clarifying amendment, it’s difficult to get to a reasonable interpretation. If you think Prohibition was a divisive time, try modifying the Second Amendment or adding the right to bodily integrity.
"“That beautiful, beautiful evening. November. Remember that evening? Could it have been more beautiful?”
Yes, if he hadn't won it by the obsolete electoral college and perhaps Russian interference, because he certainly lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes.
I'm going to keep reminding us all of this....
3
Whether it’s a public position on abortion, contraception or daffodils, Donald Trump has no personal view on the subject – one way or another.
There is only one subject which interests Donald Trump and has driven him throughout his life, and it is Donald Trump.
The man will say anything, tell any lie and fake outrage on any issue, if doing so enhances his public image or smears his critics.
2
And we thought Roe vs Wade settled it all. Now, here we are again....still fighting for a woman to have control over her body
without the government's interference.
174
The morality of choice must be absolute for women who may face enormous challenges to motherhood. My mother born in a war-torn country in Europe had abortions due to the hard facts there was not food, nor housing for many, and although in this country that choice is often less stark, it can be as dire. Children who become foster children, or those who lose parents due to financial or health issues including drugs or unemployment are born regardless of parents, in particular women, who might have chosen otherwise. Why does anyone write that Democrats accept this difficult choice in some "evangelical" manner? Democrats if I may suggest the higher moral ground is to consider the future of an unwanted or uncared for child. Consider dropouts, prisons, child protective services, ad infinitum for those unwanted children as their fate. Read Margaret Sanger, a nurse who saw what is still evident in too many examples.
6
One word. Lysistrata. The answer for many things going on today.
7
Possibly. But then there are the incels.
Why is it impossible for some people to believe that other people might have serious moral concerns about abortion? If abortion is to be a choice, there should be serious and substantive reasons to terminate the life of an unborn. As much as I despise Trump (and lately by extension, most Republicans) I think that the Democratic Party's evangelical acceptance of abortion as just another minor medical procedure could cost them dearly in the upcoming elections.
14
It is definitely understandable that some people have serious moral concerns about abortion. The issue is never about whether abortion is moral, but rather if individual with certain religious and moral views have the right to dictate policy for everyone. You seem to have an overly simplistic view so consider this: with the new law preventing discussion, a doctor cannot have a serious discussion with a woman about if she wants to have an abortion. It is a gag order that PREVENTS dialogue, and stops women from discussion abortion with their doctors.
Also you may want to consider what terms you are using. Call this "the Democratic Party's evangelical acceptance of abortion" is misunderstanding that the Democratic Party is not accepting abortions on blind faith ("evangelical" specifically means according to Christian gospel), but rather want to allow it to exist as an option. Consider a different scenario: what if we banned all plastic surgery, by the argument that it is often used for cosmetic purposes and that is not moral? That would also ban reconstructive surgery used for people with sever wounds and burns. People who are pro-Choice are not saying that we inherently believe abortion is good or that it should be available at every drug store, but that it should exist as an option in a clinical setting.
124
Why is it impossible for some people to believe that other people can have serious moral concerns about choice as well as abortion? You are demanding that the government enforce legal rights of the "unborn" greater than a pregnant woman, presumably one day after fertilization. You have no idea how people who favor choice feel about abortion, let alone consider it a minor medical procedure. There are valid moral and ethical debates about abortion, but the real issue is whether the decision should be that of the mother, her family and physician or self-serving politicians. You seem to confuse the issues. The Democratic Party does not.
103
"If abortion is to be a choice" then the question is who makes the choice. Is it to be the choice of politicians who have no knowledge of the woman and her situation or is it to be a thoughtful decision between a patient and her medical team (doctors, nurses, social workers, etc.)?
88
The American right has a huge misogyny problem. They not only want to control women to their detriment, deep down they loathe women. Their anger and rage at women is no accident. We need more women in power to stop the assaults. Get involved and support more women for high offices who believe in equality.
32
My mother voted for Donald Trump - even though she claimed to dislike him immensely - to "save the babies". I told her she could no more stop abortions from occurring than stop Americans from drinking alcohol. We know this for a fact because we've already tried and failed. Humans have been terminating pregnancies for thousands of years. It's a misguided notion for evangelicals to think that, even if SCOTUS overturns Roe v. Wade, abortions will end. They may slow temporarily, but then they'll go right back to normal. It's further misguided to believe anything Donald Trump tells you. He's not a great deal maker. He's not making America great again, he's sticking a knife in our back and bringing the age of American dominance to a swift end. We can't bully women anymore than we can bully other countries. Two weeks ago a rally of Trump lovers began chanting "Nobel, Nobel..." There is no great deal to make with NK. We would have to give, to take. Obama knew this explicitly. So yes, Trump appears to be getting into our beds, but in truth, not much is happening. The courts will stop this latest attempt to deny women abortions. But even if they don't private money will backfill as needed. Trump's supporters support an illusion. Worse yet, they're being harmed by his illusion.
20
Ask your mom this question: you are on a sinking ship, on the ship is a container with 5000 human embrios, there's also a five year old child, there is only time to save one. Which do you take in the lifeboat? If she believes that embrios are " babies" then the answer is easy.
1
Planned Parenthood serves two and a half million women a year. And it's fair to say the overwhelming majority of them are there to receive birth control--many because they live in rural areas where access to female-controlled methods are otherwise unavailable, many because Planned Parenthood is the only place they can obtain birth control they can afford.
So what purpose is to be served by effectively saddling these women with unwanted pregnancies, with additional children many--if not most--of these women can ill afford? Even if you grant the puritanical notion that sex should be confined to marriage--a true irony, as Gail observes, given this president's history--it's fair to say huge numbers of the women receiving birth control from Planned Parenthood are indeed married. And it's also fair to say that a good number of those are sometimes forced into sex by abusive husbands. (In the immortal words of Phyllis Schlafly--who could be the poster girl for this effort--"When a woman marries, she consents to sex, so marital rape is not [a concept].")
Given all that, one cannot help but believe that this is just one more effort by this president and the GOP to keep women subjugated to men--proverbially "barefoot and pregnant." And to punish lower income women for the inexcusable failing of being poor.
23
So what else is new. Republican Presidents are anti sex, anti abortion. It has pretty much been this way since the Reagen era. Most red state women support Republicans- yet when they want abortions, thay know that the GOP are as dishonest as they are about being "pro life", and they head for the nearest doctor or state offering legal abortions. The cost of getting to NY or California is factored in to the cost of the abortion. What is always happening in our odd-and never imitated federal system, is that big fat Blue states , Like Massachusetts and NY, which understand that it takes money to run government , end up subsiding the low tax-non service, red states. NY pays Mississippi cash money, and other red states which won't tax their own-so we New Yorkers end up paying for almost all services in the South. It allows many retireing NY workers to live cheaply in Southern states-continually paid for by us.
What this article fails to point out is that since Abortion is a pretty long settled issue-like the end of slavery and the Civil Rights Amendments, so that no matter how much a President blathers about being actively pro life, he cannot make NY, or California,(first state to legalize abortion), bend the knee to the poor-non taxing red states, since they know they would all be voted out in Arkansas and Georgia if they ceased getting their "welfare" billions from the Blue states via federal grants. We allow this knowing it forces them to leave us alone.
8
Mr. Trump is not pro-choice or pro-life, he is just pro-Trump. Ladies & gentleman, please do everything you can to make sure everyone votes in the upcoming primaries & November election.
21
I no longer care. About anything that evil man does. I have money, not tons of it, but some. More than enough to take my daughter to any country in the world that will provide a legal and safe abortion should the need arise. I hope it doesn't come to it, but I am comforted to know that I have options. People voted for that man, let them pay the price. Whenever I can, I will find a way to eliminate or at least minimize the effects that odious man has on my and my family.
11
Well, that’s nice for you but what about everybody else?
Myself, even though, as the husband of an Irish citizen, I can live and work in any EU country, I still hold out hope for this country. So I will continue to Resist.
1
Trump would move America to Pleasantville if possible. Make America Great Again, just like the 50's.
3
"There was also a 2004 interview in which Trump said that when his girlfriend, Marla Maples, told him she was pregnant, he rejoined, “Well, what are we going to do about this?”"
I dislike very much having to bring innocents into this discussion. (however important their opinions may be), but I want to ask Tiffany Trump what she thinks of her father's attitude to her conception.
4
I am stuck between two adages trying to decide which is more appropriate. As a leader, is he saying: Do as I say, not as I do." Or, the biblical admonition of "Beware of false prophets."
The only fact relevant here is that America's Evangelical leadership gave him a mulligan. But, if I remember correctly, the church got in trouble when it sold indulgences like today's Evangelical leadership hands out mulligans.
6
first, when i had no medical insurance, planned parenthood was a lifeline for my health. sliding scales. amazing care.
second, if these people are pro-life, why are they doing so little for the poor and helpless. why reduce food stamps? because they're pro-fetus. once the baby is born, they no longer care.
18
Because they are, for the most part, pro-birth not pro-life.
1
I have never and will never refer to the “keep women barefoot, pregnant, and pious” crowd as “pro-life.” Why do people who by hindering Planned Parenthood, seek to deny essential “life-saving” health services such as screening for gynecological cancers, to some of the poorest women in this country, get to occupy some kind of moral high ground by being called pro-life? For me they are anything but.
