So, it is either fully fund, or nothing? I thought her idea had merit, as it was a way to continue offering health care to poorer women, including birth control and cancer screening, while removing the one thing in the package that was objectionable. A good analogy, especially since discussing women, would be cooking. Making the dish, while eliminating the spice one doesn't like. All or nothing is throwing out the bathwater and the baby.
Such an idea seems a wise compromise, and would allow liberals to raise money on their own to fund abortions. Perhaps the objection is that liberals seldom can fund anything themselves, always wanting government funding. And, the organization might also find more support from other groups, who support women's health projects, but not abortion.
If you, and others, continue to force an all or nothing agenda down our throats, with no thoughts of compromise, you have no right to throw stones and ridicule your opposition. If women don't have access to healthcare, you have only yourselves, and your all or nothing, attitudes. You would rather allow an abortion, rather than save women from breast or cervical cancer, yet you call the GOP unreasonable. Meanwhile, the people who actually have to live with the fallout of this civil war are the ones who suffer.
Such an idea seems a wise compromise, and would allow liberals to raise money on their own to fund abortions. Perhaps the objection is that liberals seldom can fund anything themselves, always wanting government funding. And, the organization might also find more support from other groups, who support women's health projects, but not abortion.
If you, and others, continue to force an all or nothing agenda down our throats, with no thoughts of compromise, you have no right to throw stones and ridicule your opposition. If women don't have access to healthcare, you have only yourselves, and your all or nothing, attitudes. You would rather allow an abortion, rather than save women from breast or cervical cancer, yet you call the GOP unreasonable. Meanwhile, the people who actually have to live with the fallout of this civil war are the ones who suffer.
4
let's imagine her plan for planned parenthood applied to the NRA: One part teaches gun safety and the other part advocates for everybody having a right to own a nuclear device.
Or let's take her plan for child care funding: Can you say obamacare?
We are not supposed to cast the sins of the father on his children but in a Ivonka's case she has all her own.
Or let's take her plan for child care funding: Can you say obamacare?
We are not supposed to cast the sins of the father on his children but in a Ivonka's case she has all her own.
28
We have constitutionally-guaranteed freedom of speech and separation of church and state, which implies not only freedom of religion, but also freedom from religion. You are free to follow your religion; the problem occurs when you and others seek to enshrine the precepts of your religion into law.
That shows both a basic disrespect of our constitution and a profound lack of faith. If God is almighty, He doesn’t need us to make laws on His behalf—that’s the approach of the Taliban and ISIS.
That shows both a basic disrespect of our constitution and a profound lack of faith. If God is almighty, He doesn’t need us to make laws on His behalf—that’s the approach of the Taliban and ISIS.
36
If concerned religious groups really want to reduce the number of abortions chosen by women in the country, they would support accurate and universal reproductive education for people of all ages so that people could make informed decisions about reproduction. They would support well regulated access to affordable, effective contraception which would reduce the number of unplanned and unwanted pregnancies. They would support affordable prenatal and child care and generous family leave policies so women would feel better able to go ahead with a pregnancy. They would support increased minimum wages and gender parity in salaries, equal pay for equal work, so that women could afford to raise children. They would support improved child support collection, as well as stronger anti-stalking laws and anti-rape so that women and their children would feel safe from abusive fathers. Anyone who claims to oppose abortion but who does not actively support all of these initiatives needs to examine their own agenda carefully.
53
No. What's the female version of an empty suit? That's Ivanka.
28
Ivanka Trump is a Barbie doll. She may be the smartest one of the Trump prodigy but her competition is downright stupid. Look at Ivanka and Jared's life story. It is not that they were both born wealthy, it is that neither one of them has ever done anything for anyone except themselves. Born with such wealth, one would expect that a person of integrity would have contributed something to the world besides baubles and a pretty face. But from what I can tell of her biography, she never volunteered at a non-profit, never went on a school trip to build schools in Central America, and never used her status to help the disadvantaged. And with all the power she has now with her father in office, she does nothing to uplift the nation. Consider all of the work that Eleanor Roosevelt did to uplift minorities, consider Michelle Obama's making us all feel guilty for not eating healthy, consider the Kennedy child who went to Africa on some mission as a college student and called home to complain to her mother who promptly told her to shut up and get to work. Those were quality people. Ivanka is not quality. She is also shallow. Just like her father, she has no ideology that is not based on her own bank account. The real question is not whether she will have a political career--that is laughable. The real question is whether she will ever been allowed back into the Manhattan social circle again. I hope not.
47
There will be a grand celebration when they are all in jail.
Trump - ignorant, arrogant and incompetent
Jared - overrated, in deep debt, in over his head even in real estate
Ivanka -complicit, trying to look composed instead of concerned, writing how everyone needs a team - even the 99% of Americans who couldn't afford one day of her lifestyle if their entire lifetime of income was not he line
The boys - lying, scheming confabulating collusionists and big game hunters - oh, they got cool slicked bak hair though
Trump - ignorant, arrogant and incompetent
Jared - overrated, in deep debt, in over his head even in real estate
Ivanka -complicit, trying to look composed instead of concerned, writing how everyone needs a team - even the 99% of Americans who couldn't afford one day of her lifestyle if their entire lifetime of income was not he line
The boys - lying, scheming confabulating collusionists and big game hunters - oh, they got cool slicked bak hair though
22
Just look at her: Beautiful, spoiled, superficial, jejune princess. The apple doesn't fall far from the corrupt tree.
18
Least embarrassing member of the Trump administration? Will that fit on her tombstone? She is worse than others because she pretended to be a modern woman with good intentions.
23
i dont get the stats douhat sites on wikipedia it does quote teh 300000 plus abortions but this is a small fractkon of the 9 million plus other services.
9
I support Planned Parenthood because it provides abortion services to those who absolutely need it. The women who need this are not seeking the service just for the fun of it, which is how GOP tries to portray it. GOP anti-abortion policy is about controlling women and individual decisions. Ivanka Trump is not a politician and has really no idea of the lives of ordinary Americans - women or men! She should not be in the WH attending high level political meetings or with foreign leaders at all! Let her go back and keep running her business of high end fashion that got started with her dad's money and is made in China while Trump derides that country. She is the epitome of hypocrisy! Like father, like daughter!
38
I am really offended by the utter nonsense in this column. What a brilliant woman Ivanka must be to come up with an idea no one likes, even the politicians. This is the woman who thinks she can empower the women of Saudi Arabia with a pep talk.
26
I am stunned to think that anyone in the universe, least of all a Times columnist, thinks that Ivanka is the heir to anything. She is the prototype of a Trump-style woman for whom beauty is the most important characteristic...created or obtained in artificial ways. She is the darling of Trump's eye but unfortunately has no other redeeming features.
34
I'm completely missing how this was a brilliant move on Ivanka's part. If in fact she made the reported proposal to Cecile Richards, Richards obviously declined it. And, I would suggest, even if Richards had accepted the proposal the Republican Right would not have responded by gleefully funding the non-abortion successor to Planned Parenthood.
In other words, the proposal failed to get agreement from either the pro-choice or pro-life side. In other words, in Douthat's own terms, Ivanka chose to spend her political capital on a specific policy proposal that was a complete failure.
Next up is Ivanka's tax credit proposal. Douthat himself notes both that her proposed tax credit is "too small" to achieve its purpose yet too big to get past conservative opposition. Another resounding success? I don't think so.
And still we're left with that nepotism thing. "Less embarrassing than most" is not a standard we should accept, much less strive for.
politicsbyeccehomo.wordpress.com
In other words, the proposal failed to get agreement from either the pro-choice or pro-life side. In other words, in Douthat's own terms, Ivanka chose to spend her political capital on a specific policy proposal that was a complete failure.
Next up is Ivanka's tax credit proposal. Douthat himself notes both that her proposed tax credit is "too small" to achieve its purpose yet too big to get past conservative opposition. Another resounding success? I don't think so.
And still we're left with that nepotism thing. "Less embarrassing than most" is not a standard we should accept, much less strive for.
politicsbyeccehomo.wordpress.com
23
I have to take exception to some of the ideas stated in this piece.
There is no liberal commitment to abortion as a positive good. It is an issue of a woman's right to make a choice. That is the law of the land as well.
The choice to end a pregnancy is not just a liberal idea. It is based on socio-economic considerations. I don't know that Ivanka would understand that but she has her own choices nonetheless.
Planned Parenthood is an organization that helps many in different ways. Abortion is one, mammograms and healthcare is another. There is no federal money involved for the abortions. That is also the law.
Ivanka could help her father by understanding the subtleties of policy and slowly explaining them to him or by understanding them better herself before she goes to make deals with those more savvy than she.
I don't doubt she is clever but she is in the White House in a fancy office and seemingly ineffective so far. I don't like seeing taxes I pay being taken away from organizations that have done good work and used to give an already privileged woman a place at the table where her voice does little but make Daddy proud to show her off.
As for an ideological heir to Trump, nice try.
There is no liberal commitment to abortion as a positive good. It is an issue of a woman's right to make a choice. That is the law of the land as well.
The choice to end a pregnancy is not just a liberal idea. It is based on socio-economic considerations. I don't know that Ivanka would understand that but she has her own choices nonetheless.
Planned Parenthood is an organization that helps many in different ways. Abortion is one, mammograms and healthcare is another. There is no federal money involved for the abortions. That is also the law.
Ivanka could help her father by understanding the subtleties of policy and slowly explaining them to him or by understanding them better herself before she goes to make deals with those more savvy than she.
I don't doubt she is clever but she is in the White House in a fancy office and seemingly ineffective so far. I don't like seeing taxes I pay being taken away from organizations that have done good work and used to give an already privileged woman a place at the table where her voice does little but make Daddy proud to show her off.
As for an ideological heir to Trump, nice try.
20
As an American, I believe in and support freedom. Freedom over my body, freedom to choose whether and how to use contraceptives, freedom to decide with who, how and when to have sex, freedom to choose when and if to have a child, freedom of my own religious beliefs. Freedom to support Planned Parenthood which provides mostly family planning services and contraception to mostly (but not exclusively) teens and other young women, in community centers, at an affordable price.
20
Actually, for all extents and purposes PP does separate the functions because taxpayer funding for health services including contraception, under the Hyde Amendment, can't be intermingled with funding of abortion services.
More recently, political fights over the Affordable Care Act have given abortion opponents an opportunity to restrict insurance coverage for the procedure even further, in addition to limiting access to contraception and prenatal care. So the idea only sounds good to someone who doesn't know that it wouldn't help.
More recently, political fights over the Affordable Care Act have given abortion opponents an opportunity to restrict insurance coverage for the procedure even further, in addition to limiting access to contraception and prenatal care. So the idea only sounds good to someone who doesn't know that it wouldn't help.
16
Again, No, Mr. Douthat. This is a hard-sell.
There's no way to imagine Ivanka Trump being anything other than who she is; namely, an overly entitled princess of a little girl cast in Daddy's glitz-covered image.
There was never one word of her interest in working women, or anyone else, before Trump ran for office, regardless of what she says, or tweets -- so, there's no reason to think any of that has changed now.
For all practical purposes, Ivanka Trump has shown nothing but a steadfaat interest in herself, which given her family's history is nothing, if not common.
And if it all comes down to either her way, or the highway, the high way looks just fine.
There's no way to imagine Ivanka Trump being anything other than who she is; namely, an overly entitled princess of a little girl cast in Daddy's glitz-covered image.
There was never one word of her interest in working women, or anyone else, before Trump ran for office, regardless of what she says, or tweets -- so, there's no reason to think any of that has changed now.
For all practical purposes, Ivanka Trump has shown nothing but a steadfaat interest in herself, which given her family's history is nothing, if not common.
And if it all comes down to either her way, or the highway, the high way looks just fine.
18
Douthat highlights the privileges of being a Trump heir, which has nothing to do with intelligence and much to do with a sense of superiority especially over women's bodies.
He fails completely to recognize that anti-choice denizens care nothing about the majority of PP clients who are poor and lack access to adequate health care.
They are underclass that has been created in this country by the rich and insensitive.
Health care is a right, Not a privilege. What happened to equality and justice for all?
He fails completely to recognize that anti-choice denizens care nothing about the majority of PP clients who are poor and lack access to adequate health care.
They are underclass that has been created in this country by the rich and insensitive.
Health care is a right, Not a privilege. What happened to equality and justice for all?
14
Ivanka is far removed from the realities and lack of options for poor women making her a shallow spokesperson. Well "educated," well-coiffed, well spoken, but a huge disappointment to those of us holding out hope for her humanitarian influence on Dad. Not too late for Ivanka to roll up her sleeves now, get out of her rarefied world, meet with poor working women, walk the trailer parks and use her University of Penn education to come up with solutions.
7
The most scathing review of Ivanka's latest book (one of many scathing reviews) said that it was chock full of inspirational quotes--of the type one would find by Googling "inspirational quotes." It appears she's applying a similar strategy to women's health.
20
Donald Trump is an authentic jerk.
Ivanka Trump is not authentic in any respect, including her so-called politics.
Ivanka Trump is not authentic in any respect, including her so-called politics.
29
I disagree with Mr. Douthat's view that people whose views largely are on the left think of abortion as a positive social good. If he will read Maureen Dowd's column on the Irish prime minister, he will find the views the PM expresses on this are much closer to most people's than he seems to think they are. Even I have been surprised at the complexity of the views of strong Planned Parenthood supporters.
15
Perhaps the number of terminations versus the number of prenatal visits is broad, but Douthat does not even mention Planned Parenthood's largest number of patients, women for whom the organization is their primary care outlet. Planned Parenthood provides wellness visits for these women, breast cancer screening, contraception, etc. To intimate that abortion is the organization's primary raison d'être is to fall into the trap crafted by this country's Conservatives, Catholic and otherwise.
28
Ivanka is fine- her company makes products in China, but she's ok. Good for her to try to find a way out for Planned Parenthood.
The tax credit for mothers only works for women who make enough income that a tax credit could be of help. Thus, like all tax credit ideas, the less you need it, the more it benefits you.
But it accomplishes taking away taxes from the wealthy and benefits from the needy- the two-pronged cure-all of conservatism. It would particularly benefit Ivanka, when she has a baby.
The tax credit for mothers only works for women who make enough income that a tax credit could be of help. Thus, like all tax credit ideas, the less you need it, the more it benefits you.
But it accomplishes taking away taxes from the wealthy and benefits from the needy- the two-pronged cure-all of conservatism. It would particularly benefit Ivanka, when she has a baby.
6
Evaluating Ivanka Trump relative to the rest of the Trump administration is to lower our standards too quickly. History doesn't grade on a curve, and the fact that she is not the disaster her father has proven to be counts for exactly nothing.
Judge her on her actual accomplishments, using an absolute standard. On those grounds, she is still woefully under-qualified and completely ineffectual - just as you or I would be if we, as complete novices, were put in her situation.
Judge her on her actual accomplishments, using an absolute standard. On those grounds, she is still woefully under-qualified and completely ineffectual - just as you or I would be if we, as complete novices, were put in her situation.
16
Just a note for those claiming they have never heard of anyone who considers abortion a "positive good ":
For many years a pro-abortion argument has been that when poor people have access to cheap abortions, they give birth to fewer needy children who further strain the services of those who help the needy. These unborn children, the argument goes, would have increased the criminal population, and their absence is a chief factor in the decrease of crime since abortion was made legal.
So Mr. D is correct that there are supporters of abortion who consider the practice a positive good, at least in the indirect way of fewer mouths to feed and, as Mr. Scrooge says, the decrease of the surplus population.
For many years a pro-abortion argument has been that when poor people have access to cheap abortions, they give birth to fewer needy children who further strain the services of those who help the needy. These unborn children, the argument goes, would have increased the criminal population, and their absence is a chief factor in the decrease of crime since abortion was made legal.
So Mr. D is correct that there are supporters of abortion who consider the practice a positive good, at least in the indirect way of fewer mouths to feed and, as Mr. Scrooge says, the decrease of the surplus population.
2
There is no such thing as a cheap abortion. Abortion is 100% private pay and it is expensive - well over $1,000. Please!
6
What Mr. Douthat and Ivanka offer is an opportunity for low income women to receive contraceptives, cancer screening, etc. in exchange for loss of access to their constitutional right to choose whether to have a child. Their justification-- some Americans think having an unwanted child is best for you. It's a little bit like offering women a choice of clean water or clean air. Thanks Ivanka, with friends like you who needs enemies?
26
Maybe we'll never know how lucky we are to have had Ivanka temper her father's cruel intentions. From what we do see, even daddy's little girl has not been effective at moderating the Trumpian cruelty to the non-white, "Christian" Americans, the environment, and the rest of the world.
If we are to believe that she has been a moderating influence on her father, we should do everything we can to ensure that she continues to whisper in daddy's ear, as the alternatives could well be far more ruinous for our country.
If we are to believe that she has been a moderating influence on her father, we should do everything we can to ensure that she continues to whisper in daddy's ear, as the alternatives could well be far more ruinous for our country.
3
Of course Douthat ignored the obvious point in his bashing of Planned Parenthood, which is that no matter how many abortions it performs, that number is positively dwarfed by the number it has PREVENTED via its free and low cost provision of birth control services. I can attest to this firsthand. Why won't antiabortionists ever acknowledge this important role PP has played in the dramatic reduction of abortions? Probably because it would interfere with their stupid narrative
32
This article, like so much current political commentary, ascribes to the Trumps some notion of vision or strategy or, at least, an agenda. To suggest even the possibility that these abysmally ignorant frauds are capable of anything more sophisticated than shtick is laughable.
19
"Abortion-as-a-positive-good" is not the value to which most liberals and progressives are committed. The value here is reproductive choice and a woman's right to chart the course of her own life and still be a sexual being. Stop defining my values, Ross Douthat.
19
Wow, Ross, you sure don't understand liberal perspectives or motives on abortion.
No, we do not consider it "disposing of tiny human lives."
No, we do not view "abortion-as-a-positive-good."
Unfortunate necessity is more like it. Try to listen better.
No, we do not consider it "disposing of tiny human lives."
No, we do not view "abortion-as-a-positive-good."
Unfortunate necessity is more like it. Try to listen better.
21
While reading some of these comments,insert the names Clinton and Chelsea in place of Trump and Ivanka. This will make clear the self-righteous hypocrisy, vapid intellectualism and the fruits of leftist humanistic philosophy as it sinks deeper in moral quicksand.
2
Interesting that in a week of 2 hurricanes --- one that has decimated a major U.S. city and the other that will decimate a major U.S. state, you left out Ivanka's failed attempt to have her father address climate change and to remain in the Paris Agreement.
As for her stances on working women, she knows nothing of the lives and struggles of the majority of us or has solutions to our struggles that would assist us in any way. Of course, I guess we could hire a nanny, a cook, an assistant, and maids while "working" to produce our name-brand products with foreign labor at slave wages to pay the help. Problems solved.
As for her stances on working women, she knows nothing of the lives and struggles of the majority of us or has solutions to our struggles that would assist us in any way. Of course, I guess we could hire a nanny, a cook, an assistant, and maids while "working" to produce our name-brand products with foreign labor at slave wages to pay the help. Problems solved.
16
After gagging over Mr. Douthat's ridiculous premise that in some way the Trump family is comparable to the Kennedy family, with Ivanka the Empty as a political heir, I realized all the untruths contained in the story.
Before sermonizing, the author should do some simple fact checking, and if he doesn't like the results, then he should contain himself and decide to let this article go--we'd all be better off if he had. Those who don't know much wouldn't have been encouraged in their misogyny and ignorance, and the rest of us wouldn't feel that we wasted our time reading this.
Before sermonizing, the author should do some simple fact checking, and if he doesn't like the results, then he should contain himself and decide to let this article go--we'd all be better off if he had. Those who don't know much wouldn't have been encouraged in their misogyny and ignorance, and the rest of us wouldn't feel that we wasted our time reading this.
14
uh,,,, "positive good"?? Really? Mr Douthat- an uncharacteristic poor choice of words. What's up with this??? The right to have an abortion is having control over your own body- rights slaves DID NOT HAVE. The irony of men who do not get pregnant and carry a fetus for 9 mos is that if they did..... abortion would be viewed much differently
17
Abortion is not "disposing of tiny human lives". This falsehood has always been fundamental to the cascade of lies employed by the anti-freedom busybodies who wish to tell women what they can and can't do with their bodies. Contraceptives? No way? Viagra--make it free!
Unless and until a child can actually function outside the womb it can't reasonably be called a "tiny human life". It is at best an embryo, but in the case of actual abortions performed it is more likely a near-microscopic mass of cells you couldn't exactly hold in your arms, and certainly couldn't breast-feed, though anti-freedom idiots also consider that somehow inappropriate, mainly because it involves breasts.
How much longer are the majority to be held hostage by the simple-minded, uninformed, deliberately ignorant and willfully stupid troglodytes who mis-label themselves "conservative", when in fact they are nothing more than sheep, who don't bother thinking anything through, don't believe in facts, openly mock and dismiss science, and glean all their information about the world from imbeciles like Rush Limbaugh, Steve Bannon, Sean Hannity, and all the other ultra-cynics who manipulate this mewling mass?
It's time to stop giving credence to anti-freedom misanthropes who are just sullying the conversation with their own emotional diatribes, adding nothing but chaos and cruelty, muddying the waters with their own intellectual excrement that does nothing to advance the human cause.
Unless and until a child can actually function outside the womb it can't reasonably be called a "tiny human life". It is at best an embryo, but in the case of actual abortions performed it is more likely a near-microscopic mass of cells you couldn't exactly hold in your arms, and certainly couldn't breast-feed, though anti-freedom idiots also consider that somehow inappropriate, mainly because it involves breasts.