19
HIV, HPV, HOV, HGTV, HDTV - they are all variants, right? No worries, one day there will surely be a vaccine. A terrible disease AND an obsession with granite countertops, cured.
Details, knowledge, even personal convictions don't matter on issues you don't care enough about and are willing to toss to the base. And to be clear, in the event that the President's brush with on-air kitty cat references with Billy Bush wasn't a tip off, Trump doesn't care much for or about women.
So HIV and HPV? A hypocritical devotion to keeping women from avoiding pregnancy or terminating it, mostly in a religious push to make responsible for chastity? From a man who could not care less about HIV or chastity?
That is the price of the next vote. The current environment is such that half of us are willing to toss the other half under the bus, and cackle about winning.
It really doesn't matter that these issues affect real people in real ways, and that we keep taking other safety nets and lifelines away even as we toss people into the water and expect them to swim for it.
7
Abortion is one of those topics where constitutionality and morality cross swords generating tremendous passion on both sides of the issue. The constitutionalist's position--"I disapprove of what you say(or in this case, do), but I will defend to the death your right to (say/do) it"--leaves the moralist blithering with rage. (NB: the quote-often attributed to Voltaire-- was actually penned by an Englishwoman)
I don't care one whit what Trump "feels" about abortion, I care deeply what the President does to circumvent the Constitution and deny my fellow citizens of their rights.
10
There is one option to arbitrarily keeping a woman ignorant of her human rights and potentially jeopardizing her (and an unborn human's) heath. It's not been discussed, if at all, and certainly not by men. Why should the onus fall only on women? Since women only become pregnant when impregnated, sterilize males who do not sign a legally binding oath (e.g., when they sign up for the draft or accept a government loan/grant toward college) to accept the financial responsibility of fatherhood should a partner become pregnant. Sterilization solves the problem for men, women and children.
8
I usually look to Gail to put a humorous spin on bad news. There's not much to laugh at here. I actually experienced that terrifying reminder: What if Pence was president? The horror, the horror. I'm still hoping Trump gets the boot. Pence can at least speak in grammatically correct sentences. However, a President Pence is not going to help women's rights anymore than Trump. We'd only lose the irony.
No. The only solution is for Democrats to sweep Congress in 2018 and everyone holds out for 2020. As President Trump has shown, executive policy is reversible. I would suggest homeschooling your children on sex-ed in the meantime though. There's probably a book or video out there. It's not like the subject is particularly exhaustive. Kids practically teach themselves what with the internet and all.
I think the important point is to remove any shame or guilt from using contraceptives. Make them freely accessible even to minors. All you need to do then is hammer home the risk of STDs and teach them to recognize unhealthy relationships. The future adult can make the decisions when they get there. Your job as a parent is simply to provide the tools and the environment for them to learn.
Oddly enough, that's a conservative argument for pro-choice parenting. If the government is acting irresponsibly, take personal responsibility for reproductive health.
7
Of all the things that sicken me about President Trump (and every day the list gets longer), his position on reproductive rights is definitely near the top of the list (my fear that he will end up starting a nuclear war and bring an end to the world as we know it is at the very top).
In order to play to his Base (as Gail so acutely refers to it), he is willing to jeopardize the quality of life of lower income women, and possibly bring back the days of coat hanger abortions - he has already done this in the developing world by refusing federal funds for reproductive services there.
I wish more attention could be paid by the press to the points Gail makes here about his possible encouragement of abortions for women with whom he was involved - perhaps if his Base were more aware of his complete hypocrisy on this issue they would begin to see him for who he really is - a self-absorbed person who cares only about himself.
7
Pro-life means that you support all lives, doesn't it? So, why don't we hear more from these people about:
Kids killed in schools?
Unarmed suspects being shot by police?
The death penalty?
Our less-than-perfect infant mortality rate?
Senior citizens left to die alone in nursing homes?
Teen suicides?
Noticeable, positive differences could be made in all of these areas by folks who claim to be pro-life, and with not much more effort than it takes to get dressed in a red T-shirt, ball cap, and drive to a trump rally to waste hours of their time listening to a con man butter them up for the next election.
20
I am pro choice! However, there are very few reasons for taxpayers to foot the bill for abortions of otherwise healthy infants or even pay to have my foot extracted from my mouth...these days. I’ve heard the unverified excuses about eliminating unwanted children who becoming harden criminals clogging the courts and prisons being a cost saver to the greater society. Today, preventing unwanted pregnancies has become far more efficient and effective at all levels of sexual education and experiences. Besides, without any significant stigmatization practically every grandmother and many more grandfathers have chosen to step up as surrogates for many working and single mothers. Their choice to love, embrace, and call these unexpected zygotes “blessings” is not for me to judge. I realize that I’m not addressing the turmoil within unstable, poorly equipped, and uncommitted relationships with dead beat dads appearing daily on reality TV. If the cost is prohibitive and the burden too heavy then the adoption lists of loving, caring, and hopefully well-vetted folks are an excellent alternative. If you are sexually active then please consider your child rearing resources and your support system network very carefully before depending on my limited tax dollars to pay for your choices. I don’t begrudge your abortion decision one way or another. However, I am very reluctant to accept your personal costs as our joint costs when so many good choices were available in the beginning.
1
More Trump pandering to his base. While he's quite good at creating distractions, this "Mafia Don" of a president is making money hand over fist by selling access to the WH and by charging to push various agendas both domestically and internationally. Whatever occurs, Trump must take his percentage. Like Al Capone, Trump doesn't care about the destruction left in his path.
The various powers that are so greatly benefiting will fight like ally cats to keep Trump where he is.
Sad!
5
In order to have an intelligent discussion can we first define our terms? Pro-choice means just that - giving the woman the choice to decide what is best regarding her body and her life. Pro-choice does not mean Pro-death. There are many women who are Pro-choice that aren't necessarily Pro-abortion. They are Pro-choice. Does anyone else go to bed praying a woman (or women) who dated Trump during the Studio 54 days will step forward and claim he forced her to get an abortion? Trump feels all unborn children should be protected? How about the children ripped from their parents' arms and placed in detention centers on our boarder? How about the children of the woman who needs Planned Parenthood for a mammogram? When she finds a lump on her breast? How about the school children mowed down in school by someone with an automatic weapon? Trump, like so many in his party, wants to keep the child alive in the womb but could care less what happens to that child once he/she is born. I'm thankful we all have the opportunity to be Pro-choice this year in the mid-terms.
5
Knowing Trump as we do, we should also know that he, himself, is a walking, talking and yes, fornicating argument in favor of abortion. Yes, that's admittedly crass, but no more crass than Trump himself, so there's no need for a double standard relating to propriety here.
Pretending that Trump has "evolved" on the issue of abortion, or anything else, is missing the point. All of Trump's positions are convenient and politically calculated. He is not interested in doing principle. He is only interested in doing your wife, but even more likely, your daughter.
5
Trump could not care less about birth control and abortion. This is about a cynical political calculation to garner the loyal votes from a sizable block of single issue voters.
The pro lifers have made their own cynical calculation as well. They could not care less about who Donald Trump is or what he does - as long as he delivers what they want.
4
Try telling the Base that the government has decided how and when you will have sex, and if you are not rich that means "never."
I thought Trump was all about a personal freedom that allows you to ignore any rule that limits self-gratification and keeps the government away from doing anything that benefits victims of your self-gratification or the non-rich.
I guess we are, once again, back to "Do as I say. not as I do," especially if you are a woman.
6
I have a simple request: please stop calling those who oppose a woman's right to choose "Pro-life." They're no more supportive of life than those who believe in a woman's right to choose. Please refer to them for what they are: Anti-choice. It's all about control.
10
I've never believed the opposition to abortion was about the children - it's always been about controlling the behavior of women. Controlling women is a central tenet of fundamentalist societies across the globe to this day. The fact that many of those who oppose abortion also oppose birth control is proof, along with the complete lack of interest in providing assistance, if needed, once the child has been born. Give me a break!
9
A sizable, if not overwhelming, majority of those who call themselves "pro-life" cannot be, by definition: they are staunch, if not absolute, proponents of capital punishment. Q.E.D.
9
As we all know the #PLIC does not care about abortions, or family planning, or anything that is not a call to his base to support him. (Well maybe he hates minorities and immigrants, but that is for another time).
No one, and I mean no one, would be surprised if we found out that one of his prior sexual liaisons led to an abortion that he promoted, and paid for. And his evangelical worshipers will forgive him his trespasses, as they have forgiven his prior trespasses.
We (all of us on the left) have yet to figure out how to counter this man who appeals to the basest instincts of the populace.
5
I assume that Mike Pence conceived, planned, articulated and managed every single action and word spoken on this front by Trump.
5
U.S. Women's History is one of the subjects I teach, and it irks me to no end that this anti-choice group has expropriated her name. As Lynn Sher says, its not as if Anthony ever voiced an opinion on the topic. Its just a cynical ploy to make their anti-choice stance less anti-woman. And I use "anti-choice" because I don't believe these groups are really anti-abortion--their attempts to suppress birth control leads to more abortions, not less. And they certainly are not "pro-life".
6
Trump's "own true feelings about abortion" depend on who he's trying to "sell" at that moment. He has no "principles," other than that his wants and his glorification are all that matter.