How much longer are the majority to be held hostage by the simple-minded, uninformed, deliberately ignorant and willfully stupid troglodytes who mis-label themselves "conservative", when in fact they are nothing more than sheep, who don't bother thinking anything through, don't believe in facts, openly mock and dismiss science, and glean all their information about the world from imbeciles like Rush Limbaugh, Steve Bannon, Sean Hannity, and all the other ultra-cynics who manipulate this mewling mass?
It's time to stop giving credence to anti-freedom misanthropes who are just sullying the conversation with their own emotional diatribes, adding nothing but chaos and cruelty, muddying the waters with their own intellectual excrement that does nothing to advance the human cause.
21
Unnh.... sorry.... but what the hell is she doing there in any capacity? She has virtually no expertise to contribute, and her supposed softening of her father's impulsiveness has, so far, been nowhere to be observed. I'd feel more comfortable not even debating her highly dubious merits. She has no business representing us as a government employee.
23
I prefer Ivanka to Hillary and all other Democrats as well as all RINOs.
2
Hillary Clinton was the Democratic candidate for President in 2016, who won the popular vote by almost 3 million. Ivanka Trump is the Lolita-like daughter of her "daddy", the current occupant of the Oval Office. Ivanka and Jared Kushner are Democrats as well. Comparing Ivanka to Hillary is an interesting non-sequitur, at best.
14
Ivanka's advantage is not that she is poised to succeed; it is that she succeeds because she is poised.
7
Many thanks for that pearls-of-wisdom howler, Marian. I needed a good laugh.
10
Mr Douthat, I recommend for a more accurate assessment of Ivanka Trump you read the following from the NYTimes: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/06/opinion/the-ivanka-trump-labor-women.....
4
Once again, "pro-life" really means "pro-birth". We won't support you before you give birth, we won't support you after you give birth, but that moment you are popping that baby out...YAY!!
You aren't "pro-life" unless you also support pre/post natal care, childcare support, public schools, etc etc etc. All you are is pro-birth.
You aren't "pro-life" unless you also support pre/post natal care, childcare support, public schools, etc etc etc. All you are is pro-birth.
33
Planned Parenthood provides safe and legal medical services to millions of people and Cecile Richards works tirelessly to ensure that they can continue to do so. She had to sit and listen to a princess suggest a new business plan that daddy might like? Please.
27
It has been demonstrated over and over again that Ivanka is not a factor. For example she is a Jew and her dad supported the "Alt-Right". Why do you write about her?
12
So Ross Douthat accepts and normalizes the "imperial republic." Some conservative (a monarchist?). Some American.
8
Apparently, the Times is advancing the idea that abortion is "disposing of tiny human lives." Ross Douthat defines abortion that way early in the article without any acknowledgment that there is much debate about when life begins. This is misleading and dangerous for women.
25
Leave it to Douthat to breathe significance into the empty dress that is Ivanka Trump.
24
Compared to all the other issues and problems in the world, Ivanka's goals are minuscule. And that's the best this administration can offer?
6
I'm just waiting, apparently forever, for the rank-and-file "middle" white Americans to realize that abortion, bathrooms, transgender people, etc., haven't made a whit of difference in their lives for 40 years. They are still at the same wages, perhaps fighting opioid addiction in their families, struggling to maintain consistent healthcare. Oh, but then I forgot: they are still white so there's that...
15
Nice puff piece trying to make Ivanka look effective. Of course in your argument you used the Repub distorted representation of the services Planned Parenthood provides. They do provide many health services that are not pregnancy related that following the party line you excluded for effect. Let us say for arguments sake that Ivanka did float this political trial baloon. Has she sat down with any Repub leaders to support this idea? perhaps Sen Collins or Murkowski? Ivanka was given the media role of the softer side of Trump. This is part of the role. She still uses foreign low wage labor to manufacture all of her products. She supported the shutdown of efforts for women's pay equity (being born rich probably confused her about the need). When things got tough around Charlottesville she and hubby were no where to be found. Even as a spokesman for the Repubs, I would suggest that you not make Ivanka's "let them eat cake" pronouncements out to be political pragmatisim.
12
"The most common defense of public funding for Planned Parenthood from uneasy-about-abortion Democrats is that disposing of tiny human lives is a vanishingly small portion of its work." Since when is a tiny group of cells a tiny human life. They have the potential for for human life, they are not yet human life.
As for Ivanka, she is a grifter like her father and she and Jared are using their positions to sell their brands around the world. She could care less about helping women or the American people. If she cared she could have done that before coming into the White House and I don't see any evidence that she did anything of the sort.
As for Ivanka, she is a grifter like her father and she and Jared are using their positions to sell their brands around the world. She could care less about helping women or the American people. If she cared she could have done that before coming into the White House and I don't see any evidence that she did anything of the sort.
16
Not everybody believes in your religion, Ross. And the first amendment tells us the law cannot give a special place for anybody’s religion. The law is for all.
18
Ivanka has Democrat proclivities but her hands are tied to Trump's flailing Administration. Manicured, well-coiffed and spoken, no accent barriers a la Melania, she is WH wife surrogate. No activist role here just Daddy's emotional support. Hillary would be godsend for PP but with all her whining this week, hard to imagine power was ever there.
As always, you correctly call mistakes made and nepotism run afoul, yet you predictably give the "but maybe" Republican response when there is no but in the room for a conman and his con family. A little harsh? Not really. Allow me to return to my default retort: what if this was a Democrat
2
I don't care if she's the next female Winston Churchill. Family has no place in the White House except photo ops. Since she has no legitimate credentials nor has had been able to tamper her father's antics she should quietly step aside. Her presence and that of her equally unqualified husband aren't helping the badly damaged image of the administration
13
Overv325,000 pp abortions last year? That' s a staggering number. Douthat's comment about " our increasingly Imperial Republic..." is troublingly accurate.
Ivanka-Gwyneth Paltrow ticket in 2020! The U.S. needs to be Trumped and Gooped.
8
Let's see if Trump opens Mar a lago for sheltering Irma victims.
Let's see if any of Trump clan does some charity work in Harvey and Irma affected areas. Whether may it be writing a check (Ivanka's worth apparently is 745million) or donning work boots and overalls and help clean up. Let's see if 'women who work' gal descends down from her gilded perch to do the some real work. Not just travel the world on Airforce and smooch the rich and powerful.
Total fake
Let's see if any of Trump clan does some charity work in Harvey and Irma affected areas. Whether may it be writing a check (Ivanka's worth apparently is 745million) or donning work boots and overalls and help clean up. Let's see if 'women who work' gal descends down from her gilded perch to do the some real work. Not just travel the world on Airforce and smooch the rich and powerful.
Total fake
11
Ivanka has built her apparel brands around "women who work." Her so-called "work" in Washington is just more of the usual Trump grift. Taxpayers should not be paying for her protection, travel, and health benefits. She and Jared are nothing but TAKERS in fancy clothes.
14
"In our increasingly imperial republic, sometimes the most likely heir is already in the line of succession."
No, Mr. Douthat - I seriously doubt that Ivanka Trump is in any way "already in the line of succession" based upon your anecdote, or anything else we've read about her. She is beautiful, no doubt about that - but beyond that and her cautious and perfect enunciation, paired with her exceptional education, she offers nothing of substance. But then again, neither does her father, and look what that got him... Still, it seems that the Trump administration will not be remembered fondly by most Americans, so the Princess's ascension to the throne seems unlikely at best.
No, Mr. Douthat - I seriously doubt that Ivanka Trump is in any way "already in the line of succession" based upon your anecdote, or anything else we've read about her. She is beautiful, no doubt about that - but beyond that and her cautious and perfect enunciation, paired with her exceptional education, she offers nothing of substance. But then again, neither does her father, and look what that got him... Still, it seems that the Trump administration will not be remembered fondly by most Americans, so the Princess's ascension to the throne seems unlikely at best.
7
As a lifetime liberal (and it's been a long lifetime), I have to object to the phrase "the liberal commitment to abortion-as-a-positive-good." Language carries meaning and meaning incites action. I don't think there is anyone in her or his right mind who thinks abortion is good. It's nonsense to say that. And the language of this issue is even broader: "pro-life" as the name by which we know the anti-abortion (another questionable term) suggests that those of us who contend that in certain drastic situations abortion is, sadly, necessary, are what? Against life? To usurp the phrase from the Hebrew Bible out of context is an egregious example of "fake" interpretation.
So, on to Ivanka. I don't trust her or her husband. I think they are dangerous and I think, basically, they are a little too slick and slimy for my taste. Ivanka, in particular, makes my skin crawl with her perfect hair and teeth and grapefruit-diet slimness. Kushner is a sell-out and a snake-oil salesman. I would imagine that marrying Donald Trump's little girl, about whom he has made repeated salacious remarks, would effect a bit of unmanning, but it was the photographs of Daddy's Girl as a preteen in a school uniform (pulled up way past mid-thigh) sitting on Daddy's lap that finally turned my stomach. These are bad people. Some of them just clean up better than others.
So, on to Ivanka. I don't trust her or her husband. I think they are dangerous and I think, basically, they are a little too slick and slimy for my taste. Ivanka, in particular, makes my skin crawl with her perfect hair and teeth and grapefruit-diet slimness. Kushner is a sell-out and a snake-oil salesman. I would imagine that marrying Donald Trump's little girl, about whom he has made repeated salacious remarks, would effect a bit of unmanning, but it was the photographs of Daddy's Girl as a preteen in a school uniform (pulled up way past mid-thigh) sitting on Daddy's lap that finally turned my stomach. These are bad people. Some of them just clean up better than others.
12
"It implies that Richards’ organization performs, say, a few thousand abortions for high-risk pregnancies and rape victims annually, instead of the real number, which last year was 328,348 — dwarfing the number of prenatal care visits by a factor of more than 30."
This truncated comparison is also "highly misleading," as PP doesn't only provide abortions and "prenatal care." It provides health care and screening throughout the reproductive years, pregnant or not, female and male.
This truncated comparison is also "highly misleading," as PP doesn't only provide abortions and "prenatal care." It provides health care and screening throughout the reproductive years, pregnant or not, female and male.
12
Perhaps Planned Parenthood provides so many abortions is because other sources of that service have had to close because of the constant attacks by anti-abortion forces. All too many state legislatures have enacted laws meant to make it impossible for abortion clinics to operate. Anti-abortion activists seem to think a woman decides on an abortion without back second thought. Not so. I I know several women who had abortions and every single one agonized over the decision but circumstances dictated no other choice.
8
This happened last week: Vanky stopped by Daddy's office and asked, Where are you going today, Daddy? North Dakota, Daddy said. Oh, oh, can I come Daddy? Of course, he said. And so the two hopped on their plane and went to North Dakota for the afternoon. Most people would find this a poor use of government/tax-payer funds, I think. Then you have to ask, Just what is Vanky accomplishing by whispering anything in Daddy's brain? Did she intervene in DACA, or ensure corporate gender pay reporting? Has she prevented a nuclear war? Can anyone answer, What's Vanky actually doing all day?
7
I wish Mr. Douthat would pay a visit to the Museum of Pathology in London and take a look at displays of some of the medical effects society's prohibition against abortions in the 19th and early 20th centuries. What women had to endure to end unwanted pregnancies was unspeakably cruel. Perhaps people like Mr. Douthat would not be so eager to return to that barbaric age in family planning if they could see with their own eyes the physical-medical results of legal barriers to abortion.The psychological, financial, and sociological results of those laws were equally horrific for many women.
17
Nonsense. Planned Parenthood is and must remain a prime provider of women's health care including all reproductive care. Anything else leaves women at the risk of dying, whether from cancer or botched abortions.
22
Right, and the straw man comment in the article "abortions for high-risk pregnancies and rape victims annually, instead of the real number, which last year was 328,348 — dwarfing the number of prenatal care visits by a factor of more than 30" shows the bias in this article. As if the only thing women go to Planned Parenthood for are abortions or prenatal care! Supporters of Planned Parenthood recognize its role in women's reproductive health overall, of which a very small percent is either abortion or prenatal care. Women do need gynecological care outside of pregnancy!!!
18
Her proposal for child care would only "work" for those who itemize deductions their income tax forms. The people who really NEED some help in child care costs are the ones most likely NOT to itemize.
And, Ross---the bottom line on abortion is simply this: Who decides?
Republicans want to decide for everybody on earth. I prefer to believe the woman involved is the best one to make the decision, and, indeed, it belongs to her! Not to you.
And, Ross---the bottom line on abortion is simply this: Who decides?
Republicans want to decide for everybody on earth. I prefer to believe the woman involved is the best one to make the decision, and, indeed, it belongs to her! Not to you.
249
Ivanka and Jared have proven themselves completely incapable of moderating the influence of the alt-right and far right conservatives in the White House. Trump has done everything "his base" has demanded, and nothing for the vast majority of Americans who consider themselves "in the middle." Thus, even if Ivanka gets some small childcare credit passed that will help the middle and upper classes, she hasn't been able to effect much change at all.
5
The Supreme Court of Canada struck down Canadian Abortion legislation in the early 1990s. The Mulroney government tried to replace it with a law requiring medical approval. It didn't pass. As a result there is no abortion legislation. It is a woman's choice alone. Doctors do have ethical limitations as identified by the Canadian Medical Association and will not perform late stage abortions. There has been no noticeable increase in abortions. It should be considered a private personal matter not subject to the whims of male politicians.
14
Pro life is not just a religious concern. There are even atheists who are staunchly pro life. It was the Catholic Church who started the pro-life movement but other religious affiliations joined in our campaign. We saw the injustice of innocent life being terminated and it upset us immensely. Contrary to what the pro abortion folks say, we do not leave those women who decide to give birth on their own. We assist them and their babies in any way we can and lend them a helping hand in all their needs. The people I have met during my pro life work are wonderful and extremely kind. They have the mothers and and babies best interests at heart and never desert them. We are always there and give moral and financial help. This is what we do.
1
I don't want strangers without medical degrees who claim to have "my best interests at heart" making my medical decisions for me. I doubt you'd want that either.
What if these strangers decide that you must donate a kidney to save the life of a doomed patient who's a perfect tissue match with you? You OK with that? If not, why is it OK to force a woman to carry a pregnancy, which is more hazardous than donating a kidney?
I donated a kidney and found it life-affirming. But I would NEVER want someone forced into it. I feel exactly the same way about pregnancy.
What if these strangers decide that you must donate a kidney to save the life of a doomed patient who's a perfect tissue match with you? You OK with that? If not, why is it OK to force a woman to carry a pregnancy, which is more hazardous than donating a kidney?
I donated a kidney and found it life-affirming. But I would NEVER want someone forced into it. I feel exactly the same way about pregnancy.
13
Actually the "pro-life" movement only supports mothers and babies when it doesn't cost anything. Hand-me-down and used clothes and goods are available from crisis pregnancy centers, but money for health care, housing and food support, schools? No, no and no.
6
"In our increasingly imperial republic, sometimes the most likely heir is already in the line of succession."
If that's so, and we're going to put inexperienced and unqualified people into the Oval Office simply because of their celebrity, perhaps we should just give every native-born American citizen over the age of 35 a 15-minute term as President. I don't see how the results could be worse than what we'd get with several full terms of Trump and his family members.
If that's so, and we're going to put inexperienced and unqualified people into the Oval Office simply because of their celebrity, perhaps we should just give every native-born American citizen over the age of 35 a 15-minute term as President. I don't see how the results could be worse than what we'd get with several full terms of Trump and his family members.
7
We need to attack the financial life line of the trumps. If we can weaken their "Brand" and turn our backs on their China made "goods" it will go a long way towards disinheriting them from access to the throne! We need to make it quite uncomfortable for people to do business with them not that they themselves haven't already given us quite a jump start on that!
1
Trouble is, not even that happened. And the idea that Ivanka is in any way a voice of reason or of even 'pretty good thinking' that has any influence at all over this administration — especially when it counts — has already shown itself to be a sham and a bitter ruse.
If she had a meaningful grasp of 'why her father won the White House' (Electoral College-wise), then ideas such as this one might hold more sway. The reality suggests that ANY defense of Planned Parenthood (or other such supposed concerns) does not fit into this administration's thinking at all, and such statements are at best for show, a temporary feint that is soon forgotten.
If you want to know the 'Ivanka way,' look at her clothes and vapid grrl power book of borrowed cliches. That's about it.
'Architect' that.
If she had a meaningful grasp of 'why her father won the White House' (Electoral College-wise), then ideas such as this one might hold more sway. The reality suggests that ANY defense of Planned Parenthood (or other such supposed concerns) does not fit into this administration's thinking at all, and such statements are at best for show, a temporary feint that is soon forgotten.
If you want to know the 'Ivanka way,' look at her clothes and vapid grrl power book of borrowed cliches. That's about it.
'Architect' that.
5
Meeting with the European Heads of State as Dad's Substitute-in-Chief was the beginning of her role in detente, and Europe noticed. She recognizes the power of her beauty and birth. She married a quiet hot mess for reasons unknown. If she begins to radically shift her weight in real ways; defending Planned Parenthood and equal pay, the sky's the limit. She is walking in on Presidential debt ceiling meetings, knowing exactly how to shift attention. She is learning how to be deadly with her timing. Ivanka supports her father's current dislike of McConnell and Ryan. Imagine Mitch and Paul's flummoxed looks? Nancy and Ivanka together? Two women, emerging with more power, in the same room, must have rattled every single bone in their body.
1
As a purely theoretical idea, that there is some center ground that can be addressed pragmatically, Douthat's column has some merit. It however fails because it ignores the deeply corrupt nature of the entire Trump family and the illegitimacy of the Trump regime.
No political progress is possible until the cancer of the Trump presidency is excised from the body politic.
No political progress is possible until the cancer of the Trump presidency is excised from the body politic.
4
I find her more "embarrassing than most," not less. The sooner we're rid of Trump, Javanka and the rest of this facsimile 'First Family,' the better. Too bad we, as a nation, can't sue them for copyright infringement! Ivanka is only there to rack up licensing deals made available by easy access. She, like the rest of the Trumps, offers little substance — only a keen awareness of camera angles. Just no, Mr. Douthat. No.
11
Ivanka. This one-name waif-like woman who sits in meetings with leaders of foreign nations, who represents business women at symposiums, has her own office in the White House, flies on Air Force One, flits about on stages, palaces, the Vatican ... this woman who suddenly is in a position of supreme power and yet who has no power whatsoever -- who is she? What is she? She's a product, that's what. Skillfully molded into a perfect and utterly vacuous doll, a pretty figurine. She's a Trump product. And Trump products are manufactured. (Though usually not in the US.)
I resent her. I resent that a woman so lacking in substance and so removed from the grit of working women, is taken seriously by anyone at all. I am appalled that she has unfettered access to the highest offices of the land, and insulted that she dares to address issues of gravity with her customary superficiality.
I am also saddened that she is given such bandwidth. There are real women out there who work to make a real difference, who have guts and boldness, and who think for themselves. Write about them instead. If you must write about Ivanka, then include her in the entertainment/Hollywood pages. That’s where she belongs.
I resent her. I resent that a woman so lacking in substance and so removed from the grit of working women, is taken seriously by anyone at all. I am appalled that she has unfettered access to the highest offices of the land, and insulted that she dares to address issues of gravity with her customary superficiality.
I am also saddened that she is given such bandwidth. There are real women out there who work to make a real difference, who have guts and boldness, and who think for themselves. Write about them instead. If you must write about Ivanka, then include her in the entertainment/Hollywood pages. That’s where she belongs.
378
M J Earl Thank you for your wonderful comment.
5
Can we get special dispensation to "recommend" this excellent post more than once?
4
No, liberals do not see "the liberal commitment to abortion-as-a-positive-good", as Douthat asserts, they see it as a dire and inescapable necessity for some people.
28
Ivanka. Jared.
2 of the most transactional humans that bestride the planet.
Like the president.
Perfectly amoral.
2 of the most transactional humans that bestride the planet.
Like the president.
Perfectly amoral.
25
Please. Can we just stop with this nonsense, and do away with 'the first daughter' title? She is the President's daughter, period, and has neither earned nor is deserving of this so-called 'honorific.' I so wish the media would just drop it.
31
When Ross Douthat is capable of giving birth, I will take his comments about Planned Parenthood seriously. Until then, not so much....
40
Stop trying to make it appear that this grifter, immoral Trump family cares about the needs of those less fortunate in dollars but much richer in character, decency. Ivanka doesn't care about women just like Donald 45 doesn't care about black and brown folks.
29
There is no ideology worthy of being named "Trumpism". Trump is a reactionary. He is simply against what Obama was for. I pity Ivanka that she has such a father. If she is the answer what is the question? Yes the US has lost all intellectual and moral authority to lead the free world. As this article confirms. Sanctimony meets cognitive dissonance in a publication that should know better.
15
"Sanctimony meets cognitive dissonance in a publication that should know better."
This so succinctly sums up Ross Douthat's column that it deserves more than simply a recommend. I'm not sure how a comment becomes a Times pick, but GRW's needs to be one.
This so succinctly sums up Ross Douthat's column that it deserves more than simply a recommend. I'm not sure how a comment becomes a Times pick, but GRW's needs to be one.
3
Planned Parenthood views abortion as a positive good? So they advocate that women should be required to have abortions? Or maybe the call for tax credits for women who abort as many children as possible? The first sign of a hack is that the leave a line of straw men burning in their wake. If you have to misrepresent the positions of those you disagree with to serve your religious agenda Im not sure just why we subscribers ought to fund you.