3
Over the past few weeks, the stripping away of our democratic institutions has accelerated to the point where I am truly frightened of what may become of this country. I wonder how Gail Collins can maintain the light, almost whimsical voice she uses to discuss this.
4
The dissection of what Trump actually believes is nearly as frustrating as it is unimportant. He has demonstrated that beliefs and honesty have no place in his administration or for that matter his life and life's work. The end justifies the benefit to Trump. I have no doubt that if he could cut a deal with the left to be sworn in as President for life, he would open Planned Parenthood clinics on every corner, officiate 1000 gay marriages, give citizenship to every undocumented immigrant and pledge his daughter's hand to a tribal Muslim Afghan chieftain
6
If you're going to talk about Trump and sex and catering to religious extremists, you really need to talk about Mike Pence as well. This is his wheelhouse - and he's probably behind a lot of these moves, translating Trump's words into action.
NPR reported on how Mike Pence's fundamentalist views on sex and other matters led him to defund Indiana's Planned Parenthood clinics. Among other things, the loss of community resources for STD testing with the closing of the clinics resulted in a major HIV outbreak. It grew worse because he resisted a needle exchange program that would have slowed the spread of the infection by drug abusers.
He finally gave in, but his policies there and now at the national level are bad. Trump may be talking about it; Pence is working to make it happen.
10
Are there going to be microphones in Planned Parenthood's consulting rooms where doctors and nurses might dare to say a word about abortion to any of the women (and men) who seek care? Videos for catching advice in sign language? Will there be official, government-funded and trained, multi-lingual watchdogs sitting in at every consultation?
How can we stop this horror from destroying our world?
5
I do not care one whit about Mr. Trump's sexual exploits or proclivities. Why does he care about mine?
Supporting policies which deny information and access to safe if unfortunate medical procedures to solidify support from evangelicals flies in the face of both biology and human behavior.
Just as the seminal work Freakonomics suggested access to abortion services especially in poor communities reduced crime in the next generation, so the reverse will be true in the generation born under Mr. Trump's watch.
We can thus expect his legacy to include higher crime rates in the nation particularly when we increase plutocracy and poverty at the same time.
Great job, Mr. Trump.
4
The likely reason trump's position on right to choose evolved from 1999 is back then he could get someone pregnant. Unlikely now.
4
Just the thought of Trump getting into my bed, or anybody's bed. No, I can't even...
How long are we going to have to cover our eyes and shake our heads? For two hundred years, the United States of America at least maintained a semblance - thin as it was at times - of being a hope among nations. Now, it is a confusing wonderment, an embarrassment, a laughingstock... and an outright danger.
7
Trump knows what is best for our bodies. Everyone knows that.
3
Exactly. Take his body... Please.
1
If you sit out this election on Tuesday November 6th for any and every reason, including that your Democratic candidates are not perfect enough, you will be casting a vote by default for Donald Trump and Republican Party policies like this.
7
This is an issue that will never impact him personally so he simply doesn’t care. He’s willing to throw the rights of women out the window for political gain. It’s that simple.
4
Invoking religion in a society that reveres the separation of church and state is a lazy ploy. Choosing to end the healthy gestation of human life is murder. Individual women, alone, are legally entitled - and burdened - with the option of abortion. It is tragic and private but it is still murder and aversion to it is human, not religious.
Unfortunately, Trumps behavior here is not that different from where his base is at intellectually. I'm not sure most of the country wants to accept how dumbed down we are now. A country where Oprah Winfrey is held up as a shining possible presidential candidate.
We have become to many one big flash edited gabfest. Most of Trumps supporters may not even know what he says from day to day. I really wish legitimate reporters would take all this into account. Unfortunately, most are not broadly educated enough, or too interested in making money with their noses against the glass that they themselves were instrumental in ramming Trump through the election. Not saying Gail Collins is one of them, but people get real about this casino grifter and stop hanging on most of what he says.
4
While we're waiting for the Mueller Report, Trump is running roughshod over the environment, civil rights, reproductive rights, the justice system and fomenting distrust of fundamental American institutions and values such as a free and independent press. This is becoming a depressing fog that only deepens with no hint of when it will left.
5
It’s been clear from the start that Trump does not believe deep down in anything, except perhaps in the superiority of Nordic races he learned from his father. His presidency—and evangelical Christians’ support for it—has taken hypocrisy and cynicism to new lows.
4
To conservatives the right to bear arms as affirmed by the Supreme Court is inviolable. Yet somehow a woman's right to control her own body also affirmed by the Supreme Court is open for debate. Why is that?
7
What are the odds that the $1.6 million hush money that Michael Cohen paid, allegedly on behalf of Broidy, to a woman who had an abortion was actually on Trump's behalf?
How many more women are going to come forward?
6
I do wonder if any of the anti-choice people so willing to tell women what to do with their bodies would be willing themselves to be compelled to donate a kidney to a dying stranger. Or would they prefer to have a choice?
5
I am continually amazed by how surprised Americans seem to be when the Christian Right imposes its agenda on its fellow citizens.
Abortion is depressing and repugnant. For some people, it is also necessary. The argument that fetuses are fully human come from the same people who salivate to end "entitlements" so as to add to the coffers of America's feudal lords.
However one feels about abortion, it's in everyone's best interests to prevent unwanted pregnancies. When I was a kid, I was told that Catholic birth control only required one aspirin, held firmly between the knees. Yuck yuck, we said, human adolescents for whom thinking about non-sex was almost as exciting as thinking about sex.
So, right-wing confreres, what's the [non]thinking about birth control? A great way to ensure the need for abortion is to deny ardent young animals a way to diminish the possibility of pregnancy.
Someone once said that the definition of a Puritan is someone who is distressed that some person in some place is having a good time. When I look at Mike Pence, I can't help but think that he would be so much happier if the rest of America and the world embraced his own pre-scientific views.
So, as I said, why are so many people so surprised? This very issue has caused America to be ruled by the least of us. Patriotism and unpunished sex are the two tent poles (sorry for any disturbing image) of GOP electoral dominance.
America is their church, and we are their coerced congregation.
16
These are the people who make death the better place they claim it to be.
3
You would think, with the conservative fear of the brown person and their worrying about the loss of white majority, Republicans would be advocating putting up an abortion clinic on every urban street corner at government expense. Once again, their hypocrisy backfires, this time on themselves.
1
While this may be all about the base, I see the firm hand of Mike Pence in this action.
Both Trump and Pence are quite anti-woman. Trump who demeans and then discards women vs. Pence who is somehow terrified to be alone with one of us.
And so they seek to control our power - any way they can.
16
"You have to ask yourself if Trump has ever examined his own true feelings about abortion.:
Most people, especially men (sorry if this sounds sexist), do not examine their true feelings about anything. Most people go with the flow or make decisions based on knee-jerk reactions.
Of course one would hope that the president is not "most people". He is not. He makes decisions based on ratings. But then so do most politicians.
6
In his defense, Mr, Trump was probably driven to ban IUDs after “his generals” told him these things have been killing our deployed soldiers in the middle east, where they are hidden in the sand and can explode without warning! Acronyms are hard, after all.
373
Similarly, Trump asked Bill Gates if there was a difference between HIV and HPV — twice a couple of months apart.
14
THANK YOU for making me chuckle!
14
Brilliant.
9
A woman with an "another pro-life voter" bumper sticker ran me off the road this morning.. Clearly she had no regard for MY life.
What I've always failed to recognize about the right-to-life crowd is their disconnect between right to be born and right to a decent life. I've never seen a pro-life sponsored charity for orphans.. These same people adamantly oppose social programs designed to help low income families after an unexpected pregnancy.
30
Trump just plays to his base. I don’t think he thinks at all. If his base believed in the Flat Earth Theory, and many may do so, he’d advocate the Flat Earth Theory.
19
His climate change- and evolution-denying base are essentially Flat Earthers.
1
When I was in school 50 years I was taught how politics works. A politician makes a promise and, if a majority of voters like it, the politician will be elected. Thus the will of the people is carried out. Whether the politician himself or herself believes that the promise was a good idea is irrelevant.
Nowadays commentators go around asking "Why did he do that? Didn't he use to support the other side of the issue?" Creating a huge mystery where none exists.
Trump ( or more likely, some pollster on his staff) realized that there was a large anti-abortion faction that had been toyed with for years. They'd promise abortion restrictions, knowing perfectly well that they would be overturned by the courts. So he promised to pack the courts instead, and got enough for votes to win the Electoral College, while the opposition thought the key to electoral success was a new idea called Identity Politics.
13
You apparently haven't kept up in the intervening 50 years, Trump didn't realize there was an anti-abortion faction - playing to them has been a Republican policy for 50 years. White "Identity Politics" is and old idea used by the conservatives to scare up their rich, white, male-dominated base. The opposition encouraged inclusion and tolerance, not lying, vilification, fear and hatred.
1
Tomorrow a very important referendum is being put to a vote whether or not Ireland should make abortion legal. Irish people have returned home in droves in order to cast their vote and this proves it is a very important issue. No matter the outcome at least the Irish people were able to decide for themselves on this extremely important topic.
In the United States, the citizens were never allowed the privilege of deciding for themselves if Roe v Wade should be the law of the land. It was decided by an all male Supreme Court with no regard to women's voices. Also, Americans had absolutely no say whatsoever as to their opinion on this very important decision. If the people had been able to put this to a vote, we might have had a very different outcome and 60 million innocent lives would have been spared. Of course, we will never know.
I and other pro life folks applaud President Trump for keeping his word about supporting us and insisting Planned Parenthood cease performing abortions if they still want to receive government funding. Who knows how Mr. Trump truly feels about abortion but at least he respects and supports those who are pro life. He has taken a giant step in the right direction.
There are many people especially women who were once pro choice who have now become adamant pro lifers. One such woman is the president of Susan B. Anthony who had a change of heart and is very active. I plan on sending this very worthwhile organization a generous donation.
3
A couple of clarifications.
The Supreme Court may have been all male, but Justice Blackmun stated that his ruling was strongly influenced by his wife.
I certainly wish Americans had a say in abortion rights. Poll after poll says the majority of Americans favor a woman's right to choose.
31
Good. I love it when a conservative throws money away.
1
This latest outrage is just another to add to my list of reasons to have contempt for professional sports in general and American Football (in its professional, collegiate and high school incarnations) in particular.
Frankly American Football embraces and symbolizes just about everything wrong with this society.
14
It does not matter what his base thinks. He reverses his statements all of the time and they eat it up. I am beginning to believe that the people who attend his rallies are paid to attend, at this point. It is probably the only way then can boost their wages.
As for his stand on abortion, he really does not have a conviction either way, as his past remarks have shown us. Trump is a man with only one belief, the lining of his own pockets anyway he can. Right now he is doing that on the back of the taxpayer. Not the Corporations or his billionaire friends, but his base.
And for some reason they are blind to this.
One thing I will say for Trump, he has enlightened even his base as to what Planned Parenthood supplies. Information on Women's health, reproductive information, cancer screenings, etc. And if you can't pay, they will treat you anyway. I am sure a lot of women
in his base did not know that. Hopefully this has been helpful to them.
For a man known to be a playboy and jumped from bed to bed, I am surprised that any woman would support Trump. He has not proven that he is a gentleman with ethics, morals or dependability.
These are traits that should be the very essence of a character to lead our Country
87
"I am beginning to believe that the people who attend his rallies are paid to attend..."
On the contrary, I would happily pay for that privilege.
Sounds to me like Trump is trying to make apologies for his past behaviors in order to prevent others from making the same mistakes. Nothing wrong with that. Admitting wrongs is cathartic and Trump is expressing his desire to do so. And now has the power to do so. And I still don't know what "HPV" is.
2
Human papilloma virus. It causes cervical cancer.
62
Donald Trump has never admitted to making a mistake, and has never referred to cutting women’s healthcare and rolling back reproductive rights as a means to addressing the wrongs he’s committed. Besides, if you are trying to become a better person, the presidency is not the testing ground for personal improvement. He is there to execute and defend the Constitution.
55
" the presidency is not the testing ground for personal improvement. He is there to execute and defend the Constitution."
And trump is doing a magnificent job of attacking the constitution.
1
Trump advocating abstinence is the biggest joke of all the jokes to which we have been subjected. I can just hear a news broadcast that gives this bit a news and then moves to the subject of Stormy Daniels.
Also, your reference to Trump's adultery days seems to refer to the past. As Dr. Phil says, the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. We know that Trump is hardwired for any behavior that humiliates anyone in his way.
100
Thanks, Janet.
Wonder what Mr. Wonderful, God's gift to women, has been doing with the First Lady in the hospital. If past is prologue, I won't be surprised if we get a re-play of Bill Clinton's bad acts in the Oval Office by the time this is over. Really--has trump ever taken "no" from anyone?
1
With this guy, truth is dead, and irony is on life support.
98
It has never been an issue of pro choice but one of who should pay for your choice. It's your body and you have the right to decide and should also be willing to pay for your choices. Rove v Wade guaranteed access to abortion, but not the guarantee that the govt. should have to pay for it.
7
The government does not pay for it.
150
The government does not pay for abortion services. Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers pay for it out of private funds. One reason that I and others donate money to private entities including Planned Parenthood that pay in all or part for abortions is that neither Medicaid or any other government program funds abortions for women who do not have the funds to pay for them immediately at hand.
239
@George. First, the government does not pay for abortions. Second, this ruling amounts to a gag order in that it will inhibit doctor's from talking about abortion as a medical procedure.
Imagine the scenario - a pregnant woman diagnosed with cancer can't discuss abortion as a part of her medical decision with her government-paid doctor.
102
Come November a majority Congress is important but a majority Senate is absolutely necessary to stop the right from appointing not just "conservative" judges, but extreme right-wing "christian" (young, and many unqualified to be on any Bench) that are being nominated and appointed.
"No president has confirmed more federal appellate judges (12) in his first year than Donald Trump. He has also seen six federal district-court judges confirmed, and one Supreme Court justice, Neil Gorsuch. Another 47 nominees await confirmation; 102 more federal judgeships remain open for Mr Trump to fill."
If the religious right gets their way on judicial appointments (and, God forbid, another SCOTUS appointment) the religious tyranny they feel divinely justified to impose over the majority will reign for many decades.
169
No words are more hated and rejected by these horrible ghouls than "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion", because if they were enforced, government would provide no vehicle for religious fanaticism.
6
The average number of No votes for Trump judicial appointees as of Match 6th was 22.8 This means an average of art least 26 Democrats voted for each of Trump's judicial nominees. This in the year after McConnell stole Obama's Supreme Court Seat, and while Trump is...Trump.
Three Democrats even voted for Gorsuch.
I wish I thought that voting for Democrats would keep Republicans from making judicial appointments, but Democrats let McConnell steal Obama's seat without any fight at,but are still voting for Trump appointees.
Until Democrats are willing to shut the Republicans down the way they shut you down, all this talk about judicial appointments is wishful thinking.
Even now the DCC is backing centrists who will not try to stop Trump, but rather compromise by voting for his legislation and nominees.
If you truly believe Trump is the worst president ever, possibly a traitor, why would you not block everything he tries to do? Just based on Republican treatment of Obama (who bent over backwards to appease ) Democrats should be shutting down the Senate, but with Trump in office, punishing the Republicans for their cheating is secondary to the damage Trump is trying to do to our Republic.
I will start voting for Democrats when I see evidence that they actually oppose Trump and his party.
https://www.google.com/amp/www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/03/07/fede...
Exactly Steve,
The Republican desire to shove their twisted version of "Christianity" (which preaches the opposite of caring for the poor and sick, concentrating on the log in your own eye, or rejecting greed and violence) down our throats is completely against the Constitution. Trump and half of Alabama supported a judge that is for a religious test for public office and was twice removed from the bench because he refused to take down his Ten Commandments monument. The Republican Party wanted Roy Moore and avowed racist who believes in slavery to win.
The United States Constitution is based on Enlightenment ideals of reason and tolerance, not the bible.
Religion cannot be the basis for law in a democracy because even those sitting next to each other in the same pew can strongly disagree on how to interpret religious texts, and there is no way to settle those arguments, except for God to intervene.
This is why we have to have political arguments based on evidence and logic to come to consensus on policy. Quoting scripture only convinces those that believe exactly as you do.
But Trump's base is not interested in convincing you they are correct. They want to use raw power to force you to believe in their interpretation of the Old Testament. Again, if they actually did anything Christ talked about, they would be leftists.
I, for one, am really learning a lot from President Trump. Gail is far more "in the know" than I so I'm not surprised she has heard of Susan B Anthony before, but I hadn't; thank you Mr. President! He also recently taught me about this Fredrick Douglas man, who no one really knows. He's apparently doing really great things; for white people I assume. Mr. Trump was a little ambiguous on that part.
69
And another thing, did you know Lincoln was actually a republican?
1
Trump is still about choice. He is also about government getting OUT of your bedroom and neither financially supporting or promoting certain choices. There are those who would choose abortion. There are those who would not. Therefore, those who want to choose abortion should choose to pay for it on their own. The government should not be involved in their choice. Your choice, your responsibility.
4
It is not about choice. If it were, why shouldn't planned parenthood mention abortion as an alternative? If it is about choice, why can't they sell IUD's - which the patient pays for or which are covered by donations?
It's not about choice: if you don't have money to travel, and no provider offers abortions in your state, your choices are pretty limited. And if it is about choice, why is government requiring unnecessary trans-vaginal scans, hospital admission rights, and waiting periods?
55
Clearly, then, you would ask for the immediate rescinding of all the laws recently passed in many states restricting access (not payment, that is already prohibited) to abortions.
75
The federal government dollars that go to Planned Parenthood does not fund abortions; read The Hyde Amendment.
But this is the more important question; where is the concern for the child during and after it’s birth? Where are these same pro life proponents when the discussion is about adequate prenatal care, maternity leave, safe affordable childcare and healthcare for the child until adulthood?
Stripping Planned Parenthood of its funding will deny women access to family planning services including safe and affordable birth control. If we as a nation want fewer elective abortions to occur in this country we shouldn’t block the means necessary to prevent the unplanned and unwanted pregnancies to occur in the first place.
And we as a nation should strive to do all that we can to assure the health and wellbeing of our children.