14
"Indeed, in a White House where everything is inappropriate, Ivanka has been considerably less embarrassing than most, and in an administration whose populist agenda keeps misfiring, she has stayed surprisingly on target."
Congratulations, Mr. Douthat, you have taken another mini-step toward normalization of Trumpism. Be proud.
Congratulations, Mr. Douthat, you have taken another mini-step toward normalization of Trumpism. Be proud.
12
Umm, what?
Go read Lindy West.
Nepotism is a sign of someone who values loyalty (blood!) above all else. It is practiced at our country's peril at a time when we face civil war, nuclear annihilation, and the ruin of our entire environment.
This person has done nothing to counter the darkest impulses of the administration, and her silence can only be deemed support.
I don't care a bit about her views; she has not earned the public's ear. She has no track record of any public service at all. Good riddance. As soon as possible.
Go read Lindy West.
Nepotism is a sign of someone who values loyalty (blood!) above all else. It is practiced at our country's peril at a time when we face civil war, nuclear annihilation, and the ruin of our entire environment.
This person has done nothing to counter the darkest impulses of the administration, and her silence can only be deemed support.
I don't care a bit about her views; she has not earned the public's ear. She has no track record of any public service at all. Good riddance. As soon as possible.
318
Are you talking about Robert Kennedy, or Hillary, or Ivanka?
Perfectly stated KW. Foolish to even consider her presence in a clinic, though to sentence her to such service would be good for her - she serves us not at all.
Nor should she. Her presence is indeed an embarrassment, Ross, and though less of one, to think she has an office near her Father and assumes the paid position as Counsel is appalling. Her appearance abroad is horrifying as the Presidency is diminished each day, Trump now being somewhat credited with crossing the aisle as though he planned an action, rather than bumbled in a fit of acrimony. Mueller cannot possibly save us soon enough. Out with the lot.
Nor should she. Her presence is indeed an embarrassment, Ross, and though less of one, to think she has an office near her Father and assumes the paid position as Counsel is appalling. Her appearance abroad is horrifying as the Presidency is diminished each day, Trump now being somewhat credited with crossing the aisle as though he planned an action, rather than bumbled in a fit of acrimony. Mueller cannot possibly save us soon enough. Out with the lot.
If Viagra or Cialis were available only through Planned Parenthood you can bet that there would be a clinic on every corner of every neighborhood in America .
34
Kudos, Mary for pointing out!
Here is my hug for you.
Here is my hug for you.
4
Her PP idea went nowhere are you say "As described, her tax credit is too small and may yet die along with tax reform as a whole." And yet your conclusion is that she is a positive force in the WH? Why are you still defending this family???
13
"...sometimes the most likely heir...."
It doesn't get any smarmier than that. Disgusting.
It doesn't get any smarmier than that. Disgusting.
18
Ivanka as heir, Ross in spite of how the trumps view themselves this is not a monarchy. Ivanka is as vapid as daddy, the Apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
17
Ivanka's sole purpose is to provide the shred of hope that America has not completely lost its mind by electing her father.
5
It's the law, Mr. Douthat. That speaks for itself.
4
Mr. Douthat should decide if he's a journalist or a monk - every column lays bare this conflict.
5
I do not know any liberal or moderate who thinks "abortion is a positive good"
It is the Conservative, religious agenda who spouts this drivel about the liberals and anyone else who believes it is a private matter between a man and a woman and what choice they make.
If Ivanka had any understanding how most American women live, her proposals may be taken seriously. I have not seen one story where she actually goes out and talks to working women who do not have great paying jobs, who are not in the professions. They live hand to mouth. A lot of them are the working poor.
Ivanka may want to take a page out of Princess Diana's playbook and get out of her comfort zone. See how real women live. Then I might take her seriously.
It is the Conservative, religious agenda who spouts this drivel about the liberals and anyone else who believes it is a private matter between a man and a woman and what choice they make.
If Ivanka had any understanding how most American women live, her proposals may be taken seriously. I have not seen one story where she actually goes out and talks to working women who do not have great paying jobs, who are not in the professions. They live hand to mouth. A lot of them are the working poor.
Ivanka may want to take a page out of Princess Diana's playbook and get out of her comfort zone. See how real women live. Then I might take her seriously.
222
"I have not seen one story where she actually goes out and talks to working women who do not have great paying jobs, who are not in the professions."
She might occasionally say "Thank you" to the people who are employed on her father's properties, but I suspect that's as close as she gets to a conversation with the average person.
She might occasionally say "Thank you" to the people who are employed on her father's properties, but I suspect that's as close as she gets to a conversation with the average person.
1
Jean Cleary If she, Ivanka hasn't ever taken the opportunity to learn about what real women to through by now, she never will.
1
your comment is excellent; except---please do not take any of this clan seriously. they are not worth.
3
I have to say that, for the most part, I am diametrically opposed to most of Mr. Douthat's columns, however, this time he sounds reasonable. That Ivanka Trump recognizes what the people would support is highly intelligent and why Congress will likely forget it. Thank you for throwing support to an idea rather than castigating the messenger for who she is.
3
Blood is usually thicker than water. If Ivanka was the daughter of typical Manhattan liberal, I expect she'd have been denouncing Trump up one side and down the other for years. She needs to take a cue from Patty Davis and Ron Reagan, Jr.
11
I have stepped in puddles deeper than the emotional or intellectual depth of Ivanka Trump.
Our culture has to stop thinking that "beauty" is equivalent to good. That's as superficial (and dangerous) a belief as believing Ivanka weakly saying " but Daddy"....is going to stop the plight of Daddy Don on our lives.
Our culture has to stop thinking that "beauty" is equivalent to good. That's as superficial (and dangerous) a belief as believing Ivanka weakly saying " but Daddy"....is going to stop the plight of Daddy Don on our lives.
18
Ivanka is prettier than Donald, while shallow in its truth, it is the only discernible difference between them. Trump family of opportunists lack the basics of human decency.
20
Actually I feel kinda sad for Ivanka-=. She has no governmental experience, she lacks total knowledge of the legislative process, she has no understanding of administrative law, no concept of that people actually think she is totally unfit for the job she holds, she is saddled with the fact that she is only in the position she has is because her father is President. Why she would want to put herself in such situation is so foolish. Her father has set her up to fail. Her elevation to the job she holds is simply an indication of how poor a President we have. Poor Ivanka
6
I'm sure the money helps with " guilt". But I'm also sure that entire Family has NONE. Ever.
1
Ross, please remember that abortion is LEGAL in this country and by splitting off abortion service to a smaller organization and just not fund it would have definitely killed it. Ross, I know you are Catholic and completely anti-abortion, so skipping the fact that what Ivanaka suggests would have essentially taken away service for the 300,000 plus women who need does not make this discussion an honest, open discussion. This is the same conservative argument of starving the beast, just take away the money and legal or not, the service would stop. By the way, before you pile on praises on the first daughter, don't forget she had a hand in scrapping the equal pay bill that demands same pay for same work between gender. I don't know if your wife (or your daughter in the future) but this is not a good thing, right? I hope even you will stand up for women on this, even with your anti-women body rant.
13
I was a firm believer in the Peter Principle until this family of oily grifters drifted onto the radar. Every single one of them has risen far above their qualifications and ability, pushed by a society that honors money above all.
I guess the PP needs an adjunct when politics and self-interest are involved.
I guess the PP needs an adjunct when politics and self-interest are involved.
6
Attempting to whitewash Ivanka Trump with her abusive Asian manufacturers, big ownership stakes in the semi-shady family real estate -- both hers and her husband's -- and inappropriate appearances in the midst of serious discussions by govt professionals is just lame as she is.
This is just another anti-abortion argument wrapped around a really silly straw manikin.
This is just another anti-abortion argument wrapped around a really silly straw manikin.
15
It is both a shame and disingenuous that Ross would link to the Daily Caller (shameless "click bait") rather than to the Planned Parenthood Annual report itself. Actual report here:
https://www.plannedparenthood.org/uploads/filer_public/18/40/1840b04b-55...
One can see where if you look at the total number of patients, total number of services, and total number of visits, it is not possible to disaggregate (nor intended as a definition) "prenatal services" from the pie chart as Ross (and his buddies over at the Daily Caller) are suggesting.
https://www.plannedparenthood.org/uploads/filer_public/18/40/1840b04b-55...
One can see where if you look at the total number of patients, total number of services, and total number of visits, it is not possible to disaggregate (nor intended as a definition) "prenatal services" from the pie chart as Ross (and his buddies over at the Daily Caller) are suggesting.
9
Tiny lives are very important to the GOP (its propaganda wing, at least) until those tiny lives need a good education and health care. Then the magic of the marketplace will take care of them, right?
12
Too much praise for Ivanka as a thinker in this piece rather than the obvious "gee, many people have thought of that." It's called moderate politics. The problem with the suggestion is that it would leave the abortion provision out on a limb and isolate it as a target (in every way, including the violent one). The termination of a pregnancy gets a great deal of political attention by people who would do well to focus some of their energy on the poverty-stricken children of American and those who are routinely abused. Journalistic pieces on the abortion "debate" too often take a women's choice on this matter as a not good enough standard. This reeks of misogyny. If men were the ones getting pregnant ... (fill in the blank).
3
Trumpism? (I'm from Oakland, so I'm assuming I can get away with this). It's like Gertrude Stein's Oakland. How can one dignify donald trump's mish-mash of impulse with a term that implies coherence?
2
This woman does not deserve one inch of space in the press. She is window dressing with no substance. This opinion piece would be more useful if it left her out completely and stuck to actual proposals and the real people involved.
8
Trumpian ideology? What is that? So he's against abortion this week, next week he'll change his mind. As for Ivanka, she is a cynical oligarch. She is the heir apparent to Putin, whose chair she has already tried out.
1
Reproductive rights equals abortion rights. Why not just call it that or the killing of innocent human life against their will. Very sad.
1
"Ivanka has been considerably less embarrassing than most" members of the Trump administration.
Really, Ross, that bar is pathetically low.
Really, Ross, that bar is pathetically low.
7
The author apparently is unaware of the content of these proposals Ivanka puts forward. When one actually reads what she's proposing, one has to wonder if she had one of her unpaid interns (that get no college credit either because she won't comply with university requirements the intern benefit more than the boss from the relationship. A chip off the old block.) draft or download them?
Ivanka's "Parental Leave" proposal, introduced with a rude aside to Hillary about her lack of emotional "energy"/care for her supporters as evidenced by her lack of such a policy...which was easily googled and online, introduced earlier in May, 2016, after plenty of research into what such policies must contain (12 wks minimum leave for lifetime bonding to occur, applicable to all new parents, birth and adoptive, single, relationship, married, male and female, LGBTQ...) could have been drafted by ALEC--Ivanka proposed just 6 wks leave for birth mothers producing a marriage license to a male. Worse, it called for funding from unemployment comp w/t assurance it could not be depleted by such use. This used to be called Maternity Leave, a BENEFIT ALL women received separately from unemployment compensation!
The childcare proposal Ivanka offered-up during the election would have allowed her to hire 2 full-time nannies, yet a minimum wage mom would receive nothing, because she filed a short form 1040, or just did not earn enough. Entitled just like "Daddy." Out to help herself like Daddy, too.
Ivanka's "Parental Leave" proposal, introduced with a rude aside to Hillary about her lack of emotional "energy"/care for her supporters as evidenced by her lack of such a policy...which was easily googled and online, introduced earlier in May, 2016, after plenty of research into what such policies must contain (12 wks minimum leave for lifetime bonding to occur, applicable to all new parents, birth and adoptive, single, relationship, married, male and female, LGBTQ...) could have been drafted by ALEC--Ivanka proposed just 6 wks leave for birth mothers producing a marriage license to a male. Worse, it called for funding from unemployment comp w/t assurance it could not be depleted by such use. This used to be called Maternity Leave, a BENEFIT ALL women received separately from unemployment compensation!
The childcare proposal Ivanka offered-up during the election would have allowed her to hire 2 full-time nannies, yet a minimum wage mom would receive nothing, because she filed a short form 1040, or just did not earn enough. Entitled just like "Daddy." Out to help herself like Daddy, too.
11
Whatever you think of Planned Parenthood, Ross, you don't have to rely on another columnist. One more link would take you to all the information you need--and while it glows with praise for Planned Parenthood's work, numbers are, well, you know, NUMBERS. 665,000 cancer screenings. 2.8 million contraceptive services (which would seem to lower the need for abortion, no?). Primary sources are available. If you want to be incensed and upset at the numbers of abortions performed (3% of PP's services, or over 300,000) fine. You don't have to lie about the comparisons or take at face value another's interpretation of the data.
11
Wow, Ross did you get this wrong. Health care for women includes abortions.
How do you see the division? Maybe a bit of a desire (subconscious or otherwise) on your part to end the abortions that PP provides? Your logic and Ivanka's need some rethink. Sorry but women's health is the issue, and abortions go with it. No, back alley stuff, no return to primitive, restrictive and
constrictive laws, this is the 21st Century and we're not ruled by some invisible thing in the sky. Let reason prevail not a destructive "compromise."
How do you see the division? Maybe a bit of a desire (subconscious or otherwise) on your part to end the abortions that PP provides? Your logic and Ivanka's need some rethink. Sorry but women's health is the issue, and abortions go with it. No, back alley stuff, no return to primitive, restrictive and
constrictive laws, this is the 21st Century and we're not ruled by some invisible thing in the sky. Let reason prevail not a destructive "compromise."
9
Proponents of abortion are saying that Planned Parenthood's services include only 3 percent of abortions. That is a lot of killing of innocent human life which amounts to close to 328,000 lives a year. That figure is mind boggling to me. What would these innocent victims have accomplished if they had been allowed to survive. Doctors, lawyers, teachers, plumbers, editors, etc. We will never know will we.
As an opponent of abortion, it really saddens me to see these lives terminated. Everyday I walk past the Planned Parenthood facility in Manhattan and wonder if they are performing an abortion as I walk by. Soon I will be participating in a campaign called 40 Days For Life which consists of men and women of all ages who stand outside Planned Parenthood facilities around the US and world. We are very quiet and respectful and pray to ourselves. We have seen a drop in women having abortions due to our genuine concern for these people. Our efforts do not stop at birth. We have centers where women can go after birth with their babies were assistance is available. These women and babies are not left alone to fend for themselves. There is always someone there to aid them. We truly care and are so grateful they choose life.
Life is precious and as I watch the devastation caused by hurricanes and other natural diasters I think it is even more so. We want these innocent victims to experience life and see how wonderful it really is.
As an opponent of abortion, it really saddens me to see these lives terminated. Everyday I walk past the Planned Parenthood facility in Manhattan and wonder if they are performing an abortion as I walk by. Soon I will be participating in a campaign called 40 Days For Life which consists of men and women of all ages who stand outside Planned Parenthood facilities around the US and world. We are very quiet and respectful and pray to ourselves. We have seen a drop in women having abortions due to our genuine concern for these people. Our efforts do not stop at birth. We have centers where women can go after birth with their babies were assistance is available. These women and babies are not left alone to fend for themselves. There is always someone there to aid them. We truly care and are so grateful they choose life.
Life is precious and as I watch the devastation caused by hurricanes and other natural diasters I think it is even more so. We want these innocent victims to experience life and see how wonderful it really is.
2
- "What would these innocent victims have accomplished if they had been allowed to survive. Doctors, lawyers, teachers, plumbers, editors, etc. We will never know." Uh...no. These would mostly be unwanted children born to women and girls without resources, skills, education, or support networks. So rather more likely they would be drug-dealers, rapists, murderers, pedophiles, addicts/alcoholics, thieves, psychopaths, animal torturers, vandals, arsonists, and so on.
- "Our efforts do not stop at birth. We have centers where women can go after birth with their babies were assistance is available. These women and babies are not left alone to fend for themselves." So how does that work exactly? You're around for the next 18 years, with $300,000? All of these children would have two loving/devoted parents, nice homes in the suburbs near good schools, piano and soccer lessons, orthodontia, kittens and puppies, and little brothers names Timmy?
- "Our efforts do not stop at birth. We have centers where women can go after birth with their babies were assistance is available. These women and babies are not left alone to fend for themselves." So how does that work exactly? You're around for the next 18 years, with $300,000? All of these children would have two loving/devoted parents, nice homes in the suburbs near good schools, piano and soccer lessons, orthodontia, kittens and puppies, and little brothers names Timmy?
4
I can't think of someone who was born with a silver spoon in their mouth and who went on to do great things for their country.
With regard to Ivanka, I am willing to give her more time berore forming an opinion about her.
With regard to Ivanka, I am willing to give her more time berore forming an opinion about her.
1
Thomas Jefferson.
3
FDR
3
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
3
We are so sick of Ivanka Trump posing whenever she is photographed !
This Country is not about a beauty contest, it is about reality what`s happening to the World partly to our Country.
I am waiting for the day Ivanka is a muddy clothes, hair undone , no make up rescuing people who are in danger particularly all these abandoned animals.
People age, looks today fades tomorrow and they are completely forgotten .
This Country is not about a beauty contest, it is about reality what`s happening to the World partly to our Country.
I am waiting for the day Ivanka is a muddy clothes, hair undone , no make up rescuing people who are in danger particularly all these abandoned animals.
People age, looks today fades tomorrow and they are completely forgotten .
2
Although you say likely basically could be anyone, however, reading between the lines, I read implicitly Ivanka. She would be a disaster like her father.
Who is she to talk at all about abortion! She has nannys for her children and exclusive access to whatever she desires. She is not the everyday working woman, be that woman a mom or not. She has no understanding of the lives of women whose lives are filled with financial struggle.
Who is she to talk at all about abortion! She has nannys for her children and exclusive access to whatever she desires. She is not the everyday working woman, be that woman a mom or not. She has no understanding of the lives of women whose lives are filled with financial struggle.
3
Ms. Trump made a real estate proposal on abortion, to create separate stand-alone clinics for them. Okay, if her family builds them and the rent's no higher.
I think her suggestion is interesting and worth a second look. I also think it wouldn't matter. I don't really think it is abortions so much as women having sex and "getting away with it". For those who see pregnancy as the punishment for having sex, anything that stops that from happening, birth control or abortion, is evil.
4
We regularly contribute to Planned Parenthood. If it followed Mr. Douthat's proposal of not performing abortions, we would instantly rescind our support and call upon our friends to do the same. Abortions are precisely the reason I support Planned Parenthood. Everything else - testing, prescribing contraception and such - should be done by a regular physician (the issue of health insurance in the US is a separate one). But in this pathologically religious culture there should be one organization standing up for the women's right to control our bodies, regardless of others' irrational beliefs about 'ensoulment' and such. It is interesting that Mr. Douthat apparently believes that his theology is human nature - that everybody, regardless of their religion, should accept the nonsensical proposition that abortion is the killing of a 'tiny human life'. Well, I am not a Catholic and I don't. The idea that a fetus is a human person to me is as outlandish as transubstantiation.
290
Ross did NOT propose that Planned Parenthood, or any other person or organization, stop performing abortions. Read the article.
Oh please! Is this the best you can do? Ready and persistent access to Trump's exaggerations and tweets has coarsened and degraded our discourse - Ross, do you really imagine liberals racing to abortion clinics with smiles on their faces? The current law is there to give poor women the same rights as their wealthy sisters, who could always jet off to Scandinavia if they found themselves in need.
Do you really want any woman of this country to be reduced to the state we read recently about a 10 year-old in Chile, forced to bear the child of the man who had repeatedly abused her?
Here in rural Minnesota a 15 year-old child, thank God, recently managed to escape from the three men who had been raping and threatening her life for more than a month. If she happens to be pregnant, would you deny her the right to an abortion?
Let's get serious.
Do you really want any woman of this country to be reduced to the state we read recently about a 10 year-old in Chile, forced to bear the child of the man who had repeatedly abused her?
Here in rural Minnesota a 15 year-old child, thank God, recently managed to escape from the three men who had been raping and threatening her life for more than a month. If she happens to be pregnant, would you deny her the right to an abortion?
Let's get serious.
60
Just as we thought we had reached rock bottom here comes Ross to point out how wrong we could be.
35
Praising Ivanka's role in the Trump Administration is like extolling the virtues of the deck chairs on the Titanic.
52
When asked about her father's penchant for not paying his contractors, she said she absolutely approves of that, because "If you are not perfectly happy with their performance, you should not have to pay them anything at all!."
And, at the time, I was reading a story about a man who delivered pianos---pianos--that Trump refused to pay for. All of the "little people" who go bankrupt or lose their livelihood because the imperious Trumps refuse to pay.
And, at the time, I was reading a story about a man who delivered pianos---pianos--that Trump refused to pay for. All of the "little people" who go bankrupt or lose their livelihood because the imperious Trumps refuse to pay.
7
Because Ivanka has "been considerly less embarrassing" does not make her effective in any capacity.
46
It is said that extremes meet one another. So to find out more about tower ladies like Ivanka and Melania, we could go and learn their truth by asking ladies that were kept in a cellar, like Natascha Kampusch, about the power relations involved.
As a rich mind, willing to take risks for the benefit of sowing its wisdom into the collective, can end up in solitary confinement as a consequence, and grow even larger in richness of wisdom through the experience, as happened to Nelson Mandela, the egomania of the sociopath can bring it boundless shiny appearance of freedom, up a high tower, off to luxury resorts by the sea, golf courts, and even beauty pageant dressing rooms full of beautiful naked teenagers etc., and see the mind close itself to an even more narrow perspective of surgical egotism.
Donald Trump has said he enjoys it when they "let you do it" out of sheer awe for his stardom, and we can safely assume the same goes for his wife doing as he pleases. In this light, it seems no coincidence that he chose a wife from Eastern Europe twice.
Ivanka is the daughter of such a choice, likely more submissive than an American pick.
A sociopath who seeks the buck and the spotlight, likely seeks in his child an extra buck and an accessory to pose with, like he uses his wife as escalator accessory.
As the daughter of a choice seeking submission, Ivanka is quasi exhibit Ivanka of white male privilege, a living doll to pose with.
We cannot expect she will ever recognize this.
As a rich mind, willing to take risks for the benefit of sowing its wisdom into the collective, can end up in solitary confinement as a consequence, and grow even larger in richness of wisdom through the experience, as happened to Nelson Mandela, the egomania of the sociopath can bring it boundless shiny appearance of freedom, up a high tower, off to luxury resorts by the sea, golf courts, and even beauty pageant dressing rooms full of beautiful naked teenagers etc., and see the mind close itself to an even more narrow perspective of surgical egotism.
Donald Trump has said he enjoys it when they "let you do it" out of sheer awe for his stardom, and we can safely assume the same goes for his wife doing as he pleases. In this light, it seems no coincidence that he chose a wife from Eastern Europe twice.
Ivanka is the daughter of such a choice, likely more submissive than an American pick.
A sociopath who seeks the buck and the spotlight, likely seeks in his child an extra buck and an accessory to pose with, like he uses his wife as escalator accessory.
As the daughter of a choice seeking submission, Ivanka is quasi exhibit Ivanka of white male privilege, a living doll to pose with.
We cannot expect she will ever recognize this.
18
I wrote this before I went to sleep, then saw it wasn´t let in when I woke the next European morning, so I dropped the first paragraph, betting on it as the stumbling stone that got the comment discarded, and submitted a new one with the added bonus that it ended up as a more harmonious whole.
Many of my submissions end up swallowed by anonymous condemnation, almost always for reasons I can´t fathom, and that of (golf!) course are never disclosed. It´s the open wound, recurring shock, and reverberating, very depressing pain of my current life. I feel my signature online identity is getting raped, with a method that seems to be motivated by the imperative that voices for meaningful change, that Clinton Democrats don´t like or can´t cope with, need to be suppressed. Yet to my chagrin this sounds paranoid, I can´t prove this or even be sure, and other great voices appear left ungrabbed, so why would I forever get the brunt of the censorship or burial wrath?
Having grown weary and cynical from my multifold sorrowful experiences with censorship, I actually expected the new one to perish in Modland too. This was a seldom case where I understood-in-advance ending up censored, but gave it a shot anyway.
Then, to my surprise, the new one was published first - a mirage! - and some inexplicable hours later they put this old one up too, submitted a night´s sleep before the second.
Just so you have an explanation why I wrote two, in case you saw or will yet come across the other one.
Many of my submissions end up swallowed by anonymous condemnation, almost always for reasons I can´t fathom, and that of (golf!) course are never disclosed. It´s the open wound, recurring shock, and reverberating, very depressing pain of my current life. I feel my signature online identity is getting raped, with a method that seems to be motivated by the imperative that voices for meaningful change, that Clinton Democrats don´t like or can´t cope with, need to be suppressed. Yet to my chagrin this sounds paranoid, I can´t prove this or even be sure, and other great voices appear left ungrabbed, so why would I forever get the brunt of the censorship or burial wrath?
Having grown weary and cynical from my multifold sorrowful experiences with censorship, I actually expected the new one to perish in Modland too. This was a seldom case where I understood-in-advance ending up censored, but gave it a shot anyway.
Then, to my surprise, the new one was published first - a mirage! - and some inexplicable hours later they put this old one up too, submitted a night´s sleep before the second.
Just so you have an explanation why I wrote two, in case you saw or will yet come across the other one.
Just because Trump was right about a few things does not mean he is a political genius. He is still the most unqualified and mean President in recent history.
He never belonged in the Oval Office and his 'heir apparent" will never be qualified either. She looks nicer than 'Daddy' that's all.
The Trumps are a family of grifters. Cons out to get as much money as they can before time is up. That is the Trump 'instinct'.
Besides, in 2020 Trump will actually have a record which can be examined. The cult of worship will be looking at their paychecks, their healthcare such as it is, their lack of paycheck, their worthless tax cut and be able to judge for themselves Trump's words versus his actions. The rallies may offer brief racial animosity to make them temporarily forget but paying for such moments may not seem worth it.
'Daddy's' girl will go where the money is. And who knows where Jared will be in 2020? This is a sorry Trumpian republican fantasy attempt to normalize/give value to the child who studied best what Daddy is selling Trump, INC.
He never belonged in the Oval Office and his 'heir apparent" will never be qualified either. She looks nicer than 'Daddy' that's all.
The Trumps are a family of grifters. Cons out to get as much money as they can before time is up. That is the Trump 'instinct'.
Besides, in 2020 Trump will actually have a record which can be examined. The cult of worship will be looking at their paychecks, their healthcare such as it is, their lack of paycheck, their worthless tax cut and be able to judge for themselves Trump's words versus his actions. The rallies may offer brief racial animosity to make them temporarily forget but paying for such moments may not seem worth it.
'Daddy's' girl will go where the money is. And who knows where Jared will be in 2020? This is a sorry Trumpian republican fantasy attempt to normalize/give value to the child who studied best what Daddy is selling Trump, INC.
28
Ivankais a much of a con artist and a fraud as her father, and the whole child care tax credit and the fact that you think it would help the working class is proof. Tax credits are of no use to the working class or the poor, and refunds against the payroll tax just hurt Social Security, a clear secondary goal that you evidently support. The working class and the poor need the cash for child care, not a tax credit in April. But you are correct, her proposal would help the women she is championing, rich, entitled women like herself....the ones who least need the help.
22
She's Trump Lite, and stopped being anything more than a silly, pampered curiosity months ago.
22
Mr. Douthat deserves some respect for his generally thoughtful, if overly conservative (in my view) pieces. But, when his religion insinuates itself into his columns as fact, you have to reconsider. In this article he refers to "disposing of tiny human lives", and this notion is critical to his argument. A just-fertilized egg has no nervous system, and apparently has a very good chance of being aborted spontaneously. To refer to this zygote as a "tiny human life" can only be supported by a religious argument, god popping a "soul" in at the "moment of conception" (another dubious idea.) Of course, at the other end, an 8+ month old fetus is quite another matter, and so there is plenty of grounds for discussion. But that discussion is not helped by interjection of terms like "immortal soul", "tiny human lives", etc.
26
I agree with your conclusion of there being "plenty of grounds for discussion" between the extremes, I suggest that your discomfort with Douthat's choice of words about "tiny human life", however, is a product of the reality that the grounds for discussion involves determining when human life is worthy of the protection of the State. It is a biological fact (in addition to religious dogma) that a unique human life is established at the moment of conception. Being microscopic means that "tiny human life" is an objectively accurate description. I agree as well with your implication that a zygote does not warrant state protection superior to the protection of the rights of the woman in whom it resides. I also agree that "an 8+ month old fetus is quite another matter". In order for us to have an honest discussion with those who hold different views on the role of the State in such matters, we must accept the fact that the discussion is about when the rights of one human outweigh the rights of another and that we're asking the State to enforce the outcome of that discussion. Choosing to avoid the objective fact that the discussion starts at conception is as unhelpful as including the distinctly subjective religious concept of a soul.
1
Thanks for putting this so well. It needs to be said. Again and again. And to remind us all how offensive this religious jingoism is, even when it slides by in what appears to be a thoughtful discussion.
1
The Roe V Wade decision got it right! It has worked well. And if people think women born after that time are going to just suddenly go back to making abortion illegal, they have not been paying attention.
1
The Trump family intends that Ivanka is the first female POTUS. It is one reason why she is in Washington, why she's written a book about working women and why she is sponsoring legislation. In Trump's proposed budget, with its draconian public service program cuts, somehow Ivanka's proposed child tax credit survived. You are being naive if you believe Ivanka's "platform's" main purpose is helping working Americans. Its purpose is to position Ivanka in a political career with the help of Daddy. The Trump's are a completely self-serving family and I will say it again, if you have not worked this out yet, you are being incredibly naive.
22
Donald Jr. has already said he is going to run for office---he is just picking out the one to run for. Wouldn't it be terrible if he gets indicted....
1
"[This] doesn’t make Ivanka’s White House role any less nepotistic, or her attempts to maintain a Manhattan socialite’s brand in a G.O.P. administration any less foredoomed."
Basically the only sentence I agree with in this article.
Whatever her views may be - at this point, they are quite unfathomable - she is not a "politician" at all, she is, as the author grudgingly states, a favored daughter in a cravenly nepotistic position. She wasn't elected, she didn't work her way up the ranks, she didn't study for the job.
That the "First Daughter" waltzed into a meeting on the debt ceiling the other day, and instantly incurred the wrath of the GOP politicians sitting there, says it all.
She capped off her busy day with an embarrassingly Marilyn Monroe-like performance at her father's (weekly) campaign rally. ("Hiiii, South Dakota!")
When will this bad dream come to an end?
Basically the only sentence I agree with in this article.
Whatever her views may be - at this point, they are quite unfathomable - she is not a "politician" at all, she is, as the author grudgingly states, a favored daughter in a cravenly nepotistic position. She wasn't elected, she didn't work her way up the ranks, she didn't study for the job.
That the "First Daughter" waltzed into a meeting on the debt ceiling the other day, and instantly incurred the wrath of the GOP politicians sitting there, says it all.
She capped off her busy day with an embarrassingly Marilyn Monroe-like performance at her father's (weekly) campaign rally. ("Hiiii, South Dakota!")
When will this bad dream come to an end?
22
Roe versus Wade dealt with all these issues and the U.S. Supreme Court - all men at the time - decided the issue.
Read the decision -
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/410/113/case.html
Move on !
Read the decision -
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/410/113/case.html
Move on !
16
"Daddy, can I go with you?" Trump said his adult daughter asked him as he prepared to leave for North Dakota.
No, she is not a modern woman nor an individual who has made it on her own. She's a complicit enabler of America's worst president. There's nothing there on which to build a dynasty.
No, she is not a modern woman nor an individual who has made it on her own. She's a complicit enabler of America's worst president. There's nothing there on which to build a dynasty.
28
"In our increasingly imperial republic, sometimes the most likely heir is already in the line of succession."
That is a frightening observation. No doubt the Republican vassals would pass the throne to Princess Ivanka. All the more reason to cleanse America of the Republican Party. Democracy is on the line.
That is a frightening observation. No doubt the Republican vassals would pass the throne to Princess Ivanka. All the more reason to cleanse America of the Republican Party. Democracy is on the line.
14
Hasn't the country had enough of these materialistic, self-aggrandizing people? She is absolutely no better than any Kardashian, a self-promoting dilettante who has the hubris to think that she has any credentials whatsoever to advise, make policy or help govern. We'll all be better off when daddy trump is imprisoned/impeached and the trump spawn are banished from White House.
19
Miss Trump is a political visionary. Now I get it. Thanks.
6
I have been in the company of many very liberal friends and I have never heard one of them refer to abortion-as-a-positive-good. I know that to a man they strongly support abortion-as-a-right, which is not in any way the same thing.
29
If Ross Douthat were seriously interested in having a discussion about Ivana or anyone else with regard to Planned Parethood he would take more care to present facts in his argument rather than repeating and promoting disinformation and about PP, the people who believe in a woman's right to chose, and public funding of abortion. He knows perfectly well that PP receives NO public funding for its abortion services, and that making a profit from giving abortions, as one of his cheerleader commenters said, is just simply untrue and always has been. He would care more about presenting a true picture rather than going out of his way to pander to his base by distorting the role PP actually plays in providing healthcare to women and what percentage abortion services play in that. "Abortion as a good"? Talk about a pejorative oversimplification of a deeply complicated moral issue in the guise of coherent argument. (And, of course, it derails the discussion from the real point of a woman's right to chose.) And there he goes again with his characterization of embryos as "little lives." It reminds me of the old saw - does Douthat know the difference between a chicken and an egg, including the fertilized ones that undoubtedly end up in his breakfast from time to time? Douthat has no real interest in furthering the cause of women's health care, or protecting PP from the ongoing effort of Trumpence and the Right to destroy it. A little more honesty would be nice.
21
Disinformation about PP? Having been employed at PP as a CFO at several affiliates, Abortion and Oral Contraceptive sales are the cash cows that economically drive the organization. Abortion services and OCP sales turn a tidy profit which funds other aspects of the organization.
1
Republicans though Sarah Palin was acceptable candidate to be heartbeat away from the Presidency, so I suppose Ivanka is no less ridiculous. Some folks never get passed the high school mindset where everything is a beauty contest...
18
That this is how you chose to have a discussion this week speaks volumes about the true pathetic nature of D.C., the current WH and political leadership as a whole.
Russ, please. We need stand out insight based on facts for a better US.
What cures our Republic?
Not gross capitalism.
Capitalism with a moral center, ruled by law.
A third party.
Term limits.
No, ZERO money in lobbying.
People WILL read this because we know we NEED this.
Russ, please. We need stand out insight based on facts for a better US.
What cures our Republic?
Not gross capitalism.
Capitalism with a moral center, ruled by law.
A third party.
Term limits.
No, ZERO money in lobbying.
People WILL read this because we know we NEED this.
4
Ivanka Trump and her old man, in your estimation, the equivalent of Franklin and Eleanor?
Please, Ross, take a few minutes and consider what you wrote here. The Trumps, from the paterfamilias on down—the exception being little Baron—are simply an embarassment to the world. They are all a mile wide and an inch deep: an unanchored, opportunistic bunch of tomb raiders, who, along with their hyper rich friends in the West Wing, are grabbing at anythng not nailed down.
They all must go.
Please, Ross, take a few minutes and consider what you wrote here. The Trumps, from the paterfamilias on down—the exception being little Baron—are simply an embarassment to the world. They are all a mile wide and an inch deep: an unanchored, opportunistic bunch of tomb raiders, who, along with their hyper rich friends in the West Wing, are grabbing at anythng not nailed down.
They all must go.
17
Please! No more Trumps. Or Bushes. Or Clintons, God help us. Political dynasties are un-American, like nepotism (sorry, Ivanka and Hillary) and corruption. We will never be entirely rid of any of them, but we know they are wrong and to be resisted.
6
Naive! The UN Population Fund does not participate in abortions yet every administration since Reagan has defunded it because of the absolutely false calumny that UNFPA participates in China''s coercive policies. No other country in the world or any of our allies finds this to be true. No! These people are against women's health and choices writ large.
10
Right idea, wrong organization. The one in need of splitting in two is Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
What got Komen in trouble was screening - specifically whether to quit paying Planned Parenthood to do it.
Early detection, though laudable, is not the same thing as a cure. Spinning it out into a separate organization would, ahem, cure Komen's institutiional drift - and keep the agenda out of the cure.
What got Komen in trouble was screening - specifically whether to quit paying Planned Parenthood to do it.
Early detection, though laudable, is not the same thing as a cure. Spinning it out into a separate organization would, ahem, cure Komen's institutiional drift - and keep the agenda out of the cure.
4
Ivanka is the epitome of a wolf in sheep's clothing. She seems smart and nice but she and Jared are key participants in the Trump con.
If anything she softens her Daddy's harsh views towards Planned Parenthood which will be really hard on a huge number of women.
Don't let the nice smile fool you, like Donald she has next to no scruples.
If anything she softens her Daddy's harsh views towards Planned Parenthood which will be really hard on a huge number of women.
Don't let the nice smile fool you, like Donald she has next to no scruples.
12
"less embarrassing than others"??? What about manufacturing cheap stuff overseas while the Administration says they're promoting Made in the USA? Just to name one thing - there are others. Dare I mention that she mostly gets a pass cause she's pretty? She should be judged by the family of which she is part: privileged con-artists always saying one thing and doing another. No, there is not Ivanka way that isn't a Trump way though and through.
8
As long as always, and circling around as ever, i was wondering where mr. Douthat, the nyt's official recapper of politics, was wandering about, and obviously the answer is at the end paragraph:
"..in an administration whose populist agenda keeps misfiring, she has stayed surprisingly on target.."
Yes, she, mr.Trump's daughter, could be on the target, which doesn't mean either she is right, or approaching the problem with a "increasingly by being used to" successful strategy.
Also nobody, even mr. Douthat, can't seriously believe a one-point policyman-woman could go anywhere.
But wait for the close for the real surprise:
"...In our increasingly imperial republic, sometimes the most likely heir is already in the line of succession..."
Then you know what the writer/recapper is thinking about:
"I'm sorely missing any GoT and Downton Abbey new episode right now.."
"..in an administration whose populist agenda keeps misfiring, she has stayed surprisingly on target.."
Yes, she, mr.Trump's daughter, could be on the target, which doesn't mean either she is right, or approaching the problem with a "increasingly by being used to" successful strategy.
Also nobody, even mr. Douthat, can't seriously believe a one-point policyman-woman could go anywhere.
But wait for the close for the real surprise:
"...In our increasingly imperial republic, sometimes the most likely heir is already in the line of succession..."
Then you know what the writer/recapper is thinking about:
"I'm sorely missing any GoT and Downton Abbey new episode right now.."
3
Just FYI, the reason that PP may facilitate more abortions than pre-natal visits is that women who can afford to have babies generally have insurance and see their own OB/GYNs for prenatal care.
It's interesting that Douthat doesn't see any kind of connection between the economy, women's education, opportunities, and wages, the availabilty of affordable health care, and women's reproductive choices.
If memory serves, according to the CDC something like 91% of induced abortions in America are performed in the first trimester. "Tiny human beings": unless Mr. Douthat wants to mandate a 'birth' certificate and funeral arrangements for every miscarriage, something's screwy here: if it winds up in the toilet bowl, it's an unformed mass, if it's an induced abortion, it's a human child?
It's interesting that Douthat doesn't see any kind of connection between the economy, women's education, opportunities, and wages, the availabilty of affordable health care, and women's reproductive choices.
If memory serves, according to the CDC something like 91% of induced abortions in America are performed in the first trimester. "Tiny human beings": unless Mr. Douthat wants to mandate a 'birth' certificate and funeral arrangements for every miscarriage, something's screwy here: if it winds up in the toilet bowl, it's an unformed mass, if it's an induced abortion, it's a human child?
10
Has it ever crossed anyone's mind that almost 330,000 women last year believed they NEEDED abortions? Whether one believes it abortion or not (and personally I'm not sure I could do it), obviously hundreds of thousands of American women believe it is the best solution for them. -- So while we all march around saying it's wrong/they don't have that right, etc., how about facing the fact that for countless women it's the only working choice. -- And we can either leave them alone with their decision or try to find a home for the babies that will result if we ban abortion -- and after 50 years of observing all the outrage, I don't think the anti-abortion people have taken a single step toward either option.
18
Sherri's reply below is much more informative than Douthat's article. Further, her reply provides the accurate data the public needs.
2
I was so pleased after reading this article. Thanks. Ivanka totally makes sense to me. This country and most of us are hijacked by both extreme groups of the far right and far left. But we small people compromise in our daily struggles in order to keep our heads above water. We just don't have the luxury. Politicians are no better than used car sales people. They know exactly how to play with their base. They divide people along racial line, have vs. have-not, religion, etc. The best example is government-run healthcare. One group benefits from government-run healthcare is very much against government-run healthcare for others. They even demonize it as "socialist medicine" while praising their own healthcare.
Speaking of abortions, nobody wants to see innocent life lost for no good reasons. However, it is just too convenient to blame women going through abortions. If conservatives truly mean it, they should increase funding for sex education, childcare, marternal leaves and adoptions. They can easily increase incentives of keeping babies to terms and find a solution afterwards.
Speaking of abortions, nobody wants to see innocent life lost for no good reasons. However, it is just too convenient to blame women going through abortions. If conservatives truly mean it, they should increase funding for sex education, childcare, marternal leaves and adoptions. They can easily increase incentives of keeping babies to terms and find a solution afterwards.
42
I wonder how Ivanka would react if you placed her in the company of "small people [who] compromise in our daily struggles in order to keep our heads above water." What daily struggles? The one over which designer bag to carry that day? Or what Chinese sweatshop deserves to be on her list of manufacturers? Maybe it's the struggle over whether the maid can take a day off to visit her ailing mother?
2
Thank you, that was hilarious. It's good to be able to laugh in times like these, with storms about to descend and 9/11 about to be "celebrated" again with tales of heroes, while mostly ignoring the tens of thousands of heartbroken survivors and the victims.
Thank goodness for Ross, ready at the keyboard with a silly story to cheer us up and pretend Ivanka Trump has some relevance as anything other than a preening model for her clothing and accessories brand.
Good satire!
Thank goodness for Ross, ready at the keyboard with a silly story to cheer us up and pretend Ivanka Trump has some relevance as anything other than a preening model for her clothing and accessories brand.
Good satire!
18
Last week when Ivanka said "Daddy can I come (to North Dakota) with you", any credibility she had (which was very little) evaporated into the humiliating spectacle her "Daddy" made of her on that stage in North Dakota. In describing how her ideas could help Planned Parenthood. Ross neatly passes over the question of what she and Jared are doing in the WH to begin with; the narrative she's there to soften her "Daddy's" image is in shambles, yet another failed Trump scam.
9
Ivanka is the absolute worst of the Trump's. Why the media keeps giving her a pass or calling her a moderate is beyond belief. Her only goal is slapping her name on products produced in third world countries.