125
My wife and I have one adult son, almost 40. We found out she was pregnant when we were newly moved to Dayton Ohio - I was an adjunct in a college. We had no regular doctor so we went to Planned Parenthood for a pregnancy test, AND a referral to an OB/gyn who would take her as a new patient.
PP is the only national resource for couple who are poor or new to town. I still give to them today.
316
When I was a young woman, it was Planned Parenthood that helped me take care of my health and made it possible for me to protect myself from an unwanted pregancy and/or illness. I turned to them when I didn't know where else to go. When I couldn't afford a doctor, it was PP who guided me along the path to a healthy life, and it was their guidance that provided a foundation, an understanding and an appreciation for taking responsibility for my health and well-being.
Today, my health remains, and I am grateful to the good folks at Planned Parenthood for putting me on that path.
So, sir, thank you for supporting PP and the women it has always been dedicated to helping.
114
Nobody is suggesting banning Planned Parenthood. Only defunding them. If they provide a valuable service, then patients will pay for that service.
Planned Parenthood is funded by private donations, Concerned. The only Federal funds available are for transportation to a clinic, if needed. PP is often the only health care provider in some remote, poor rural areas. Perhaps you would rather charge those who rely on PP?
I'm wondering if part of Trump's aversion to abortion is centered around the fact that he would never believe a spawn of his should be denied life, and therefore assumes that most men (who help with the conception, of course) feel as he does. How the woman (pregnant) feels isn't the point.
This, of course, is assuming that Trump has thought for more than 60 seconds about the issue in any terms other than 'how many votes do I get if I'm against abortion'.
58
Susan B. Anthony isn't the only person spinning in the grave. I would guess that Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Lincoln and scores of men and women who gave their lives so that we could be a free country are too.
The GOP believes only people who vote Republican are "true" Americans. I beg to differ. We are all Americans. However, some Americans are obviously more equal than others, especially to the GOP. Rich, white, Christian men are at the top and the GOP is working very hard to keep it that way.
Vote. Resist. Stay informed.
136
Washington and Jefferson were not building a free country. They were slaveowners. This is not new information. Their British contemporary Samuel Johnson pointed this out and ridiculed Jefferson for "yapping about liberty".
You are right. To your list of characteristics admired by a lot (if not all) republicans, add "draft-dodger", including Trump, Guiliani, Bolton, and Wayne Lapierre for a start. Well, at least 60-some million of them.
6
There is another that would be spinning in his grave, Patrick Henry. Where is our modern day Patrick Henry? We need the battle cry of "Give me Liberty, or give me Death!". When we say the Pledge of Allegiance, we say "One nation, Indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all." Maybe that should be our new slogans. Readily recognized, and readily remembered.
Vote
6
It is impossible for me to believe that the founders, who propagated a legal respect for privacy that would require the government to show sufficient cause to obtain a warrant in order to look at the papers in a woman's desk, simultaneously believed that it was ok to take a quick look at her uterus. Abortion, birth control, any other medical decision is simply none of the government's business. There is nothing in the Constitution granting the government this power.
116
The founding fathers in general believed a wife was the property of her husband, as were any children born to the marriage. So, I'm not so sure how they'd feel about abortion in the abstract.
Women have been having abortions for millennia. Herbal concoctions were not perfectly reliable, but they were used both as contraceptives and abortifacients.
It seems true that a woman's uterus ought to be more private than her desk, but I'm not sure how those founders would have seen the issue.
28
Agreed that relying on the Constitution as originally written is a little dicey, as many of the founders were contented slavers.
The idea that the right to obtain an abortion is granted by a woman's right to her own bodily autonomy is not something that 18th century America would have considered. A woman's body was owned by her husband.
2
Yes he has the evangelicals in his pocket for now, but when Trump said he "stood for life", maybe he was really referring to how long he intends to stay in office.
72
After the first Women’s March, I was picking up photos of our group, from a local store. The young woman behind the counter quietly told me how much she appreciated Planned Parenthood. The organization had helped her through a difficult pregnancy, diagnosing an infection, providing doctors who delivered her baby safely. Her son was now a healthy two year old. It is not the kind of story anti-abortionists want you to hear, for this story represents much of what Planned Parenthood actually does. As for Trump, he cheers on his Base, with empty rhetoric, and a hollow heart.
738
The safest operation we have is an early suction abortion. It is orders of magnitude more dangerous for a woman to carry a baby to term & deliver it. Especially in the US, where the forced closing of many Planned Parenthood clinics (4% of their work is abortions - the rest is everything from cancer testing to pre-natal care), the only source for women's health care for millions of women is a major factor in the fact that the percentage of women who die in delivery or immediately after is at least an order of magnitude higher than in any other advanced society. Apparently, "right to life" is only granted to fetuses while in utero.
14
"Base" is the right word for them, as an adjective.
12
If only Trump had stayed in his own bed . . . . if only the GOP didn't provide the housekeeping services he relies on in his current quarters -- if only we never ever had to imagine him en flagrante
75
In fairness to the President on the great hpv v hiv debate. Perhaps a friend of his had one of those and he was (the friend that is) naturally worried about some possible crossover. It is only one letter's difference after all.
26
One (French) letter difference, to which he is indifferent. However, with him it sure is warts an' all.
3
Umm....no. If a president associates with anyone who can't use easily available resources to teach themselves the difference between HIV and HPV, he has no business living in my White House. Matter of fact, he has no business using oxygen.
1
Since the so-called precedent cannot keep straight the diffidence between H.P.V. and H.I.V., I am expecting soon:
"The real reason I don't drink is I don't want to get arrested for an IUD!"
130
That’s funny thanks for an early morning chuckle
I'm curious about how many anti-choice advocates have either had abortions or encouraged their spouses or girlfriends to have abortions. There was one instance this past year of a Pennsylvania congressman who encouraged his mistress to get an abortion. The public discovery prompted his subsequent resignation.
It is, after all, very easy to tell other people how to live their lives, especially when they're forced to make difficult choices, and expecting those strangers to show the kind of moral rectitude we'd like to think that we would show when faced with adversity.
I'd wager that many anti-choice advocates would fold like a house of cards if an unwanted pregnancy came into their lives and they'd have to ask themselves how anti-choice they really were.
192
Yes. Authoritarian personalities by definition like to tell other people how to lead their lives. And as often as not exempt themselves.
91
Studies have shown that evangelical Christians, in particular, have a comparatively high abortion rate. Sadly, having an abortion doesn’t necessarily change their position on whether the procedure should be legal for other women.
83
The quickest way to get an anti-abortion male to change his mind would be to make it so that, if women are not allowed to have abortions, the males who got the women pregnant are given complete responsibility for raising the children, from birth.
387
Thus does autocracy (think dictatorship, then think Trump) take place. Autocracy is forcing everybody to think as you think...for instance, Trump's anti-choice stance. Isn't that anti-sex? Isn't that contrary to the human sex drive? Think teenagers, folks. Oh, by the way, those teenagers are the voters of tomorrow.
Speaking of voting, the November elections are looming larger every day. The Republicans are getting nervous and polishing their resumes. I wonder why.
70
Princess Diana once famously said “ There were three of us in this marriage, and it was a bit crowded.”
Well with Trump and the rest of the GOP and their evangelical supporters trying to insinuate themselves into this nation’s “beds,” it has become more than a bit crowded. Why are we currently the only Western democracy with politicians so absorbed with regulating its citizens’ sex lives and reproductive choices ? Unbelievable!
194
Because the other nations voted on the matter and found compromises that everybody was willing to accept. While the US Supreme Court tried to finesse the matter by removing abortion policy from voters' control, causing the controversy fester for four decades.
3
Um, no. The Supreme Court's function is interpreting the constitutionality of laws. In Roe v. Wade the Court interpreted that a woman's control of her own body was protected under the 4th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. No court case since has altered that interpretation, nor should it.
Under our system of government the electorate does not get to decide on what laws are and aren't constitutional. Additionally, you can't cherry pick which Constitutional amendments you support (I'm talking to you, NRA) an which ones you don't.
1
Great comment, although I would modify it to read: “...it’s women’s citizens sex lives and reproductive choices...”
Of course, that’s a given!
Trump is doing everything possible to block access to birth control and abortion and to promote "abstinence." The superficial reason is obvious: to please the evangelicals. But the real, underlying reason is this: he doesn't care. These issues mean absolutely nothing to him.
906
Exactly: he doesn't care one iota about any actual issues - he has no ethics - he doesn; care to know anything -- it is simply about "winning" - the Presidency, the acclaim of his base, votes from people he actually despises while pretending to be their advocate.
204
But what’s preposterous is that not only the unmarried want to space pregnancies or avoid them. If more married women decided to practice abstinence, perhaps a lesson would be learned.
36
He certainly was not abstinent (at least when he was capable of having a choice).
39
Trump may have never examined his own true feelings about anything. And probably no one else’s.
When and how can we become a community of human beings again and not simply the collateral damage of this administration.
Vote for humanity.
185
Donald Trump clearly doesn't have any views on any subject. He is fighting to remain In the spotlight by pandering to the only groups naive enough to have him. He does have a real knack for bringing out the very worst in people.
Evangelicals for instance. When people have religious principles, it is assumed that they hold themselves to a higher standard. They usually fail, leading them to embarrassing heights of hypocrisy. I've lived and worked with evangelicals most of my life. They are, for the most part, lovely people, until certain topics arise, at which point, nothing they say makes any sense.