10
Ivanka is all about the "do as I say, not as I do" school. She is all for empowering women, but her employees do not get the benefits she encourages everyone else to provide. But the most hypocritical is hawking her products every chance she gets. Obviously, like her father, the bottom line is what counts. And the fact that her product line is made by people who work in miserable conditions for miserable pay only made her self-serving lifestyle all the more disgusting.
14
Ross, stop giving credit where it isn't due. Ivanka may be a good-looking blonde who pays lip service to popular liberal causes like Planned Parenthood and equal pay for women, but she never follows through. She's a greedy spoiled brat like the rest of the Trump offspring; her influence on her father is vastly overrated, and she has tried to profit off his presidency just like the rest of the family. The thought of her having any role in government is chilling and if it ever happens our democracy is doomed to a perpetual cycle of celebrity worship.
16
Do you think Ivanka would allow her children to have a sleep over at the single wide home of an Appalachian supporter? Do you think the Kushners would take advantage of their proximity to some of the nation's most dire neighborhoods and go get a look for themselves? Instead of watching the Wire and sipping fresh green juices provided by household staff, do you think they'd actually venture to a below poverty home in a dangerous neighborhood and break bread with the family within? Doubtful.
I remember that line from Caddyshack, "I have a pond and a pool. The pond would be good for you."
The Trump children are disconnected from the average Americans they say they've championed. They are appalled by them. They evict those types from their properties. They exercise eminent domain and bulldoze affordable housing for glass and steel boxes.
Ivanka Trump is a fraud, like her father. She has been carrying the family mantle her whole life, in trying to scrub the tarnish off the brand. In reality, Ivanka has been trying to control what she can in life that is beyond her control. She owns a husband that she can dominate to the point where he has potentially committed felonies on her father's behalf. Unlike her brothers, no matter what happens in Ivanka's world, she has secured a fortune through her husband, even if her father's true wealth is a sham.
Her brothers high fived each other, when they were handed the reigns to the family biz. Ivanka smiled as she sought her exit strategy.
I remember that line from Caddyshack, "I have a pond and a pool. The pond would be good for you."
The Trump children are disconnected from the average Americans they say they've championed. They are appalled by them. They evict those types from their properties. They exercise eminent domain and bulldoze affordable housing for glass and steel boxes.
Ivanka Trump is a fraud, like her father. She has been carrying the family mantle her whole life, in trying to scrub the tarnish off the brand. In reality, Ivanka has been trying to control what she can in life that is beyond her control. She owns a husband that she can dominate to the point where he has potentially committed felonies on her father's behalf. Unlike her brothers, no matter what happens in Ivanka's world, she has secured a fortune through her husband, even if her father's true wealth is a sham.
Her brothers high fived each other, when they were handed the reigns to the family biz. Ivanka smiled as she sought her exit strategy.
8
Another thought:
This plan reminds me of the partition of India, in which Churchill did a behind the scenes deal with Jindal, to secure a warm-weather harbor to protect Britain's oil interests. Thus: Pakistan: a nation created to separate Hindus and Muslims, but really to protect imperialist interests. Are we heading towards a division of our own country, based on the interests of white separatists and misogynists whose agenda includes control of women's bodies? Ivanka's plan is one way to start: separate abortion rights from other rights, de-legitimize it, and defund it. Easy as pie. Chilling.
This plan reminds me of the partition of India, in which Churchill did a behind the scenes deal with Jindal, to secure a warm-weather harbor to protect Britain's oil interests. Thus: Pakistan: a nation created to separate Hindus and Muslims, but really to protect imperialist interests. Are we heading towards a division of our own country, based on the interests of white separatists and misogynists whose agenda includes control of women's bodies? Ivanka's plan is one way to start: separate abortion rights from other rights, de-legitimize it, and defund it. Easy as pie. Chilling.
10
Quite incorrect regarding the division of British India. The driving force for the split was Ali Jinnah and his Muslim League. Twenty five years later Pakistan itself split into Bangladesh ( formerly East Pakistan ) and today's Pakistan ( West Pakistan ).
1
No. Actually that's not true. Churchill promised to the split to Jinnah before Mountbatten arrived in order to protect British interests.
I have a hard time even getting to accept that a pocketbook designer and claim to fame is chinese sweat shops has access to and influence over national and global policy.
13
"Indeed, in a White House where everything is inappropriate, Ivanka has been considerably less embarrassing than most..." - says it all. Seems to be the most we can hope for in this administration.
6
Ross is being a bit disingenuous when he documents the 328,348 abortion figure for last year. This represents 3% of the discrete services provided by Planned Parenthood. However, there are problems with the interpretation of this figure as well, and rather than dwell on it I would urge to reader to accept it based on his/hers independent evaluation of what this figure represents. As one might guess, any objective evaluation is difficult to find.
Nevertheless, Ivanka is as dangerous as her father. She turns a blind eye to the working conditions in the Chinese factories that manufacture her branded goods. She supports Trump's end to the equal pay data rule. She is blindsided by Trump's announcement on transgender service in the military. And what did she have to say when white supremacists were marching through the streets of Charlottesville? The crickets are chirping in this regard. Ivanka, like her father, has no moral compass. And an elected official with no moral compass is dangerous.
Nevertheless, Ivanka is as dangerous as her father. She turns a blind eye to the working conditions in the Chinese factories that manufacture her branded goods. She supports Trump's end to the equal pay data rule. She is blindsided by Trump's announcement on transgender service in the military. And what did she have to say when white supremacists were marching through the streets of Charlottesville? The crickets are chirping in this regard. Ivanka, like her father, has no moral compass. And an elected official with no moral compass is dangerous.
7
I do not know any liberals or moderates who think that "abortion is a positive good" This is the drivel that Conservatives and their religious beliefs spout.
The decision to have an abortion is not one that is taken lightly. It also is a private matter, not a government matter. The Republicans do not want "big government" in our pocketbooks, but they have no problem with "big government" peering into our bedrooms.
Ivanka's ideas could be taken more seriously if she actually knew any real working women. Those women who are trying to feed their children and keep a roof over their heads. Most earn very little. They are not professionals. How can she speak for them. Her comments speak to women in her economic class, which are not most women.
Perhaps Ivanka should take a page from the late Princess Diana's playbook.
Meet real people, those who actually live in very tenuous economic conditions.
Maybe then she will propose sensible policies that will truly help the real working class. Until then, I cannot take anything she proposes seriously.
The decision to have an abortion is not one that is taken lightly. It also is a private matter, not a government matter. The Republicans do not want "big government" in our pocketbooks, but they have no problem with "big government" peering into our bedrooms.
Ivanka's ideas could be taken more seriously if she actually knew any real working women. Those women who are trying to feed their children and keep a roof over their heads. Most earn very little. They are not professionals. How can she speak for them. Her comments speak to women in her economic class, which are not most women.
Perhaps Ivanka should take a page from the late Princess Diana's playbook.
Meet real people, those who actually live in very tenuous economic conditions.
Maybe then she will propose sensible policies that will truly help the real working class. Until then, I cannot take anything she proposes seriously.
16
Abortion is never "a positive good' and no liberal is committed to abortion. What we are committed to is women's unfettered ability to control of their own bodies and the medical care that attends that goal. Liberals, just like conservatives, would love to see abortion disappear from the face of the earth, but we can only work towards diminishing it through education and funding. There will always be the need for some abortions, but in those immortal words, they need to be safe, legal and rare. And no less unfortunate.
12
People like Mr Douthat are grasping at straws, desperate to put Ivanka in the best possible light, but at the end of the day she's just a vapid rich girl with a sleazy husband who would be nothing if her last name was anything but Trump. The whole tacky extended Trump family is, or should be, an embarrassment to this country. But of course, for a large segment of the electorate, being rich, vapid, shallow, and tacky are political assets rather than liabilities. So it's quite possible, perhaps even likely, that Ivanka will run for higher office someday, perhaps successfully. Let's not count his sons out either. There is no such thing as too low a bar in the GOP anymore.
10
Whatever value you may believe Ivanka has as a policy maker in this sordid, illegitimate administration is offset by the fact that her husband is unqualified for the roles entrusted to him, under investigation, and brazenly using his position to enrich himself and his family – much like his father in law – to run a real estate business that is infamous for cheating the poorest people of society, money-laundering, and racism. And they intend to change the tax code to further benefit themselves and people like them. So, between Ivanka, her husband, her siblings, and her father, there isn't a single player in the cast motivated by rational, beneficial public policy making. She may be smarter than the whole lot of them put together, but she wasn't on the ballot, and she has no real power of influence that has yielded change. What Cecile Richards is doing for the good of our society so vastly dwarfs any measly contribution of any Trump or Kushner. What the Trumps and Kushners of this world have done to damage our society and our democracy is unforgivable.
10
Ivanka's advocacy for poor working women is nothing more than an effort to associate her brand with a cause extolled by her well heeled customers. They can parade before the hired help wearing Ivanka products feeling less guilty in the knowledge that they are indirectly helping them. To suggest that Ivanka's efforts are anything other than marketing her brand is, to be charitable, naiveté, and I don't think that Ross Douthat is naive. But the phrase toward the end of this column about the ideology of Trumpism is mystifying. What does that mean? As far as I can tell it means to use anything and everything at his disposal, including the presidency of the United States, to enhance his brand. In that respect Ivanka is a Trumpist par excellence. Lord help us if an heir, ideologically or actually, attains similar political power.
6
Please understand that Ivanka's brand is not aimed at her wealthy 1% peers who have hired help; her products are cheaply made for the middleclass working woman market - those women able to spend over $100 on a dress but less than $200. They are the women struggling with childcare costs, needing paid maternity leave to maintain their financial equilibrium, and trying to look professional while balancing impossible schedules and demands. She is advocating for her customers, not so much her friends with nannies, but she would be more effective at that if she really spent more time talking with these women and getting to know them - spending a day in their shoes instead of preaching to them on her blog.
3
The only thing I want to know about the Trump family is how fast can we get them out of power and under investigation for crimes already committed.
There are no good Trumps.
There are no good Trumps.
14
The presence of Ivanka Trump, to say nothing of the power she holds, is one more travesty, abomination, insult, whatever, forced on Americans - and particularly American women - by Donald Trump following his victory over the second-worst woman presently in American public view. She is a throwback to a time when women had no role other than to be sexy to men and of course to bear their children. Her shoes, and those worn by every other women in the Trump coterie, are a threat to the health of women's feet. I assume these women are rich enough to have a podiatrist on speed dial; whether they're bright enough is another question. If she's presenting herself in this grown-up, respectably boring sex-object fashion, no one should be surprised that her "views" and "ideas" will not advance women's issues.
5
Really? The women in this country have to give up control over their own bodies because the Trump base demands it? How you can champion Ivanka Trump given her complete give over on issues affecting the LBGTQ community, on racism, and on core womens' issues is really a marvel of collaborationism. No, we are not going to step down on any of these issues to placate the base.
8
Please! During her father's election campaign Ivanka made a number of pledges regarding women. Every time Trump has done the opposite and she's knuckled under or remained silent.The most recent,regarding equal pay for women which involved big business to be transparent on wages between the sexes initated by the Obama administration was struck down by Trump. What was Ivanka's response? She went along with it and even rationalized it wouldn't do much good.
Ivanka is no leader. She is nothing more than rich daddy's girl.
Ivanka is no leader. She is nothing more than rich daddy's girl.
8
". . . the liberal commitment to abortion-as-a-positive-good." I'm nearly as liberal as liberal gets, and I don't know anyone who would describe abortion as a "positive good." The liberal commitment is to keep government out of the relationship between a woman, her doctors, and her God if she has one.
10
I really fail to see what business it is of anyone but myself what I do with my own body. Legislators think they have a right to force me to have children. Everybody can have guns but I can't determine the course of my own life. We can send in the drones with missiles that kill people but they are fighting birth control coverage although Viagra is covered. The pope believes in economic justice but birth control and abortion are sins. Trump thinks he can "do anything" and yet wants to end abortion, even after rape or assault. Our legislators will kill thousands of people with their healthcare diaspora but they want to limit my ability to prevent or end a pregnancy. I do choose life-my own.
13
The idea that Ivanka Trump has any influence in national affairs is terrifying. What qualifications does she have other than being the spawn of the devil?
7
Ivanka Trump knows no one who ever had or needed an abortion. She has not studied social science, women's rights legislation, or much of anything else save for fashion design. She has no business injecting her completely uninformed opinions on the national stage.
5
Doing good in the context of Trump and the Republican Party is an oxymoron.
3
You're being way too generous toward Ivanka, Ross. Many had high hopes for her to be a moderating influence on her father, a voice of reason. Alas, this was never going to be the case. No one can control the narcissistic man-child who finds himself sitting in the Oval Office.
Perhaps the disappointment in Ivanka is due to unrealistically high hopes. But a disappointment she has certainly been. She has whiffed on every opportunity to stand up for women's rights; for health care, equal pay for equal work, everything. Shame on you, Ivanka.
Perhaps the disappointment in Ivanka is due to unrealistically high hopes. But a disappointment she has certainly been. She has whiffed on every opportunity to stand up for women's rights; for health care, equal pay for equal work, everything. Shame on you, Ivanka.
4
I used to support the right to an abortion, but since coming to my senses over the last decade I only support abortion under extreme circumstances of life and death. As far as I am concerned, abortion is another example of the moral and spiritual decay of America. As for all who support Planned Parenthood, do some research into the origins of the organization, especially its basis in the eugenics movement of the late nineteenth century, in which individuals sought to rid the population of undesirable individuals and, in fact, work towards breeding a perfect race. Elements of that philosophy still exist in Planned Parenthood. It is disgraceful that the United States government provides one cent to that despicable organization. As for Ivanka Trump supporting Planned Parenthood, well she simply does not know better. Thank you.
2
Cool. Don't get one. You don't have the right to force me to gestate against my will, though. Literally not one woman cares what you think about how she should use her body.
7
C's Daughter,
I am a woman and I care what Southern Boy and other pro lifers think about abortion. I am not the only one who cares about a man's opinion. They have every right to voice their opinions. Many are fathers and have a right to speak out against abortion.
I am a woman and I care what Southern Boy and other pro lifers think about abortion. I am not the only one who cares about a man's opinion. They have every right to voice their opinions. Many are fathers and have a right to speak out against abortion.
1
Ivanka Trump may or may not know this--she seems self-absorbed enough that she probably doesn't--but Ross Douthat surely does: Splitting Planned Parenthood into two is a Trojan Horse. On the surface, it looks to be a happy solution to our ongoing abortion debate, but lurking inside is the bitter truth that it would isolate and stigmatize, even more than is the case now, women who choose to have an abortion.
The proposal rests on the Catholic and evangelical idea that a woman's health is distinct and separate from, and indeed subservient to, her reproductive "purpose" to get pregnant and produce children. This idea considers fully grown women--"big human lives" (to appropriate Ross Douthat's language)--to be of less worth than "tiny human lives" (the fetuses Ross Douthat so loves to fetishize).
This is not how many of the rest of us see things. We see women's health as including the right to control their own reproduction and resting on their moral and physical autonomy--including, but not restricted to, the legal right of women to control what they do in matters of reproduction.
Ivanka Trump remains what she's been from the start: a self-indulgent fashionista who, in her feckless "advisory capacity" in the White House (God help us), is in way over her head. As for this proposal in particular, it, too is feckless--a political gesture that, lacking any principle, is a non-starter.
The proposal rests on the Catholic and evangelical idea that a woman's health is distinct and separate from, and indeed subservient to, her reproductive "purpose" to get pregnant and produce children. This idea considers fully grown women--"big human lives" (to appropriate Ross Douthat's language)--to be of less worth than "tiny human lives" (the fetuses Ross Douthat so loves to fetishize).
This is not how many of the rest of us see things. We see women's health as including the right to control their own reproduction and resting on their moral and physical autonomy--including, but not restricted to, the legal right of women to control what they do in matters of reproduction.
Ivanka Trump remains what she's been from the start: a self-indulgent fashionista who, in her feckless "advisory capacity" in the White House (God help us), is in way over her head. As for this proposal in particular, it, too is feckless--a political gesture that, lacking any principle, is a non-starter.
7
If Republicans sincerely demonstrated that they were in the least bit interested in helping the living, maybe, just maybe, some of us might take them seriously about their concern for those yet to be born.
4
You really learn just how low the 'Trump Bar' is, when Mr. Douthat has been reduced to finding any part of Ivanka Trump's thinking and/or role in the W.H. somehow acceptable. Donald Trump is unfit to be President. You can double-down on that statement for the fitness of either Ivanka or her husband Jared to serve in the W.H. To say Ivanka is naive is truly an apologist's approach to describing her lack of complex understanding of governance. Ivanka should not be traveling to foreign countries on our nation's behalf. She should be in the W.H., other than visiting her father in the West Wing on the weekends, when he remains in residence.
5
We are experiencing two parallel universes at once. In the first, there are hurricanes Irma and Jose, wreaking havoc to the physical worlds of the Caribbean and the U.S. mainland. In the second, hurricanes Ivanka and Jared have cut deep scars in our political landscape. To claim that she and her spouse are plausible on any level further perpetrates the lie that these pampered privileged pashas are relevant. Leave them be. Left alone, they too will lose steam and disappear.
2
'Tiny human lives'? Your prejudice is showing, Mr Douthat.
Women should make the decisions about their own lives, and that is all. If you can't get behind that, then you are a) putting real human over potential humans b) choosing not to understand that the real humans in question will have an abortion if they decide they need one,regardless of its legal status.
Reality is never black and white.
Women should make the decisions about their own lives, and that is all. If you can't get behind that, then you are a) putting real human over potential humans b) choosing not to understand that the real humans in question will have an abortion if they decide they need one,regardless of its legal status.
Reality is never black and white.
3
Poor Mr. Douhat, reduced to fawning over Donald's fetish daughter, stretching ever so far to try to find something--anything--positive about the Trumps. And yet failing.
But most hilarious: implying Ivanka could possibly, ever in a million years, be plausible presidential material, despite Donald's obvious intention to make her so. I guess after her father's utter degradation of the office, is that what we ourselves are reduced to..."at least she's not him, King Donald redux without the sharp edges"?
But most hilarious: implying Ivanka could possibly, ever in a million years, be plausible presidential material, despite Donald's obvious intention to make her so. I guess after her father's utter degradation of the office, is that what we ourselves are reduced to..."at least she's not him, King Donald redux without the sharp edges"?
3
No offense, Mr. Douthat. But the only thing Ms. Trump can show any of us to do, is that you have to work long and hard for what you believe in -- instead of just asking Daddy for a favor.
That is, if you want to have any credibility and meaningful effect.
Americans should think twice before readily falling in line to applaud Ms. Trump as the next heir in an already overly nepotistic dynasty.
The apple never falls far from the tree.
That is, if you want to have any credibility and meaningful effect.
Americans should think twice before readily falling in line to applaud Ms. Trump as the next heir in an already overly nepotistic dynasty.
The apple never falls far from the tree.
3
Douthat is all over the place, as usual. He likes her, he does not like her, he likes her!. He comes on as a centrist, analysing the situation, and then veers right, sometimes far right. Ivanka and her family are mountebanks and carpetbaggers. Look at the jobs heaped upon her husband, Mr Fixit, who seems to in the end not doing much at all. He and she are the prince and princess in a big world. Who wants to listen to them, let alone work with them? Planned Parenthood knows that separating sexual health and abortions would open the door to severe restrictions on their mission. The era of the back alley abortionist would return, and worse. I despise Douthat's equivocations.
6
There is no doubt that Ivanka finds herself in an awkward position, on one hand, she and Jared have associated with, and are moderates. Trump used populism mixed with conservative ideology to appeal to the Blue collar workers,& conservative theocracy, which won him the Presidency.I believe that she and her husband took the position that the end will justify the means.If this agreement with the Democrats are the opening of a sincere beginning of bipartisan governing, it will be warmly accepted by moderates of both parties, and enable Trump to accomplish his desire to repair our infrastructure & create millions of jobs.I am not white washing him, he is guilty of widening the division in our nation, & scapegoating the Mexican people.His immediate reaction to the Charlottesville melee was unconscionable.However,I prefer to hold back my judgement & hope,this
is the beginning of constructive government.
is the beginning of constructive government.
9
The continued clinging to hope over experience.
3
Moderate the Trumpian administration??
One need only read today's editorial re: Trumps war on science, to see that this ain't gonna happen!
Front capitalism today, front capitalism tomorrow, and if the current crop of gangsters can arrange it, front capitalism "uber alles"!
One need only read today's editorial re: Trumps war on science, to see that this ain't gonna happen!
Front capitalism today, front capitalism tomorrow, and if the current crop of gangsters can arrange it, front capitalism "uber alles"!
The numbers reported here are extremely misleading. Planned parenthood, according to their annual report, did indeed perform 328,348 abortions, but that was out of a total of 9,494,977 services. Those services included other women's health services (breast exams, pap tests, hpv vaccinations, well-women exams, pregnancy tests, etc as well as prenatal exams). That means that about 3.5% of their services were abortion services. We shouldn't be comparing abortion services to pre-natal visits performed at planned parenthood, but rather abortion services compared to total services. Comparing abortion services to prenatal services, as was done here, implies that 97% of planned parenthood's services were abortion!
In general, I agree with the point of this piece: on the left many people do see abortion availability as part of the package of women's health services, so they would not support breaking those services out. And I understand that on the conservative side there are objections to either abortions, contraception, public funding, or all three. But it does no good to use numbers that don't reflect the full range of services provided by planned parenthood and it trivializes the good that planned parenthood does indeed accomplish.