They are not, for the most part, personally cruel. They are simply working from deeply held but deeply flawed assumptions about the divinity of Christ. Confusing natural law with God's law, they don't believe that bad things just happen. Bad things happen when God is mad. They truly believe that God will punish America for allowing abortion, gay marriage, and, strangely, progressive taxation. These odd beliefs compel them to support Trump despite all that is so glaringly obvious about him.
Trump will be gone but we will all be changed with the difficulty of finding way to move forward. As repellent as his supporters seem, as harmful as their actions have been, cooler heads and warmer hearts will be needed to repair the harm that they have helped him do. He is a pathetically sad man who hurts people because he needs attention.
208
I love the empathy of this comment. It’s what we all should aspire to.
I hate that I now feel like listening respectfully to my political opponents is just exposing myself to another unrewarding deluge of unexamined opinions and insidious propaganda.
Trump has effectively weaponized our own empathy against us.
14
No. He hurts people because he like to hurt people. He likes when people pay attention to him hurting people. His entire TV show was dedicated to the perverted joy that his audience found in people being fired and embarrassed.
3
Or he is a very cruel and evil man who needs attention.
It has been said that his idea of a successful negotiation was when he was the only winner and all others had been vanquished. If there was a win/win he considered that he had failed.
Of course, if we look at his business history he should have been very used to failure.
4
I just saw a piece on NBC news about Harley Davidson laying off hundreds of workers, while buying back $700 million in stock under the "greatest tax cut in history". A laid-off worker, who probably saw zero evidence of a tax cut in his paycheck, still supported Trump but blamed the company. I suppose if his daughter had an unwanted pregnancy and was unable to get an abortion, he would also blame his daughter and not Trump for making it impossible. These are people who are unable to put two and two together to get anything. Anything. Why waste our breath? No amount of reason will work on them, so the best policy is just to negate any say they have by not voting GOP. Their lives will improve, they will never thank you, but so be it.
285
So true - I cannot understand the psychology/thinking here. I was watching interviews with poor people in Venezuela. People were actually voting for the president because he gave them care packages after removing food from the shelves. It didn't matter that he took the food away in the first place. It cannot be as simple as people not connecting the dots - these people did and said so.
29
Yes, and stop compromising with their dangerous policies.
The Democratic Party needs to stop trying to appease the "greater evil," and actually take a stand for good policies.
The good thing about Trump is that he has exposed the Republican Party for what it truly believes in: hate, fear, greed, and violence
There is no reason to compromise with those that call domestic terrorists fine people and our Republic the enemy.
Those of us that believe in love, courage, sharing, and peace need to join together and save our country from those that would impose tyranny.
4
"'But if Democrats gained power? They will try to reverse these incredible gains. These are historic gains,' Trump warned his audience Tuesday." That's a reflection of his warped, stunted worldview: everything is a zero-sum game where the one with "power" consequently "gains" and the one without power loses. What he's missing is that many Americans recognize the complexity of these issues. They want well-rounded policies developed through intelligent and thoughtful leadership, not one-dimensional policies thrust out by a narrow-minded bully. Not all Americans, of course - some people get off on being passive recipients of Trump's capricious and simplistic policy emissions just as some relished the infantilizing feeling that Ronald Reagan was a "father figure.”
As pre-Trump progress has demonstrated, the vast majority of Americans have a far more sophisticated and nuanced view of women’s health and family planning issues than he does. My hope is that he doesn’t lull too many into blocking that out for the transient gratification of a specious “gain."
61
Trump is transforming the federal judiciary to implement insanity across the board.
6
Jonathan, 'sophisticated' and 'nuanced' are two (of many) words that have never applied and never will apply to any 'thoughts' of Donald Trump.
p.
1
I've been speaking with many Trumpettes lately, just to learn something. Their adoration is shocking, but never more than the logic of their rationalizations.
Here's what I would imagine their response might be if they found out that he'd financed a dozen abortions: "You see! That's why I love him. He's seen the light! He's shown he can change! He's such a good Christian!"
There is no way out of a rabbit hole, (except for the rabbit).
163
@Sera: Yeah, I've been hearing this a lot from the evangelical crowd: "He's repented, so I forgive him."
Both my father and my grandfather were Christian ministers. Neither of them would have been fooled for a minute by the insincere apologies that pass for "repentence" these days. Trump is insincere in his very marrow.
Meanwhile, evangelical ministers today are pushing a social agenda that involves robbing women of their civil rights. My grandfather, who fought for social justice his entire life, would have been appalled at what is going on today. I wish he were still alive to give a piece of his mind to these fake Christians, who ignore everything Jesus said and put all of their zeal into playing political power games, using their congregations as their voting puppets.
4
Mr. trump has killed a few rabbits in his time.
3
"You have to ask yourself if Trump has ever examined his own true feelings about abortion."
Donald can't examine his "true" feelings about anything because he has none. He is incapable of feeling anything beyond abject greed and an insatiable need for self-aggrandizement. Every decision he makes is a cynical political calculation based on what he thinks his base wants. If he has to venture beyond that, he's lost.
91
Much as I am interested in knowing how all this, our latest national nightmare, ends; I shudder to think what history books will have to say about us. Be gentle when you castigate us, for castigate us you will.
36
"You have to ask yourself if Trump has ever examined his own true feelings about abortion."
"Feelings" and "Trump" are an odd pair of words to find in a single sentence. There's a reason why Trump constantly refers to himself in the third person. He doesn't exist in the normal sense. His opinions will wander depending who he last spoke with, his 'friendships' are abstract concepts based on someone's immediate value, and his vision of himself is nothing at all like the real thing.
Trump is an artificial human being, and as such his "true feelings" morph with the landscape. Today, that land is evangelical Christian. It would all be pathetically sad were he not so creepy and destructive.
76
Unfortunately, human societies do seem to produce 'artificial human beings' from time to time. A creepy and destructive outcome of human persistence on this planet. I hope somebody learns something pretty quick before we wreck it all.
3
Brilliant!
If it weren't for all the lasting harm done to lower-income women, Trump's flopping into bed with the anti-abortion fanatics would be a text-book example of the most base political expediency, truly disreputable to both sides if either were capable of sensing even the slightest shame.
But it must be admitted, Gail, that, here, both Trump and his new friends absolutely, truly deserve each other. As usual with our current president, the only loser is our country.
51
Susan B. Anthony opposed “forced abortions”. The operative word there is FORCED! Men were forcing their wives and mistresses to undergo damaging and difficult medical procedures to make the man’s life easier. Ms. Anthony didn’t like that. She thought women should have the right to MAKE THEIR OWN DECSIONS! It’s called autonomy.
Trump and his jolly band of hypocrites who love life only when it’s in the womb will destroy or should I say are on their way to destroying this country. Theocrats don’t care about life; they care about control and fear and power. The USA was supposed to be different. So much for the grand experiment.
94
Exactly, it is this concept of "Choice" for women that trips up the anti-choice crowd. Because the Nazis forced abortions on those they deemed to be undesirable, the anti-choice contingent claim that pro-choice is akin to being a Nazi. They forget or don't know that the Nazis outlawed abortion --ordinary German women were supposed to give birth to lots of super race babies for the Third Reich. The Nazis were against the right of women to choose, just like the anti-choice movement of today.
2
President Trump is finally taking the pro life groups seriously after experiencing an Obama administration that favored abortion rights. Cecile Richards, the former Planned Parenthood President, was friends with both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and gave generously to their campaigns. She knew she had an advocate in both who supported abortion and wanted to continue funding Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the country. This was a cash cow for them and this is where they made the bulk of their money.
President Trump has been a loyal supporter to those who are involved in pro life activities and is speaking out in favor of their various organizations. This is a first for pro life groups and who ever thought it would happen. They fought long and hard but it finally paid off. The pro life movement has a friend in Mr. Trump and he has even selected a Supreme Court judge, Neal Gorsuch, who takes the cause seriously.
Those who are staunch pro life folks owe much gratitude to our president who made this one of his campaign promises. They spoke out in favor of the protection of innocent life in womb and he listened. This is such a wonderful time for the movement and only the beginning. Thank you President Trump for your support.
1
The appointment of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court was illegitimate, and a sop to people who celebrate the curtailing of human rights in favor of religious delusions. The Supreme Court seat Gorsuch is inhabiting rightfully belongs to Merrick Garland, who was legitimately selected by President Obama. If the Democrats do very, very well in the November elections, this will be yet another Trump decision facing reversal, along with the inhumane anti-abortion stance Trump has taken to shore up his evangelical base.
7
WPLMMT: Are you willing to step up and take responsibility for the real world consequences of limiting abortion availability? Are you a foster parent? Have you taken a troubled or special needs child into your home? Limiting a woman’s right to choose will mean that even more children will end up in an overburdened foster care system. According to the US Dept. of Health and Human Services, the number of children in foster care has been on the rise, with 427,500 reported for 2016. In conjunction with this, The Chronicle of Social Change indicated in a 2015 article that "there is a national foster care housing crisis in America. At least half of the states in the country have lost foster care capacity in the past five years.” So we are seeing an increase in the need for care and a decrease in its provision. Therefore, I’ll take your commitment to “life” seriously if and when you and other “staunch pro-life folks” who are so happy with Trump start personally caring for unwanted children.