In general, I agree with the point of this piece: on the left many people do see abortion availability as part of the package of women's health services, so they would not support breaking those services out. And I understand that on the conservative side there are objections to either abortions, contraception, public funding, or all three. But it does no good to use numbers that don't reflect the full range of services provided by planned parenthood and it trivializes the good that planned parenthood does indeed accomplish.
31
"The most common defense of public funding for Planned Parenthood from uneasy-about-abortion Democrats is that disposing of tiny human lives is a vanishingly small portion of its work."
So YOU say, Ross. The actual defenders of public funding for Planned Parenthood argue that it should continue because Planned Parenthood provides critical medical services to women at low cost including elective termination of pregnancy. And it is YOUR belief, not mine and not a majority of Americans', that the tissue being removed in an elective termination constitutes a human life, tiny or otherwise.
I'm sure that Planned Parenthood is quite comfortable with the fact that it performed 328,348 abortions last year, and so they should be, because that is the number of women who presented to Planned Parenthood requesting an abortion. In case you didn't know it, Ross, it remains the the case for now that in the United States of America, a pregnant woman's request remains the only necessary requirement for obtaining an abortion.
So YOU say, Ross. The actual defenders of public funding for Planned Parenthood argue that it should continue because Planned Parenthood provides critical medical services to women at low cost including elective termination of pregnancy. And it is YOUR belief, not mine and not a majority of Americans', that the tissue being removed in an elective termination constitutes a human life, tiny or otherwise.
I'm sure that Planned Parenthood is quite comfortable with the fact that it performed 328,348 abortions last year, and so they should be, because that is the number of women who presented to Planned Parenthood requesting an abortion. In case you didn't know it, Ross, it remains the the case for now that in the United States of America, a pregnant woman's request remains the only necessary requirement for obtaining an abortion.
19
This is what it's come to? A "principled religious conservative", so desperate to find a justification for his party affiliation, that he celebrates the supposed competence and insight of the fatuously unqualified first daughter, because she found a clever way -- so she thought -- to help her father become president, maintain her own self-esteem and yet still manage to kill Planned Parenthood, exactly as Ross would want?
Is there any better illustration of the hypocrisy of abortion opponents who display, without a twinge of conscience or regret, shocking indifference to the welfare of the the living?
Is there any better illustration of the hypocrisy of abortion opponents who display, without a twinge of conscience or regret, shocking indifference to the welfare of the the living?
20
To me, the most interesting thing about this column is that Ross admitted out loud that many religious conservatives are ideologically opposed to funding contraception. So, it's not just about abortion.
21
Your words of "It implies that Richards’ organization performs, say, a few thousand abortions for high-risk pregnancies and rape victims annually, instead of the real number, which last year was 328,348 — dwarfing the number of prenatal care visits by a factor of more than 30." are an example of how right wing folks think about something that is not desired by those getting an abortions.
However, Mr. Douthat does not mention the horrible way that the right Republican Christians have systemically reduced the methods of contraception which directly leads to more abortions.
As for Ivanka we can only hope that she goes back to her world of fake, where rick folk think they are above everyone else and have no ideas beyond showing how rich they are.
However, Mr. Douthat does not mention the horrible way that the right Republican Christians have systemically reduced the methods of contraception which directly leads to more abortions.
As for Ivanka we can only hope that she goes back to her world of fake, where rick folk think they are above everyone else and have no ideas beyond showing how rich they are.
14
Collins dictionary on trumpism:
1.
the policies advocated by Donald Trump, especially those involving a rejection of the current political establishment and the vigorous pursuit of American national interests
2.
a controversial or outrageous statement attributed to Donald Trump
On 1. There is no evidence of the definition's validity, au contraire the swamp is still there, its population just more varied.
On 2. Is obviously extremely apropos, cannot keep up to the sheer amount we get on any day.
1.
the policies advocated by Donald Trump, especially those involving a rejection of the current political establishment and the vigorous pursuit of American national interests
2.
a controversial or outrageous statement attributed to Donald Trump
On 1. There is no evidence of the definition's validity, au contraire the swamp is still there, its population just more varied.
On 2. Is obviously extremely apropos, cannot keep up to the sheer amount we get on any day.
2
Ivanka may have a little bit bigger heart and a softer posture than her daddy , but the whispers she shares into daddy's ear are those of a product he created.
She has never been afforded the opportunity of living outside this Trump castle of wealth. This castle of wealth buys an abundance of choices regarding the many challenges women of our general population face every single day.
I do not place an ounce of credence in any proposals she attempts to make to save Planned Parenthood, larger child tax credits , new child-care benefits, etc,etc. She is Trump's beautiful golden child and she is being played as an attempt to appease Trump. We are all too aware that no greater furor than an angry Trump.
She has never been afforded the opportunity of living outside this Trump castle of wealth. This castle of wealth buys an abundance of choices regarding the many challenges women of our general population face every single day.
I do not place an ounce of credence in any proposals she attempts to make to save Planned Parenthood, larger child tax credits , new child-care benefits, etc,etc. She is Trump's beautiful golden child and she is being played as an attempt to appease Trump. We are all too aware that no greater furor than an angry Trump.
12
Mary, a person reflects her life experience and beliefs per their own experience. I couldn't ask another person to mirror my beliefs, or to be in lock step with my ideas.
Keeping an open mind and allowing other people to contribute is not a bad thing. Being afraid of other people ideas/beliefs, nullifying those who are not mirrors of one self is not a positive approach.
Keeping an open mind and allowing other people to contribute is not a bad thing. Being afraid of other people ideas/beliefs, nullifying those who are not mirrors of one self is not a positive approach.
" ...Trumpian habit of ignoring the ideological assumptions around an issue, and groping toward views that more Americans might be likely to support."
Nice spin, Mr. Douthat, but Pew Research says 57% of us already support abortion. The Trumps (and you) are ignoring more than the "ideological assumptions".
Nice spin, Mr. Douthat, but Pew Research says 57% of us already support abortion. The Trumps (and you) are ignoring more than the "ideological assumptions".
8
Whatever you think about Ivanka-and in Trump-world she is by no means the worst--this article is based on a false premise that seems to gain greater traction the longer the circumstances of Trump´s election fade from view. We hear repeatedly how the political establishment misunderstood the true interests of the public, whereas Trump demonstrated an uncanny knack for exploiting their unrecognised desires. Nonsense! A review of recent history tells us see why:
1) Trump lost the popular vote by nearly three million votes.
2) His victory had everything to do with Comey´s announcement about Clinton´s emails before the election.
3) Russian interference with probable collusion from the Trump campaign threw the vote in Trump´s direction in crucial swing states.
4) A wildly biased right wing media, led by Fox News, conducted a tireless campaign of vilification against Hillary while whitewashing Trump´s egregious and criminal conduct.
None of these points may seem to have any bearing on Planned Parenthood. But anything Trump does must be traced back to the circumstances of his election. So whether it´s this issue, or withdrawal from the Paris Accords, or how to conduct foreign policy, his legitimacy as a leader should always remain in question.
Rather than fret about politicians and pollsters misread the public mind, we should fix American democracy which has been dangerously eroded that it allowed a conman like Trump to take the presidency.
1) Trump lost the popular vote by nearly three million votes.
2) His victory had everything to do with Comey´s announcement about Clinton´s emails before the election.
3) Russian interference with probable collusion from the Trump campaign threw the vote in Trump´s direction in crucial swing states.
4) A wildly biased right wing media, led by Fox News, conducted a tireless campaign of vilification against Hillary while whitewashing Trump´s egregious and criminal conduct.
None of these points may seem to have any bearing on Planned Parenthood. But anything Trump does must be traced back to the circumstances of his election. So whether it´s this issue, or withdrawal from the Paris Accords, or how to conduct foreign policy, his legitimacy as a leader should always remain in question.
Rather than fret about politicians and pollsters misread the public mind, we should fix American democracy which has been dangerously eroded that it allowed a conman like Trump to take the presidency.
15
Ivanka Trump as the likely ideological heir to her father?
Great--so we'll have another complete novice with no governing experience, no credentials--not even any actual life experience that would be relevant or helpful--attempting to run the country, when what she's more concerned about is making cheap goods overseas and enriching herself and her family under the guise of her "service" (remember the Chinese licensing agreements secured for her shortly after her father's election)?
So she doesn't boast about sexually assaulting others. She's still a Trump, and after we're done with this one, assuming the Republic survives, I hope we'll never have to deal with another.
Great--so we'll have another complete novice with no governing experience, no credentials--not even any actual life experience that would be relevant or helpful--attempting to run the country, when what she's more concerned about is making cheap goods overseas and enriching herself and her family under the guise of her "service" (remember the Chinese licensing agreements secured for her shortly after her father's election)?
So she doesn't boast about sexually assaulting others. She's still a Trump, and after we're done with this one, assuming the Republic survives, I hope we'll never have to deal with another.
10
"a larger child tax credit, refundable against payroll taxes "
The GOP is willing to do anything to weaken Social Security and Medicare. Those who get that tax credit will get less Social Security benefits later on. Both programs will be weakened the more payroll taxes are cut.
SS and Medicare are funded by those "payroll taxes", and the hard right is desperate to get rid of them. Zero to do with Ivanka, zero to do with children.
The GOP is willing to do anything to weaken Social Security and Medicare. Those who get that tax credit will get less Social Security benefits later on. Both programs will be weakened the more payroll taxes are cut.
SS and Medicare are funded by those "payroll taxes", and the hard right is desperate to get rid of them. Zero to do with Ivanka, zero to do with children.
10
Ivanka Trump is selling alright. She's paraded around like a podium girl at the Tour de France. Helps with the ratings. She's then quietly closeted and ignored until the next publicity stunt. Don't pretend her opinions are some matter of principle. She's a walking symbol of her own debasement. Her job is to make her father seem human on some level. She collects a paycheck and can't get fired without an indictment. That's the deal.
18
Ross, whatever Trump's daughter has been doing in her life, preparing to make decisions regarding the nation's economy, military, civil rights, foreign policies, and more has never been on the list. She is to statecraft as wax fruit is to food: prettier than most and utterly useless for the purpose. It's another sign of our national mental illness that we even have to have this particular conversation.
11
The apple rarely falls far from the tree.More so when the apple's fate in terms of brand and self image is tied so closely to the tree. Ivanka may have grown up with liberal urban peers but with her father's bigotry always casting a large shadow.She may have attended good schools but that is not where education is a given-that comes from reading, learning to think critically and understanding the difference between sophistication and tacky fashion.The liberal environment may have made her more sympathetic to certain causes but ideas for tackling them come from other people, not Ivanka.
4
Ivanka is quite, quite obviously being groomed for the presidency.
And here we thought Republican voters were wary of dynasty politics in the manner of the Bushes and Clintons . . .
And by the way, to come clean about what was never adequately reported on, only the Bush clan was a political dynasty, with three generations completely immersed in Washington politics: Prescott, George H.W., George W., and Jeb(!). The parents of Bill and Hillary Clinton were what Republican voters claim to admire: "regular folks" whose occupations were things like nurses and small businessmen.
And here we thought Republican voters were wary of dynasty politics in the manner of the Bushes and Clintons . . .
And by the way, to come clean about what was never adequately reported on, only the Bush clan was a political dynasty, with three generations completely immersed in Washington politics: Prescott, George H.W., George W., and Jeb(!). The parents of Bill and Hillary Clinton were what Republican voters claim to admire: "regular folks" whose occupations were things like nurses and small businessmen.
3
Finally, someone has the courage to come to the defense of a working girl who is just trying to look out for the interests of others, and peddle her imported, pricey clothing line.
Of all the unheard voices in the cacophony that passes for political discussion, why does Mr. Douthat think that Ivanka Trump needs or deserves his help to be heard. She has, to some degree, the president's ear. That's enough ears. She does not need Mr. Douthat's help.
One other thing: liberal thinking does not include the idea that fetus-killing is a positive good. It is a necessary alternative, and at least one Abrahamic religion requires an abortion to protect the life of the fetus-carrying mother. Shutting down Planned Parenthood ignores those issues.
Of all the unheard voices in the cacophony that passes for political discussion, why does Mr. Douthat think that Ivanka Trump needs or deserves his help to be heard. She has, to some degree, the president's ear. That's enough ears. She does not need Mr. Douthat's help.
One other thing: liberal thinking does not include the idea that fetus-killing is a positive good. It is a necessary alternative, and at least one Abrahamic religion requires an abortion to protect the life of the fetus-carrying mother. Shutting down Planned Parenthood ignores those issues.
9
Having skimmed through the many comments on this opinion piece, it is clear to me that the majority of your readers are victims of "Group Think." Not all pro-life people are hypocrits; some believe in the values so long prevalent in this country, ie., that it is wrong to kill a fetus, unless that fetus is a danger to it's mother's life or was the product of rape or incest. As far as Ivanka Trump, her proposal to Planned Parenthood is worthy of consideration, since a majority of Americans do not think that Federal tax dollars should be used for abortion. While I am pro-choice, I agree with that sentiment. As President Bill Clinton famously said "abortion should be safe, legal and rare." It seems to me that 328,348 abortions provided by one partially publicly supported organization is not rare. As far as nepotism, hypocritical Progressives never complained with President John F. Kennedy made his brother Attorney General of the United States.
Are you on a list of people being informed of the reasons any woman has an abortion, Mr. Kellum? What channels are there for the folks who think it's wrong to kill a fetus to discover whether or not the fetus is a danger to it's mother's life (can a fetus have a mother?), or is the product of rape or incest?
I, and many women I know, have never mentioned to anyone other than the person who performed our abortions the reason why we needed the procedure. There's no application with that question on it; and if someone asked, we could just say, "Oh, I was raped." Couldn't we?
Stick your values out of women's business, please.
I, and many women I know, have never mentioned to anyone other than the person who performed our abortions the reason why we needed the procedure. There's no application with that question on it; and if someone asked, we could just say, "Oh, I was raped." Couldn't we?
Stick your values out of women's business, please.
2
His brother was, unlike Ivanka, qualified for the job.
2
" — the Trumpian habit of ignoring the ideological assumptions around an issue, and groping toward views that more Americans might be likely to support."
Ross, hard though it may be to fathom for a Catholic conservative such as yourself, but a majority of Americans support a woman's right to choose and Planned Parenthood's mission to provide safe termination of pregnancy to any woman who needs it. Thus, in her approach to Cecile Richards, Ivanka Trump was groping towards a view that FEWER Americans would be likely to support.
Ross, hard though it may be to fathom for a Catholic conservative such as yourself, but a majority of Americans support a woman's right to choose and Planned Parenthood's mission to provide safe termination of pregnancy to any woman who needs it. Thus, in her approach to Cecile Richards, Ivanka Trump was groping towards a view that FEWER Americans would be likely to support.
5
Trump ideology? Trump's ideology is that "I alone can fix it". And everyone-- the FBI, the courts, the Congress, the press-- should be loyal to him. It is a cult of personality. You think that's going to work 2X in succession?Much as some people hope it will happen, most voters won't confuse Trump with Reagan. Between the TV soundstage and the White House Reagan spent a long time learning to govern. The Electoral College won't save the next clown out of the car
2
There is significant rot in the Trump organization, including clueless Ivanka and her Jared. Trump's GOP enablers share this now imbedded rot in our political landscape. The idea of 'governing' is lost on them.
Planned Parenthood offsets the rot in a significant way nationally by helping people who, otherwise, would have no access to medical care. A close relative of mine, an adult woman, has been helped for years by PP with services like a physical for $105. Living in a red state has its disadvantages unless you can afford it.
Planned Parenthood offsets the rot in a significant way nationally by helping people who, otherwise, would have no access to medical care. A close relative of mine, an adult woman, has been helped for years by PP with services like a physical for $105. Living in a red state has its disadvantages unless you can afford it.
5
The Trump family is in the sales business, so of course they are "non-ideological " (clinical sounding word for amoral). Ivanka is a much smoother operator than her father - no profanity, no name-calling, no raised voice - but she's cut from the same cloth. Make the sale above everything else, switch tactics and sides as often as you need to, but close that deal. Any kind of a win is a win. You have to be shameless and amoral to be a Trump. Trumps don't
Believe in anything except money and celebrity.
Believe in anything except money and celebrity.
4
Ivanka didn't need to talk with Cecile Richards for 'her' Planned Parenthood idea. All she had to do was go to Planned Parenthood's FAQ which already answers this question of why PP doesn't separate into two organizations. It has been posted there for at least a decade. Here is a piece of that response.
"Like Planned Parenthood, some hospitals provide reproductive health care -- and safe, legal abortion is part of that. No one is proposing to bar hospitals from receiving federal reimbursement for visits, treatments, and procedures. Why should it be any different for Planned Parenthood?"
Ivanka, like her father, doesn't seem to grasp that 'their' brilliant ideas may have already been proposed and knocked down long ago.
Who would have thought women's health care would be so hard?
"Like Planned Parenthood, some hospitals provide reproductive health care -- and safe, legal abortion is part of that. No one is proposing to bar hospitals from receiving federal reimbursement for visits, treatments, and procedures. Why should it be any different for Planned Parenthood?"
Ivanka, like her father, doesn't seem to grasp that 'their' brilliant ideas may have already been proposed and knocked down long ago.
Who would have thought women's health care would be so hard?
8
Ivanka Trump's proposal that Planned Parenthood create clinics separate clinics for abortions and other health care is economically prohibitive. Perhaps her and Jared's billions could fund this ridiculous, unnecessary effort. At the same time, let's require that men go to a separate doctor and/or clinic for vasectomies and Viagra, and pay for it themselves.
As well, Title X already does not allow federal funds to be used for abortions (Medicaid, however, does allow government money to be spent on them — in very restricted cases). The 1977 Hyde Amendment dictated that federal Medicaid funds could only be used to fund abortions in cases of rape, incest or to protect the life of the mother. However, some states have expanded cases in which they will provide funds. Currently, 17 states allow funds to be used for "medically necessary" abortions. In those cases that these states count as medically necessary but that are not permitted by the federal guidelines, states cover the cost alone. (NPR, 2015)
Perhaps Ivanka - and you Ross - should better inform yourselves about the details of something before putting women's health care - already a political football - at risk.
As well, Title X already does not allow federal funds to be used for abortions (Medicaid, however, does allow government money to be spent on them — in very restricted cases). The 1977 Hyde Amendment dictated that federal Medicaid funds could only be used to fund abortions in cases of rape, incest or to protect the life of the mother. However, some states have expanded cases in which they will provide funds. Currently, 17 states allow funds to be used for "medically necessary" abortions. In those cases that these states count as medically necessary but that are not permitted by the federal guidelines, states cover the cost alone. (NPR, 2015)
Perhaps Ivanka - and you Ross - should better inform yourselves about the details of something before putting women's health care - already a political football - at risk.
4
Paradoxically, the most compelling argument for continuation of Planned Parenthood is the Trump family itself. I'd be interested in knowing which, if any, of the Trump offspring use birth control while the administration seeks ways to cut funding for such programs, not necessarily out of any moral conviction, but for the sake of political expedience.
3
No liberal I know considers abortion a positive good. The good that we seek is a woman's unfettered access to her own health and the reduction in the number of abortions. This last can only be accomplished through education and funding, with the goal that abortions always be "safe, legal and rare" and always unfortunate. I'm also have real difficulty with Mr. Douthat's red-herring comparison of the number of abortions Planned Parenthood performs as opposed to prenatal visits. Why not include the number of visits for contraception and testing, both for pregnancy and disease, and compare those to the number of abortions? Because that wouldn't have served his purposes. This is an appalling misuse of statistics, even for Mr. Douthat. http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/04/health/planned-parenthood-by-the-numbers/i...
6
Hillary Clinton and Ivanka Trump have something very important in common and that is their success is based on the success of the men in their lives. While I have seen it rarely mentioned, the fact that Hillary Clinton seemed to have found success through her husband is one of the reasons so many women hate her. And, it is one of the reasons so many women hate Ivanka and will always hate Ivanka. Women understand that the self-made women is a near myth. Most women that have found success have found it through marriage and birth relations. Nepotism and the power of wealth is important for the success of many men, but it is a near imperative for the success of women in politics. So, don't expect Ivanka to ever take those high heels off so that she can really get down to work, women recognize and despise her for how she achieved power. Perhaps Republicans can search through their party for the few women that are members and see if they can find any powerful women with no daddies or hubbies that got them there. For me, the only one I can think of is Sarah Palin. So, good luck.
1
Mr. Douthat's statement about the number of abortions vs. the number of prenatal visits performed by Planned Parenthood is a ridiculous argument. Planned Parenthood's mission is not to provide prenatal care. I was actually surprised that the number was as high as it was. Usually women are referred to other health facilities if they become pregnant.
Planned Parenthood provides for a woman's birth control and gynecological care, not prenatal care. So, one would not expect to see high numbers of prenatal visits any more than they should expect high numbers of visits for heart conditions.
Planned Parenthood provides for a woman's birth control and gynecological care, not prenatal care. So, one would not expect to see high numbers of prenatal visits any more than they should expect high numbers of visits for heart conditions.
2
Dividing PP into a part that your side would supposedly leave alone and that our side could concentrate on defending ignores the "all or nothing" reality of the fight. If women have adequate access to contraceptives, cutting them off from abortions isn't adequate for the anti choicers. But even European levels of demands for abortion wouldn't satisfy our side if the procedure isn't available since it leave a small number of women vulnerable to forced birth, including those who require medically necessary abortions to save their lives and health.
I am personally opposed to abortion but I believe it needs to be safe and legal. If it became illegal these procedures would go underground which was where we were at in the 1950s. if women are not covered for maternity, if we live in a society where paid family leave is meager, where child care is not subsidized, where families are increasingly put under enormous financial strain...
It's calculation that pregnant women have to make, perhaps while we are busy passing moral judgments on these women and planned parenthood, we should reserve some moral outrage for a society that provides very little assistance to these women
It's calculation that pregnant women have to make, perhaps while we are busy passing moral judgments on these women and planned parenthood, we should reserve some moral outrage for a society that provides very little assistance to these women
4
Trump's political heir will be a smart autocrat. Notice how every republican president makes the last one look good? Beware of the future republican leader who makes Trump look good.
PS. It's astonishing to see the level of dispassion about women's actual lives necessary for this article to be written, as if the right and ability of women to make their own reproductive choices were a generic political bargaining chip. As if the so called child care tax credit were not primarily a benefit for wealthy women like IT. As if the result would not be greater impoverishment of poor women, and deepening the wealth divide.
PS. It's astonishing to see the level of dispassion about women's actual lives necessary for this article to be written, as if the right and ability of women to make their own reproductive choices were a generic political bargaining chip. As if the so called child care tax credit were not primarily a benefit for wealthy women like IT. As if the result would not be greater impoverishment of poor women, and deepening the wealth divide.
1
Until politicians on both sides of the aisle (I'm looking at you Bernie Sanders) understand that a woman's agency over her body is an economic issue and not a social issue there will be no coming to common consensus on this issue. The poorest without access to birth control and abortion will continue to have children.
3
Perhaps you are right about the bluff on the conservative side, but on the liberal side there is no bluff. We simply believe that women should have the right to choose. We support access to abortions, period. I would not want Planned Parenthood to pare that out, as it is a key part of the women's health equation. Nobody on this side loves abortions, but we recognize them as necessary in many cases. So no, Ivanka - go and "architect" somewhere else.
3
The real but understated gist of your piece, Mr. Douthat, is that we have or are in danger of having and perpetuating an "increasingly imperial republic." Though imperial government is not necessarily dynastic government, we have seen many families exercise control of our government's and nation's dealings. We have both endured and enjoyed dynasties. That's unlikely to change. If people are elected in certifiably open and fair contests (unlike those shaped and staged mostly by the Republican party), so be it. What we must guard against, of course, is the prospect of primogeniture succession based upon manipulated elections or, at the very worst, no elections. Your column suggests that Ms. Kushner, who has become a one-name celebrity, is very much like her father. Many, perhaps most of us find that unappealing and hope that she, and her family, returns to private life at the earliest opportunity.
159
The best way to prevent abortions is to prevent unwanted pregnancies. By that measure, Planned Parenthood prevents more abortions each day than the "pro-life" movement has in its entire existence. Of course, the pro-life movement is primarily interested in political power and has been very successful by those standards. As the entire effort to defund Planned Parenthood shows.
68
Ross, I recommended your comment before I realized you appear to be a middle-aged man with a nice hat. Now I wish I could hug you through my iPad. Your point is well said and yet rarely heard from men. PP needs more supporters like you, who will never personally access its pregnancy related services yet who understand that family seeks to make sure that all pregnancies are wanted and healthy, first through prevention and then, if needed, by intervention. Thank you!
1
Ross, you've lost credibility. Her tax plan helps her pay for nannies not poor working moms.
2
I cannot get beyond the title. There is no WAY, she has no credentials for anything of import, and even her fashion designs are just standard stuff stamped with her name. Ivanka was sired by a man of wealth. That's her background.
40
For some reason I have always remembered this. After Watergate, after Nixon was gone, William Saffire wrote a column predicting that some 20 years on, an aging Nixon would return to the White House to be greeted by the then President, his daughter Julie Eisenhower. We all know how that turned out. So I wouldn't bank on any line of succession for Trump, much less in the family.
122
Mr. Douthat, are you really saying that Ivanka has the potential to be a Republican leader in the future? I do not question her ability or willingness. But I question her love of country and future generations. She has not spoken out on global warming, the science deniers, health issues arising from pollution, and certainly war.
The willingness of conservatives to accept anything as truth that enables the rich regardless of real costs to people is showing in this article.
The willingness of conservatives to accept anything as truth that enables the rich regardless of real costs to people is showing in this article.
48
Mr. Douthat, I am a liberal and I do not believe that abortion is a "positive good." I would argue that most liberals believe that it is a right a woman has about what is best for herself. The abortion option, in my opinion, is a sad choice. In a perfect world no pregnancy would be unwanted.
One of the problems we have in this divided America is the mis-characterizations of the opposition's views. You, Mr. Douthat, are consistently making assertions about liberal views that are inaccurate. I suspect you are also misrepresenting the views of the right as well. The best one can say, I suppose, about any of our opinions is that they are ours alone and that our neighbors may see things entirely differently.
One of the problems we have in this divided America is the mis-characterizations of the opposition's views. You, Mr. Douthat, are consistently making assertions about liberal views that are inaccurate. I suspect you are also misrepresenting the views of the right as well. The best one can say, I suppose, about any of our opinions is that they are ours alone and that our neighbors may see things entirely differently.
141
Thanks especially for pointing out that offensive description, from an old feminist who never ever saw abortion as a "positive good", just as a choice that might save women from worse consequences of pregnancy - as determined by themselves. Not some religious leaders or followers, not white men, not fathers or brothers or boyfriends - or rapists, in or outside of family.
And most of us have pushed for provision of honest and realistic sex education, access to birth and disease control for all, pre and post natal care, while the righteous pretend that ignorance and blacking access to services is the way to reduce unwanted pregnancies .
And most of us have pushed for provision of honest and realistic sex education, access to birth and disease control for all, pre and post natal care, while the righteous pretend that ignorance and blacking access to services is the way to reduce unwanted pregnancies .
28
Age 36, access to anything in the government, sworn public servant to all. Lord, what amazing opportunity, yet her greatest claim is, "where everthing is inappropriate...she is considerably less embarassing than most." Will these people ever look back and feel any shame, whatsoever? Will a day of reckoning ever come? I keep believing it will yet the "increasingly imperial republic" shows no signs of ending so I'm the naive one.
130
Let's put the numbers in perspective. Even if the Daily Caller's number, linked to by Mr. Douhat, are correct, Planned Parenthood performs 2 abortions for every 1 million American women annually.
Hardly the kind of numbers for his hysterics here.
Hardly the kind of numbers for his hysterics here.
148
"Barbara" states "Planned Parenthood performs 2 abortions for every 1 million American women annually." This is off by a factor of more than a thousand! The population of the US is ~324m. 50.8% are women, or 164.6m. 164,600,000 / 328, 348 = 501.25, so that is actually one abortion for every 500 women -- not one per every half million as you claim. Furthermore, just as the grossest attempt to restrict to women who actually are capable of becoming pregnant, US census data shows that 20% of US population is either age 5 or less or 65 or greater. So we are down to one abortion per year per < 400 women.
I also support plan parenthood, but I believe the surest ways to harden opposition to PP is if people start promoting blatantly wrong claims. So please stop.
I also support plan parenthood, but I believe the surest ways to harden opposition to PP is if people start promoting blatantly wrong claims. So please stop.
2
Oh, boy. The idea of Ivanka having anything more to do with how our government is run is truly terrifying. As far as I can tell, she's her father's eye-candy and the one who keeps "dropping in" on important meetings, probably to keep her father from meandering into dangerous territory. Please let there come a day when her main job is visiting her husband in the pokey.
181
Nothing about her factories in China? You care about embryos but not about adult suffering.
205
Republican party is totally wrong on abortion issue. God forbidden, if this issue were happened to their wife and daughters, they (the congressional delegates) would think twice about the abortion. Just like those military hawks in the congress send troops everywhere. If their sons and daughters were sent to the front line, they would think twice about sending ground troops to wars.
95
I'm going to leave aside all the histrionics over anything Ivanka. Right or wrong it seems a case that anything, and anyone, associated with the Trump name is increasingly viewed as a pariah. I get it. I do. I have zero love for our POTUS, though in full disclosure I am also no fan of the Clintonistas, either.
In any case just to stay "on point" here regarding the divestment split of Planned Parenthood...to my mind that's not necessarily a bad idea. It does appear to do a "send-up" to the polemics of the orthodoxies of both sides, though I doubt that's the rationale behind it. It seems a legitimate attempt to find a way around the sky high walls both parties have built.
Unfortunately her having the name Trump probably dooms the attempt even though could be a popular political idea at the grass-roots level. Call it what it is, a bit of pragmatic "deal-making" compromise. And isn't that what big boy/girl politics at the national level is suppose to be about? Coming together in the spirit of compromise?
So it goes.
John~
American Net'Zen
In any case just to stay "on point" here regarding the divestment split of Planned Parenthood...to my mind that's not necessarily a bad idea. It does appear to do a "send-up" to the polemics of the orthodoxies of both sides, though I doubt that's the rationale behind it. It seems a legitimate attempt to find a way around the sky high walls both parties have built.
Unfortunately her having the name Trump probably dooms the attempt even though could be a popular political idea at the grass-roots level. Call it what it is, a bit of pragmatic "deal-making" compromise. And isn't that what big boy/girl politics at the national level is suppose to be about? Coming together in the spirit of compromise?
So it goes.
John~
American Net'Zen
1
"If this issue were happened to their wives and daughters (and themselves). . ." Of course it has! Obnoxious Christian women of both parties experience unwanted pregnancies at the same rate all women do, and guess what? They abort, too. And then they rationalize their decision while they go right back to trying to keep other women from making the same choice for themselves. This hypocrisy knows no bounds.
3
The Ivanka way is one in the same as how she was mentored by her father : always be camera ready, make sure you personally gain financially from the action, never really let them know where you stand, change your stand when ever expedient for your purpose to do so,... and of course never publicly disagree with your father. Stop assigning her skills and influence that she has never demonstrated that she has ... they are representation that her family wants the public to believe. The evidence is not there. I am beginning to wonder if she has hired a PR firm, there have been articles suggesting her political place and policy acumen appearing over the last couple weeks - that all there is for the record... PR.
72
"...sometimes the most likely heir is already in the line of succession." Yes, and look how well that turned out for Argentina.
60
Look how well it turned out with the Bushes. Look how well it turned out for the Democrats in 2016.
Oh, Ross, you were doing so well. And here you are back to your old tricks. Did a pretty face turn your head? Don't use misleading statistics. Abortions are 3% of PP activities. For prenatal visits, pregnant women generally go general clinics or private ob gyn practices, not Planned Parenthood--they turn to PP for education and contraceptive information--all crucial women's health services. The issue is a woman's right to choose. And another issue is the people's right to choose. We didn't choose Trump. Russia did. And we most certainly did not choose Ivanka, a rich girl who exploits workers all over the world, with no experience in government and little knowledge of democracy, to be a chief advisor to this extraordinary so-called president.
236
Mr. Douthat:
I realize that you and those of your persuasion are truly blinded by abortion and the concept that women are capable of independent thought much less action and are therefore at times loose with the facts in support of your position but please provide the basis for the following turn of phrase: "...the country’s not-as-ideological majority..." On the subject of arbortion there are only ideological minorities but then perhaps this is as equally difficult concept for those who have the gods on their side.
If the hardcore Trumpites, who are clearly ideological, are approximately 33.3 % of the electorate then are you claim that those of us in ideological opposition to HRM Donald, the first of that name, are less than 16.7%? If this number is greater then your claim is false which I was taught to name a lie.
I realize that you and those of your persuasion are truly blinded by abortion and the concept that women are capable of independent thought much less action and are therefore at times loose with the facts in support of your position but please provide the basis for the following turn of phrase: "...the country’s not-as-ideological majority..." On the subject of arbortion there are only ideological minorities but then perhaps this is as equally difficult concept for those who have the gods on their side.
If the hardcore Trumpites, who are clearly ideological, are approximately 33.3 % of the electorate then are you claim that those of us in ideological opposition to HRM Donald, the first of that name, are less than 16.7%? If this number is greater then your claim is false which I was taught to name a lie.
21
Ivanka is the obvious heir(ess) to her father in that both are ethically challenged, opportunistic grifters who've taken up self-enriching residence in the West Wing. The idea that she and her equally politically neophyte husband carry the title "senior advisor" is retch-inducing.
Ivanka's "contributions" to the discussion on women's issues are laughable, and would bring the most benefit to those who least need them, and in many cases no benefit at all to those starving for policy change.
If, as Mr. Douthat asserts, "Trumpism as an ideology is on life support," then the way for Ivanka to prove her worth would be to pull the plug.
Ivanka's "contributions" to the discussion on women's issues are laughable, and would bring the most benefit to those who least need them, and in many cases no benefit at all to those starving for policy change.
If, as Mr. Douthat asserts, "Trumpism as an ideology is on life support," then the way for Ivanka to prove her worth would be to pull the plug.
84
RE:Ivanka as someone who "has stayed surprisingly on target"...she is no beacon for women to follow. The Trump group is not to be believed, whatever the say. They are less than truthful on all levels.
The Daily Show said it best: She's from the same batch of cookies; she just didn't get dumped on the floor.
The Daily Show said it best: She's from the same batch of cookies; she just didn't get dumped on the floor.
83
I'm eager to see this claim defended: "The most common defense of public funding for Planned Parenthood from uneasy-about-abortion Democrats is that disposing of tiny human lives is a vanishingly small portion of its work."
A Google search - obviously not comprehensive - did not help. Perhaps someone can give us a starting point?
A Google search - obviously not comprehensive - did not help. Perhaps someone can give us a starting point?
7
I don't think so. Meanwhile Daddy is rolling back equal pay actions implemented by President Obama. On too many other issues, where Ivanka should have insinuated herself, she failed to show up. Remember ACA and DACA. Don't make me sick.
71
"Trumpism as an ideology is on life support, "
Actually, I think it's reached the zombie stage.
Actually, I think it's reached the zombie stage.
31
I get so tired of "pro-life" hypocrites who refuse to rein in even the worst excesses of the NRA and gun lobby.
I get so tired of "pro-life" hypocrites who want to restrict abortion for poor people. Rich people don't have to worry about it: they have concierge OB-GYNs with the latest abortion pills and in-office surgical suites to deal with an awkward pregnancy.
I get so tired of "pro-life" hypocrites who refuse to support sane, sensible, scientific based sex education for teenagers, but insist that "abstinence" is something other than a fantasy.
I get so tired of "pro-life" hypocrites who refuse to admit that an ectopic pregnancy will kill the mother without ever providing a live birth. And that an abortion is the only medical procedure to save the mother.
I get so tired of "pro-life" hypocrites who refuse to admit that late-term abortions are not whimsical decisions but medical crises that need to be dealt with by a doctor who will terminate the pregnancy (assuming the fetus isn't dead already and killing the mother with sepsis!) if necessary.
I get so tired of "pro-life" hypocrites that refuse to support free birth control, of all kinds, hormonal pills, implants, IUD's, whatever works best, so that unplanned pregnancies don't occur.
I get so tired of "pro-life" hypocrites that care about 'the baby' until the minute it is born. Then, they leave the mother and child to fend for themselves without support, without health care, without paid parental leave, without hope.
I get so tired of "pro-life" hypocrites who want to restrict abortion for poor people. Rich people don't have to worry about it: they have concierge OB-GYNs with the latest abortion pills and in-office surgical suites to deal with an awkward pregnancy.
I get so tired of "pro-life" hypocrites who refuse to support sane, sensible, scientific based sex education for teenagers, but insist that "abstinence" is something other than a fantasy.
I get so tired of "pro-life" hypocrites who refuse to admit that an ectopic pregnancy will kill the mother without ever providing a live birth. And that an abortion is the only medical procedure to save the mother.
I get so tired of "pro-life" hypocrites who refuse to admit that late-term abortions are not whimsical decisions but medical crises that need to be dealt with by a doctor who will terminate the pregnancy (assuming the fetus isn't dead already and killing the mother with sepsis!) if necessary.
I get so tired of "pro-life" hypocrites that refuse to support free birth control, of all kinds, hormonal pills, implants, IUD's, whatever works best, so that unplanned pregnancies don't occur.
I get so tired of "pro-life" hypocrites that care about 'the baby' until the minute it is born. Then, they leave the mother and child to fend for themselves without support, without health care, without paid parental leave, without hope.
306
"I get so tired of "pro-life" hypocrites that care about 'the baby' until the minute it is born. Then, they leave the mother and child to fend for themselves without support, without health care, without paid parental leave, without hope."
Oh come on now. Sometimes their vaunted "pregnancy centers" provide a couple weeks worth of diapers and formula!
Oh come on now. Sometimes their vaunted "pregnancy centers" provide a couple weeks worth of diapers and formula!
3
Bravo.
Not to mention the "pro-life" hypocrites who talk about "legitimate rape", which apparently does not often result in pregnancy, or who oppose abortion in cases of rape and incest.
And, I get so tired of hearing the term "pro-life", when the correct label is "anti-abortion", or as a minimum, "selectively pro-life".
Not to mention the "pro-life" hypocrites who talk about "legitimate rape", which apparently does not often result in pregnancy, or who oppose abortion in cases of rape and incest.
And, I get so tired of hearing the term "pro-life", when the correct label is "anti-abortion", or as a minimum, "selectively pro-life".
4
I agree with you. Sister Joan Chittister says it best when she explained:
"I do not believe that just because you're opposed to abortion, that that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed. And why would I think that you don't? Because you don't want any tax money to go there. That's not pro-life. That's pro-birth. We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of pro-life is."
Let's call these hypocrites what they are: pro-birthers.
"I do not believe that just because you're opposed to abortion, that that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed. And why would I think that you don't? Because you don't want any tax money to go there. That's not pro-life. That's pro-birth. We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of pro-life is."
Let's call these hypocrites what they are: pro-birthers.
3
As a rich mind, willing to take risks for the benefit of sowing its wisdom into the collective, can end up jailed as a consequence and grow even larger in richness of wisdom through the experience, as happened to Nelson Mandela, the egomania of the sociopath can bring it boundless shiny appearance of freedom, looking down from a golden tower up high, off to luxury resorts by the sea, golf courts, and even beauty pageant dressing rooms full of beautiful naked teenagers etc., and see the mind close itself to an even more narrow scope of egoic addiction.
Donald Trump has said he enjoys it when they "let you do it" out of sheer awe for his stardom. In this light, it seems no coincidence that he chose a wife from Eastern Europe twice, a bet on a more submissive catch than an American pick supposedly would be.
A sociopath who seeks the buck, power, and the spotlight, likely seeks in his child an extra buck, a chance to expand his power, and an accessory to pose with. (See also his wife, serving as escalator accessory for instance.)
Her father´s benevolence and generosity toward her is firmly rooted in his cruel injustice toward others, taking relentless advantage of his position of power to dupe and pummel them.
As the result of an endeavor seeking submission, Ivanka is quasi exhibit Ivanka of white male privilege, a living doll to pose with, more loyal and malleable than the wife, and "this product" speaks better English.
Blissfully unaware of this, she shines her light.
Donald Trump has said he enjoys it when they "let you do it" out of sheer awe for his stardom. In this light, it seems no coincidence that he chose a wife from Eastern Europe twice, a bet on a more submissive catch than an American pick supposedly would be.
A sociopath who seeks the buck, power, and the spotlight, likely seeks in his child an extra buck, a chance to expand his power, and an accessory to pose with. (See also his wife, serving as escalator accessory for instance.)
Her father´s benevolence and generosity toward her is firmly rooted in his cruel injustice toward others, taking relentless advantage of his position of power to dupe and pummel them.
As the result of an endeavor seeking submission, Ivanka is quasi exhibit Ivanka of white male privilege, a living doll to pose with, more loyal and malleable than the wife, and "this product" speaks better English.
Blissfully unaware of this, she shines her light.
36
I am envious of your "escalator accessory, Johannes van der Sluijs.
1
"Trumpism as an ideology is on life support..." "Trumpism" was NEVER an ideology. He has no ideological core, no set of guiding principles, no intellectual architecture to house a core set of guiding principles. Douthat muses on political strategies that never existed--Trump moves through issues in ad-hoc amateurism, trying to "win" every encounter, every handshake, like a spoiled 5 year old trying to prove he ate his spinach.
Trying to give Ivanka Trump a strategic aim is an even more pathetic exercise in futility. As Trump himself said in Idaho--"Ivanka said, 'Daddy can I come?' And I said, 'sure.'" That is about as strategic as this family gets.
Trying to give Ivanka Trump a strategic aim is an even more pathetic exercise in futility. As Trump himself said in Idaho--"Ivanka said, 'Daddy can I come?' And I said, 'sure.'" That is about as strategic as this family gets.
47
What a twisted, warped opinion piece. If 328,348 women last year CHOSE to terminate their pregnancies for whatever reason at a Planned Parenthood facility, that means there is a significant, high demand for safe, legal abortion among women of childbearing age in this country. Imagine if they all used coat hangars, how many would be dead or too mutiliated to ever conceive a child again. As for the childcare tax credit proposal, it only works to the advantage of wealthy families who pay high sums for childcare and pay higher tax rates. What the country's parents need is affordable childcare so they can go to their minimum or average wage jobs and rest assured that their infants and/or young children are receiving safe care in a healthy, productive environment.
86
Ivanka can champion any cause she wants as a private, wealthy, well-connected citizen.
I don't want the president, any president, putting his family in the White House; a "most likely heir . . . already in the line of succession."