4
Mitch McConnell held off the confirmation of Merrick Garland for one year, waiting for a Republican President to be elected. That was beyond the normal practice; it was shameful. The Democrats chose not to retaliate with Gorsuch; they were the adults in the room.
This is why I hesitate to support removing Trump from office; as bad as he is, Pence could be worse. Trump is so far removed from most of the "beliefs" he expresses to the cheers of his base that I doubt that he'd fight legal abortion the way he fights things that really seem to scare him, like Mexicans. But Pence is an ideologue who would campaign against abortion and gay rights and other "moral issues" that the radically righteous Right are hoping that a Republican-chosen Supreme Court will outlaw. A President Pence would be even more frightening than what we have now.
108
I really identify with your opinion of Pence. But if you look at his time as governor of Indiana, especially the period just before he was chosen to be Veep, you’ll see that he had gotten himself into quite a lot of trouble with the business community over a “religious freedom” law he was trying to institute. That law was a reaction to a baker refusing to make a wedding cake for a gay couple.
After that point his approval ratings went down so much that his Democratic opponent for governor had a chance of beating him. Trump probably saved his political career by tapping him for Veep.
So he is actually a political hack that would get himself into deep political trouble soon after he became POTUS (and bore everyone to tears in the process).
So yes it would a somewhat of a risk to women’s rights (I do not say this lightly) but Trump is destroying the government in so many ways that he needs to be removed from the presidency ASAP. (Which probably won’t happen to my immense grief).
6
There is an obvious solution to this problem. Make impeachment a package deal. Abort Pence out of office as well. He's as illegitimate as TЯump is. If he had any honor he'd resign after Trump was impeached. If the Republicans had any smarts, they'd get Pence to resign before the mid terms and put someone like Jeb Bush or Bob Corker in as VP so that we could have a real president after Trump is impeached. It doesn't matter though. If we can rid ourselves of Trump, the Democrats will have enough political power to defang a President Pence.
1
I'm actually glad that Trump won and is catering to the religious right. Not because I support his policies or am a masochist by any means but because I believe that knowledge is power. We're seeing what we stand to lose if we become a religious theocracy.
John Oliver did an episode just before Trump took office about all of the groups we were going to need to support so that they could protect our rights. His list was eerily accurate with regards to what rights Trump and his minions would go after during their first year in office. Civil Rights, Women's Rights, LGBT Rights, religious rights for non Christians ie Muslim ban, immigrant rights, and workers rights are all under attack. Just because we won victories to expand our freedoms during the last century don't think they are set in stone.
Trump is showing us an alternate America. One where the church decides what is socially acceptable and codifies those choices with repressive measures while the wealthy and corporate America make sure that any financial gains stay with the top 1%. Going into these next few elections voters are going to determine if the womens march and the protests that followed Trump's first few months in office actually meant change is coming or if they were nothing more than a temper tantrum.
Frankly I like having the right to choose how to live my life even if others disagree with my choices. I would hate to lose that privilege. Vote because your freedom depends on it.
303
Yes Republicans want the "freedom" to dump pollution on their business's neighbours, commit fraud with the help of the courts, lie to start wars for corporate profits, and insult everyone they don't like.(and call them snowflakes when they complain) but they want the government to tell us who to love, how to have sex, how to respect the Anthem, and how to have children.
Can we please stop compromising with these backward ideas?
8
Planned Parenthood receives over $500,000 in federal money every year and also performs over 300,000 abortions. They are the largest abortion provider in the country and this is where they make their money. If they want to receive federal funds, they can get out of the abortion business. Abortion is not health care it is the taking of innocent human life. We have lost close to 60 million babies (or fetuses) since Roe v. Wade was enacted. How many more needless deaths must occur that could have been saved if Planned Parenthood was not in the abortion business?
President Trump promised his pro life supporters that he would support their efforts and he is doing just that. He is the first president that is taking them seriously and assisting in their efforts. He has more pro-life cabinet members on his team and has appointed more pro-life folks to important positions than any previous president. He has not only talked the talk but walked the walk. How refreshing.
This is one of the many campaign pledges in which Mr. Trump is delivering but by far one of the most important. Finally someone listened to those who support life issues and has taken action.
4
It's not life they're interested in. It's force, force directed exclusively against women that gives them personal, spiteful emotional pleasure. If it were "life" instead of simply forced birth, then attitudes toward education, health care, nutrition, child care, employment and housing would be very, very different.
18
Planned Parenthood does not "make" money, they are a nonprofit organization. None of that federal money goes to abortions. They rely on donations from people like me to provide full health services to women, which most certainly includes abortions, your religious views not withstanding.
8
to WPLMMT: I do not understand your irrational opposition to abortion in the abstract. Your conjecture "abortion is not health care" is made without knowledge of individual circumstances known to the woman and her medical provider. It's your opinion, and you're welcome to it. But you are not welcome to your own facts.
When a man has prostate cancer screening the provider files a claim with his insurance. (Yes, Planned Parenthood provides prostate screening.) If his insurance carrier is Medicare, the claim is filed with the government. This reimbursement is included in the $500 million federal funding you quote in your comment. By law, Planned Parenthood is not allowed to submit a reimbursement claim for abortion.
Your suggestion that all federal funding be withheld from Planned Parenthood is to suggest that $500 million worth of (non-abortion) medical services be withheld from mostly Medicare and Medicaid patients because the organization is pro-choice. Talk about throwing away the baby with the bath water.
14
"No, nothing is as important as Donald Trump winning the presidency. The signing of the Declaration of Independence, two world wars, the invention of the printing press … details, details."
All these things, plus the Constitution, were simply the precursors necessary to hold the country together until Donald Trump was elected. Clearly, based on the Gospel of Trump's Tweets, there would be no need for checks and balances (or term limits) once Trump finally ran the country. As He said in Two Trumpians, "I alone can fix it...I am your voice."
59
Trump has no beliefs about anything except those that include money and self aggrandisement. If the Christian Right- a necessary element in the right wing coalition- told him to bomb a random Islamic country, he would do it.
Unless, that is, that country is Saudi Arabia, a vicious oligarchy with boatloads of money.
Not enough Americans have quite awakened to the fact that our President is a cruel psychopath. Trump's only real talents are acting and manipulation. Mussolini, also called a joke by his enemies, had a long reign, until Italian peasants came after him and his cronies with pitchforks.
Trump will be spared that, too, since his security detail is well paid and loyal. What he will not have is the love of a woman, the loyalty of friends, or a family that has actual values, as opposed to the Big Box preacher kind. When the horror of his presidency becomes apparent to almost all of us, expect him to retreat to Dubai, so he can hang out with Cheney and other criminals.
He won't show his face in public- The Donald is just smart enough to avoid a cascade of boos- but his remaining years will be palliated by sedatives and Fox TV. By then the Party, the Russians, and the Evangelicals will have abandoned him, and all he will have left are his children. Maybe. Or maybe not.
96
Now … I had just gotten used to the hair and could ignore the raccoon eyes, when Gail hits me with this image of Trump in my bed. And I’m at the age at which my heart might attack me.
This of course is all the fault of liberals, as usual. If you guys had fielded a formidable “Commies for Trump” movement back in 2016 BEFORE the election, he would have felt beholden to YOU as well, and he would be more balanced today on these issues of contraception and abortion, fearful of losing an important part of the base he still needs for 2020. But, NOOOOO, you laughed at him, crowned Hillary MONTHS before the election, so he owes you bupkis: you form NO part of his base. So he’s doing what all politicians do, which is kiss-up to the base, which for Trump consists largely (but not entirely) of “deplorables” intensely in love with their god, their guns and their beer.
You did it to yourselves. As always.
So, while I have no sympathy for YOU, I do for indigent and low-earning women in America, who must bide their time until 4 November 2020, at which point, one way or another, he won’t NEED that base for anything further. If he’s re-elected, I would expect to see the Trump who has existed for fifty years, fairly conservative on regulatory, tax and fiscal issues generally, but quite progressive on social issues.
How do liberals feel, depriving women of reproductive rights?
8
To Richard....You must reread your messages and view them with a great deal of pleasure. The rest of us, who don't appreciate your sense of irony as well as you, do understand that real women will suffer real consequences from these decisions.
76
An Observer:
Of course I understand that real women will suffer. This is one whole area of the right's agenda that I reject utterly.
So?
I've never been governed by a federal government with which I agree completely. Have you? Yet under Obama, whom I respected and whose policies in these matters I supported, I saw absolutely nothing useful actually being DONE.
Government is by its nature abusive.
And I write primarily to those who DO appreciate my irony, sarcasm and general humor.
“And I write primarily to those who DO appreciate my irony, sarcasm and general humor.“
Well, the literary critic Cyril Connolly, among others, always said that one should write for oneself.
Generally speaking, Barack Obama accomplished more with both chambers of Congress in opposition than Donald Trump has with both under GOP control. Trump hasn’t accomplished anything other than tearing up agreements entered into by his predecessor, and signing a tax bil he didn’t understand. He’ll discover that what has been undone can and will be restored again.
42
Ms. Collins, with a title like this, I decided to resist temptation, but all the little moths about me this spring evening flew to your essay, as if it were a brilliant candle.
If you ever read 'A Passage To India' by E. M. Foster, you might remember a formidable British matriarch who is trying to keep an open view of two divided Cultures. Mrs. Moore of the above, expresses in passing, her acceptance of life mysteries, but a strong dislike for muddles.
For whatever reason, I am not interested in this man's views on any matter, let alone his frivolities exposed behind closed bedroom doors.
Regardless of gender, politics and religion, not all of us like to hear 'baby-talk' from a grown man in a position of power, who should be leading by example in his personal life.
But should one day in the snail mail you receive a one-page essay from this admirer of your work and caring, it will be entitled 'The Love Story of Two Moths', and not two Parties, ending on a tragic note: A Nation Divided, We Fall.
59
Miss Ley: this nation has been conflicted on abortion at least for the last 50 years if not longer. It is not something brand new under Trump. I remember hearing abortion rights debated on TV in the 70s!
2
Greetings Concerned Citizen, and hope this finds you well this brief spring before summer is upon us in less than three weeks.
My eyes are veered on Ireland tomorrow, Friday, which will is not a day like any other because a choice is being offered when voting on abortion rights. If you were there in the 60s, and a woman compromised, you were condemned by the Catholic Church and cast asunder by your family, friends and on your own.
The American author, a realist, Theodore Dreiser writes of Jennie Gerhardt, a poor young girl in Columbus, Ohio seduced by a powerful senator.
Dreiser explores the dynamic forces in modern life that strip away a supposedly American right: The independent control of one's fate, and the end of this realistic story might leave you feeling quite desultory.
Trump has nothing to add on a multitude of national concerns, let alone serve as an exemplar champion of women's rights and welfare.
"clinics with conservative views" who chose to not fully inform patients of their legal medical choices ..,. These clinics should be targeted with volunteers outside of the property boundaries giving exiting patients the rest of their legal medical info. The method of disimintion of information can be modeled on successful strikes.
124
Women must take power.
Only with relentless, persistent, continuous political action that includes the eternal vigilance about which Thomas Jefferson wrote will women be able to acquire and protect their reproductive rights.
318
Maybe so, but remember that some women do not believe in choice, just as some women did not want the right to vote. I bet there are women in Saudi Arabia who are very ambivalent about acquiring the right to drive!
23
In a democracy majority rules. Unless the minority acts to change things, they're voted down. So it doesn't matter to most political arguments what the minority thinks; therefore there's no need to base policy on their opinions.
The key word in your reply is "some."
We all fall into the trap when we challenge one side of the political spectrum or the other with political views.
It is always about the science and the relation of that science to health issues. It is all underlying ( of course ) of a woman's sole dominion over her own body. ( and her reproductive rights )
Whenever we deviate, we all lose. ( especially women )
56
I do not believe that Trump has ever had an original idea in his life. He tries ideas on to see if that idea will give him the upper hand with people he wants to impress. In his days as a 'confirmed' supporter of rights for women to choose an abortion or contraception he was trying to impress the liberal New York in crowd people. Now that he needs the support of conservative out landers he has become the most anti abortion person possible. It only goes to show that Trump is out for Trump and no one else.
Besides this Trump does not read or think deeply about anything. To do so might lead him to some sort of humility, or to the idea that he is not the greatest person who ever lived or that there are others who have equally valid ideas besides what he picks up on FOX news in his bathrobe.
472
"He tries ideas on to see if that idea . . . with people he wants to impress."
That was probably true in the past, now it's "people he wants to bamboozle".
14
No one likes abortions, but they are going to happen. No woman has one lightly. I have known three women who have had abortions--well, I assume I have known many more who just didn't tell me. Two were in a country where they were illegal; one almost died from a botched procedure, and the other might have been killed if her family had known she was pregnant. The whole life of the third would have been stunted had she had to care for a child born out of wedlock.
I have great respect for the pro-life people--if, and only if, they are also advocated with equal fervor for health care for poor women, which seems not to be the case most of the time.
713
healthcare for the poor, early childhood education, good public schools, etc.
81
No one likes abortions, but they are going to happen. No woman has one lightly
It’s not always all that onerous either. Sometimes it’s simply a matter of acknowledging an unfortunate lapse in planning. It’s a hard won right, a fairly simple medical procedure, and something that is simply no one else’s business.
The most offensive part of the opposition, to me, is their attept to shove their twisted and unscientific morality down my throat.
109
Roe v. Wade was passed as a woman's right to privacy which included her medical choices made with her doctor. That removed abortion from political wedge issues; it is now established law; and that is the law the extreme right wing continues to challenge in court cases. Abortion, which is a medical procedure, has been politicized. The majority of abortions are performed within the first 3 weeks of pregnancy, when an embryo could not survive outside the womb; the issue is almost always the right to life of the mother who risks death if a pregnancy is carried to term, and she chooses to deliver. That is why abortion remains a woman's choice; it is her life at stake.
1
And this is the guy who said that avoiding STDs was his own Vietnam! Trump is the last person who should speak of chastity.
Barring celibacy, condoms and other contraceptives are the means of stopping disease and unwanted pregnancy. Making them readily available is the responsible course, and it shouldn't be warfare to win full, affordable access.
399
@NM -- the president is against pro choice, yet his personal attorney, one Michael Cohen, negotiated a $1.6 million settlement for Elliott Broidy, a top Republican fundraiser, to pay off the woman, terminate her pregnancy and buy her silence. Am I missing something here? The president seems to enjoy sexual encounters but not the responsibility that comes without taking proper precautions.
As for his fear of having the "incredible gains" he made during his administration reversed, he doesn't seem to mind having done just that regarding his predecessor.
54
True, but do you expect anything but pure cynicism from the current occupant of the White House?
3
At last a popular journalist has publicly wondered if the sexually active Donald J. Trump ever paid for an abortion -- or some abortions. We might also wonder how many notable or at least powerful men who denounce Planned Parenthood also have abortionistics in their histories.
Perhaps current investigations will pull back the sheets to reveal a whiff of hypocrisy in the belated Trumpian awakening regarding abortion along with general advice on sexual matters Planned Parenthood clinics dispense (and in so-doing lower the number of abortions).
Perhaps somewhere out there is a woman (or are women) who will come forward to spill the beans.
Doug Giebel, Big Sandy, Montana
282
Ah, you're assuming there's a moral compass in there somewhere! Repeat after me: Trump DOES NOT CARE ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE.
4
Trump has never paid for an abortion! He said he would pay for them but the doctors are still waiting for their checks.
6
To Pearl in the Woods:
Trump may not "care about other people," but he does care about Donald J. Trump. Which is why he would not be averse to paying for abortions -- with total confidentiality conditions attached. Or: What are Michael Cohen's for?
dg
Planned Parenthood.
By now anyone with a reasonable command of the English language knows that "Trump" and "planned" are antithetical terms. He is the consummate, (adjective not verb according to the Right) random variable.
"In 1872, Anthony was arrested for voting in her hometown of Rochester, New York, and convicted in a widely publicized trial. " wiki
In the good old days they just arrested the Anti-Trumpsters. Although gerrymandering has done wonders for the Pro-Trumpsters. He still would like to make America great again!
Ever see a downed power line dance and spark around? That's our POTUS!
76
Great visual image... and spot on!
5
LOL! Your last sentence reminded me of a line from an old British sitcom describing a philandering man: A real live wire ... only one watt, but plenty of volts!
It fits!
2
Republicans need issue voters to win elections. The worldly wealthy set is not against women's rights or contraception except that is an easy sop to get some people to vote Republican. Same with gun rights, anti immigration, the flag etc. Then your average citizen may vote against any prospect for their own personal freedom, economic future, safety and health for the prospect of beating the drum about that which enriches him not.
139
Gail, how have you overlooked the current Trump Broidy scandal, where Broidy appears to have taken credit for one of Trump's romps with a playmate? The pregnancy ended in an abortion (and a $600M UAE contract for Broidy).
380
Oh, now I understand. This makes much more sense!
9
Shera Bechard is her name. Mark it down--I get the feeling that it'll be popping up again when it becomes clear that Trump impregnated her and paid for her abortion. Ironically, I saw this story while Trump was being honored by the Susan B Anthony List for his anti-abortion position. They owe their members an apology.
30
Nathan, I was hoping someone would bring up L’Affaire Broidy. This mini-scandal is on its way to becoming a maxi-scandal. (We’ll know it’s true when Trump begins deriding it as Fake News.) Of course, Trump will receive mulligan #2,137 from evangelicals.
13
In Trump's one-track mind, anti-abortion rhetoric = cheers from the base = a Congressional majority in the midterms = no impeachment proceedings = the continuation of money, power, and adoration from his supporters. That's all that matters to Trump, and it's all that has ever mattered to him.
706
So right on!!! Thanks!
1
He has made deep inroads in our heads
So why not also in our beds
Distorted our lives
Molested our wives,
Betrayed every woman he weds.
Ripped the Constitution to bits
Gave Putin his greatest of hits
Has betrayed our Nation
Lies in each oration
Is awash in illicit profits.
913
One of your finest works. I'm going to try to memorize it. If I can't I will still certainly memorialize it. Thank you.
197
Beautiful in all its truth and horror. Thank you, Larry.
68
Larry, you inspire while amusing. Thank you!
24