I don't want the president, any president, putting his family in the White House; a "most likely heir . . . already in the line of succession."
39
Obviously it can't be said often enough that no-one is pro-abortion. Those, such as myself, who are for abortions being legal, see them as "a necessary evil" to be avoided as much as possible, not "a-positive-good". No sane woman uses legal surgical abortion as a form of contraception. If it is criminalised it does not cease to happen. Some women will seek illicit means to end unplanned pregnancies and some of them will die therefore.
A woman has every right to control her own fertility and to end a pregnancy due to failure of contraception. It should be noted that a woman in such circumstances might hope to have one (or one more) child in the future and if she decides to continue with her unplanned pregnancy and sticks to her life-plan that future child will never be born. She could also decide to continue with her unplanned pregnancy and miscarry that very day. Or later in the pregnancy; or deliver a stillborn child; or one severely disabled that dies within hours or days. Nature is profligate and God is aloof or not at all.
To contend that a woman should continue all pregnancies is to contend that a merely potential human being dependent for its existence on the womb of a woman is more important than another actual, living, independent human being - namely the woman herself. Especially when tied to opposition to use of contraception, anti-legal abortion sentiment is deeply misogynist. The life and hopes of women trump the hopes of others for their every fertilised egg.
A woman has every right to control her own fertility and to end a pregnancy due to failure of contraception. It should be noted that a woman in such circumstances might hope to have one (or one more) child in the future and if she decides to continue with her unplanned pregnancy and sticks to her life-plan that future child will never be born. She could also decide to continue with her unplanned pregnancy and miscarry that very day. Or later in the pregnancy; or deliver a stillborn child; or one severely disabled that dies within hours or days. Nature is profligate and God is aloof or not at all.
To contend that a woman should continue all pregnancies is to contend that a merely potential human being dependent for its existence on the womb of a woman is more important than another actual, living, independent human being - namely the woman herself. Especially when tied to opposition to use of contraception, anti-legal abortion sentiment is deeply misogynist. The life and hopes of women trump the hopes of others for their every fertilised egg.
63
I am, indeed, pro-abortion. When a woman needs an abortion -- the operative word is "need" -- then I am in favor of abortion.
Being pro-abortion does not at all translate to "Yaaaay! I love abortion." It's an acknowledgment that we should have the absolute right to a necessary, painful, unpleasant and even frightening procedure -- like the extraction of a bad molar, or the removal of a cyst.
To suggest that a sane woman would promote abortion as a contraceptive is, itself, insane.
Being pro-abortion does not at all translate to "Yaaaay! I love abortion." It's an acknowledgment that we should have the absolute right to a necessary, painful, unpleasant and even frightening procedure -- like the extraction of a bad molar, or the removal of a cyst.
To suggest that a sane woman would promote abortion as a contraceptive is, itself, insane.
3
I really object to your phrase "the liberal commitment to abortion-as-a-positive-good".
Perhaps it's asking too much for a conservative male pundit to have any sympathy for a woman who makes the very tough choice to have an abortion and would rather have it performed in the sterile surroundings of Planned Parenthood rather than with a coat hanger. Do you seriously believe that women, liberal or not, consider, as you accuse liberals as believing in "abortions as a positive good?"
Perhaps it's asking too much for a conservative male pundit to have any sympathy for a woman who makes the very tough choice to have an abortion and would rather have it performed in the sterile surroundings of Planned Parenthood rather than with a coat hanger. Do you seriously believe that women, liberal or not, consider, as you accuse liberals as believing in "abortions as a positive good?"
56
Kim and Kanye and now Ivanka and Jared. With apocalyptic weather events and sabre rattling between two egomaniacs we have time to talk about Ivanka? Do we really envy the British so much we subliminally yearn for a royal family too.Last week's news was when Princess Ivanka interrupted a meeting of the King and his roundtable and how the knights of the Right were upset. Really I have grown tired of the palace intrigue of Jared and Ivanka and wish they would go back to New York and sell shoes and building.
21
"Ivanka has been considerably less embarrassing than most, ... In our increasingly imperial republic, sometimes the most likely heir is already in the line of succession."
Or maybe, just maybe, after dodging the Sarah Palin bullet in 2008 only to shoot ourselves in the head with the Donald Trump bullet in 2016, our country will collectively decide that competency has a place in politics and we'll put the gun down and vote for someone who actually has some talent for the job.
But perhaps that is too much to ask, as the "ire of progressives are not bars to political success" and conservative columnists have raised the bar for the Presidency all the way up to "less embarrassing than most"
Maybe you're right Ross. Maybe we'll just reload and finish the job on our Democracy that conservative Republicans have started.
Or maybe, just maybe, after dodging the Sarah Palin bullet in 2008 only to shoot ourselves in the head with the Donald Trump bullet in 2016, our country will collectively decide that competency has a place in politics and we'll put the gun down and vote for someone who actually has some talent for the job.
But perhaps that is too much to ask, as the "ire of progressives are not bars to political success" and conservative columnists have raised the bar for the Presidency all the way up to "less embarrassing than most"
Maybe you're right Ross. Maybe we'll just reload and finish the job on our Democracy that conservative Republicans have started.
27
America , under this medieval administration, will be the only industrialized country where poor women will be forced again to return to back alleys abortion practice .
The rich American women will fly to Europe to get a safe abortion in an exclusive private clinic .
Abortion has always been and will always be .
Abortion is a decision not taken lightly by women , it comes with anguish and pain , it's a way out to regain normalcy in life in certain situations.
Nobody has the the right to interfere in the intimate sphere of women who are struggling psychologically and physically with this decision .
Politics and religion have no place here .
The rich American women will fly to Europe to get a safe abortion in an exclusive private clinic .
Abortion has always been and will always be .
Abortion is a decision not taken lightly by women , it comes with anguish and pain , it's a way out to regain normalcy in life in certain situations.
Nobody has the the right to interfere in the intimate sphere of women who are struggling psychologically and physically with this decision .
Politics and religion have no place here .
25
Ross. As usual, you miss the point. Religious organizations are free to believe what they want. Opposition to abortion is based on religious dogma. Religions have zero right to impose their beliefs on others. The rest is simply politics...
22
Look, it's good to have someone in theTrump White House looking for compromises, even though her "solution" isn't practical.
Abortion is a tough issue. Bill Clinton's make abortion safe. available and infrequent is what most Americans probably want. But how we do that does not have a settled answer nor do the pro-choice and pro=life factions appear ready to compromise.
Until the right gives up its push to get courts to make contraception illegal whenever some male boss claims his religion doesn't permit him to subsidize heath care which includes it, it's hard to visualize compromises.
Abortion is a tough issue. Bill Clinton's make abortion safe. available and infrequent is what most Americans probably want. But how we do that does not have a settled answer nor do the pro-choice and pro=life factions appear ready to compromise.
Until the right gives up its push to get courts to make contraception illegal whenever some male boss claims his religion doesn't permit him to subsidize heath care which includes it, it's hard to visualize compromises.
21
Glad to see PP and Richards stand for what is right.
10
I wish this editorial had stuck to the first issue it brought up, I.T.'s proposal to Cecile Richards that Planned Parenthood separate services. Either she does not understand that many republicans would love this idea has a major step towards denying the vast majority of poor women an important and significant choice in their lives, because they would immediately set themselves to work on shutting down all independent clinics, or she is so naive by living her gilded cage that she does not understand the plight of lower income Americans as they struggle with choices that the rich take for granted on a daily basis, i.e., feeding one more mouth. Either way you look at it, she is simply naive.
11
Aung San Suu Kyi peace prize winner and Ivanka Trump, two faces that can and should be read to determine fundamental character and personality?
They say you cannot read faces, not to mention is phrenology considered pseudo-science. They say you cannot even tell in many cases when a person is lying and that character, destiny cannot be read in a face. We sure need some science in this regard because it seems to me a very worthwhile question to be exact about this problem. We see faces every day and yet we cannot really know a person by their face? How many of us actually do the opposite, take a look at a face and reliably come to a conclusion?
Aung San Suu Kyi appears to me from just a minute's examination of face and speech to be an authoritarian type, a lying bought and sold type. I have not seen her face prior to peace prize, but seeing her face on the news recently I find it impossible to understand how a peace prize can be awarded to that face. My prediction: That face will diverge from peace prize qualities if it ever had peace prize qualities in the first place. If she changes it will be because of political pressure and it will be a hypocritical change.
Ivanka Trump? A fundamentally good person who is in an impossible situation. She is unfairly maligned. So much has been thrust on her--she is not made for nastiness of business. Differs in character from father and it's difficult to understand how she makes marriage work with scoundrel type husband. Peace to her.
They say you cannot read faces, not to mention is phrenology considered pseudo-science. They say you cannot even tell in many cases when a person is lying and that character, destiny cannot be read in a face. We sure need some science in this regard because it seems to me a very worthwhile question to be exact about this problem. We see faces every day and yet we cannot really know a person by their face? How many of us actually do the opposite, take a look at a face and reliably come to a conclusion?
Aung San Suu Kyi appears to me from just a minute's examination of face and speech to be an authoritarian type, a lying bought and sold type. I have not seen her face prior to peace prize, but seeing her face on the news recently I find it impossible to understand how a peace prize can be awarded to that face. My prediction: That face will diverge from peace prize qualities if it ever had peace prize qualities in the first place. If she changes it will be because of political pressure and it will be a hypocritical change.
Ivanka Trump? A fundamentally good person who is in an impossible situation. She is unfairly maligned. So much has been thrust on her--she is not made for nastiness of business. Differs in character from father and it's difficult to understand how she makes marriage work with scoundrel type husband. Peace to her.
1
Do the 'pro-lifers' give the mothers a 25 year package of financial, emotional and practical support to bring the foetus to adulthood? No they don't. So their case is irrelevant. My body , my decision. Had Ivanka not also realised that having abortion only centres increases the risk of harassment for the patients.
14
"Do the 'pro-lifers' give the mothers a 25 year package of financial, emotional and practical support to bring the foetus to adulthood?" Nope. After they heap their religious ideas upon women who already seriously burdened by unwanted pregnancy, dragging them to deliver full term, they hand out a two weeks' supply of diapers and formula. But hey, there's always prayer.
3
Don't underestimate the woman. It was really smart politics: giving the head of Planned Parenthood the choice between being an abortion fanatic and continuing the unquestioned good things PP does for women's health (mammograms, Pap smears, etc.).
We know how PP chose. Women's health is not its first priority.
We know how PP chose. Women's health is not its first priority.
1
I recommended your comment but I think they only do breast exams. They refer women to facilities that do mammograms. They want the public to believe they do mammograms but that is false.
I think I get the point you are trying to make. If you are correct in your assessment of the Father/Daughter relationship and she is "selling him" on an agenda but realizes his limitations of understanding, it would be very wise for Progressives to educate her more on critical issues. Granted, Nepotism is appalling here but it is what it is. In watching Trump closely, he will never let his "Darling Princess" be remembered by history in a negative light. She could have a significant impact, if one views her as an ally and she whispers in Daddy's deaf ear. The alternative is to continue to vilify her and let her spiral into bitterness toward a Progressive agenda of any kind. If that happens, we can be assured she will whisper nothing positive into Daddy' brain.
47
Your comment is exactly why nepotism is so insidious. We as a public have to hope that family goodwill will turn our way instead of relying on a good political process with policy discussion in public. There is nothing good to come of this and I hope when this administration is over that congress finds the guts to create some firm rules around nepotism in the oval office. I feel like our country has gotten ill and is suffering from the disease of smallness. Gone is the great, so sad.
2
It doesn't really matter what she whispers into Daddy's ear, progressive or not. Daddy will still do whatever happens to be expedient for himself at any given moment. He's an impulsive narcissist, and she has no real power to drive any political agenda, progressive or not.
3
This states the great fallacy of Trump-watchers: too many imagine that "whispering in his deaf ear" will bring him to his senses. He has no senses, moral or otherwise, to come to--all he hears is the constant echo of his pathological narcissism.
It's a pathetic, desperate hope that "she could have a significant impact" by whispering sweet progressive nothings. Her whispers, if there be any, should be cries for help.
It's a pathetic, desperate hope that "she could have a significant impact" by whispering sweet progressive nothings. Her whispers, if there be any, should be cries for help.
2
Mr. Douthat, liberals do not view abortions in a positive light, they view women's civil rights in a positive light. As a liberal, I believe in the sanctity of a woman's right to make decisions regarding her life, her body. No government should have the right to invade her privacy, any more than yours.
31
Ivanka is simply a decoy in the ongoing subjugation of women by this administration. ( especially their health care independence )
It is that simple.
Look at any policy, initiative or executive order by this administration and compare it with her statements. ( let alone her actions ) There is a dichotomy and hypocrisy going on in the extreme
She is taking after her father in saying one thing and doing another.
It is that simple.
Look at any policy, initiative or executive order by this administration and compare it with her statements. ( let alone her actions ) There is a dichotomy and hypocrisy going on in the extreme
She is taking after her father in saying one thing and doing another.
19
If a Democratic President had his daughter and son in law in the White House as "advisors" Mr. Douthat and the rest of the conservative pundits would be apoplectic. The republican Congress would be holding hearings and demanding tax returns if a Democratic President had financial interests even remotely as questionable as Trump's.
Party over country every time.
Party over country every time.
26
As a former Planned Parenthood clinic employee - I feel compelled to correct the numerous misleading statements in this article. The overwhelming majority of a clinic's daily patients are women seeking basic women's health services - from UTI, or STI treatment to contraception. Throwing out the total number of abortions - done to shock and outrage conservatives - ignores the overall number of total planned parenthood visits by women each year - of which abortion is a tiny fraction of services provided. I have no religious ideolgoy - I"m pro-fact and pro-healthcare being just that - healthcare provided to a patient - not faith based healing decisions. To exclude abortion services - sometimes medically necessary and sometimes elective - is faith healing. Real doctors provide medical services, uncompromisingly
26
I was a PP clinic director for several years. The amount of misinformation propounded by the religious right, which is now the Republican party, is astonishing. I wish more of them--a lot more of them--would actually GO to a Planned Parenthood and SEE the good works done by, and for, mostly women. And yes, sometimes those good works include supporting a woman's decision to terminate her pregnancy in a clean, safe environment. But far more often, the good works include supporting a woman's choice to: engage in protected sex, control her reproduction, be tested and treated for STDs, and be referred to other providers including adoption agencies and domestic violence professionals, among other things.
3
Amen. Ross claims to be a Christian, yet somehow can't help continuously bearing false witness.
3
Just as illegal immigration would be stopped overnight by tossing some high profile employers in jail (but it won't happen because part of the point is to use the issue as a political hammer to strike the weak and the different), I suspect abortion would go down tremendously if men were legally responsible for setting aside, say, 20% of their income for their biological children. Pass that law and you will see men clamoring for Planned Parenthood to increase its provisions of free condoms. One senses much of the abortion debate at some level is about keeping women from achieving full equality.
9
DF Paul: You are living in another time. Men have been legally responsible for child support for decades; state law varies but it's usually in the neighborhood of 15 percent of their income. Good men pay it (and take the responsibility of parenthood seriously), and bad men disappear so that the mother of their children have to spend precious resources to find them and drag them to court to force them to comply with the law, and then find them again. Also, Planned Parenthood has given out free condoms--however many one wants just by walking into a clinic and taking them--for at least 30 years.
"One senses much of the abortion debate at some level is about keeping women from achieving full equality." That's not "at some level." It's at the forefront. Level 1.
"One senses much of the abortion debate at some level is about keeping women from achieving full equality." That's not "at some level." It's at the forefront. Level 1.
4
"the liberal commitment to abortion-as-a-positive-good"
A straw man, Ross. No one I know of suggests that abortion is a positive good - contraception is infinitely preferable. However, unwanted pregnancy and unwanted children are both positively bad things and abortion is a reasonable option.
A straw man, Ross. No one I know of suggests that abortion is a positive good - contraception is infinitely preferable. However, unwanted pregnancy and unwanted children are both positively bad things and abortion is a reasonable option.
15
"About six months ago, in the long-ago springtime of the Trump presidency..."
Ross,
You're imagining things. There was no springtime. Trump started out snarling lies about how big his crowds had been, and the daily display of his hatreds, distortions and psychological injuries hasn't stopped for a moment since.
Ross,
You're imagining things. There was no springtime. Trump started out snarling lies about how big his crowds had been, and the daily display of his hatreds, distortions and psychological injuries hasn't stopped for a moment since.
15
What is most telling for me is the righteous conservatives who feel Planned Parenthood should be put out of business because they provide one service, deemed immoral, which is totally legal. During the entire time Planned Parenthood has been targeted as evil, I have not heard of anyone investing money to start a competitor to Planned Parenthood. There is no free market alternative that would take away market share. Why is that? Why did Ivanka, if she is so pro women, go into the shoes and clothes business and not use her family fortune to open a health clinic to offer services to meet a need? Why haven't any other entities stepped forward? Like a religious organization? Or wealthy philanthropist? Or right to life organization? They are so busy trying to tear apart something, but never channel their energy to come up with a "solution" to their perceived injustice. Maybe, just maybe, they don't believe in providing anything to those that can't afford it. If they did. They would.
13
Pro life groups in which there are many would never agree to a smaller Planned Parenthood abortion operation. They still see this as the murder of innocent human life whether there is one baby killed or close to 324,000. Ivanka Trump is very naive if she believed that President Trump's pro-life cabinet appointed by him would agree to such a compromise. They would never. Also Kellyanne Conway and Mike Pence are strong pro-life advocates who would not go along with this plan either. Also those voters who supported Mr. Trump because he promised he would support pro life causes would abandon him and he needs their support. This would be a very foolish move on his part and he is well aware of this. Some people gave him their vote only because they were strong pro life folks.
3
"Some people gave him their vote only because they were strong pro life folks." Well, they SAID they were. And yet, we will never know how many of them have opted for abortion when they themselves were faced with unwanted pregnancies, will we?
4
If Democrats are "uneasy-about-abortion", it's because Republicans would operate outside the law to dispense God's wrath through the denial of service, plus one or two will just shoot doctors with their proliferation of God-loving assault rifles.
It's the law of the land, Mr Douthat, the Supreme Court decided that women have a right of Choice. Democrats prevail to protect Choice and that includes the continued access that eliminates delayed or back alley procedures.
Other than the nepotistic hiring of her and her husband (instead selecting expert 'government administrators' based upon qualifications and experience), nobody cares about Ivanka and Jared!
This stretching-all-imagination Ivanka deal for Planned Parenthood to voluntarily divest is an outlandish segue to bash Democrats and to elevate Ivanka.
"I’m just less sure that she has failed already as a political actor,.." writes Mr Douthat. So, he agrees, Ivanka is 'political' (and so is Jared). Political neophytes that were handed important government administrative positions to advance politcal asperations. 'Never', Mr Douthat, and a second 'never' to cover Jared.
It's the law of the land, Mr Douthat, the Supreme Court decided that women have a right of Choice. Democrats prevail to protect Choice and that includes the continued access that eliminates delayed or back alley procedures.
Other than the nepotistic hiring of her and her husband (instead selecting expert 'government administrators' based upon qualifications and experience), nobody cares about Ivanka and Jared!
This stretching-all-imagination Ivanka deal for Planned Parenthood to voluntarily divest is an outlandish segue to bash Democrats and to elevate Ivanka.
"I’m just less sure that she has failed already as a political actor,.." writes Mr Douthat. So, he agrees, Ivanka is 'political' (and so is Jared). Political neophytes that were handed important government administrative positions to advance politcal asperations. 'Never', Mr Douthat, and a second 'never' to cover Jared.
8
"Indeed, in a White House where everything is inappropriate, Ivanka has been considerably less embarrassing than most...."
Well, that is surely something to be proud of, isn't it? The Trump buffoonery offensive continues to lower the expectations Americans hold for the Executive branch of government. What a nightmare.
Well, that is surely something to be proud of, isn't it? The Trump buffoonery offensive continues to lower the expectations Americans hold for the Executive branch of government. What a nightmare.
9
Excuse me --"Ivanka has been considerably less embarrassing than most, and in an administration whose populist agenda keeps misfiring, she has stayed surprisingly on target." On Target? Don't you have to shoot first to be on target? Ivanka restrains from controversy in a hapless Administration by keeping her mouth shut but that doesn't make heroine status. She has done nothing to warrant Oval Office Presence. Seems bar should be higher than just don't look foolish.
7
21,000 children die of starvation every day.
I agree with those who think we should revere even the whisper of creation. But I wish the religious and the political valued the living children (and adults too) who needlessly die of famine and treatable disease.
I wish that they valued and worked to change the factors that make is such that women can't gladly bear a child into adoption, because in so doing they risk their youth, reputation, status, education, career, or health.
I wish they valued the wisdom within a woman, as she considers what suffering will come to her, and to her child, should she decide to bear it. Or that they would be there to help, and not scorn her, if she is overwhelmed and her life is becoming a ruin.
I remember the time before Planned Parenthood, and have seen how women's lives have been changed by it. Ivanka's idea was not in support of Planned Parenthood, or that change, at all.
There are so many clear degradations of human life in front of us, that all the religious and the politicians in the world could work nonstop for a century before they even made a mark. When people turn away from living suffering, to focus on the unborn, they lose credibility to me, and I have to wonder: what is their unspoken agenda?
I agree with those who think we should revere even the whisper of creation. But I wish the religious and the political valued the living children (and adults too) who needlessly die of famine and treatable disease.
I wish that they valued and worked to change the factors that make is such that women can't gladly bear a child into adoption, because in so doing they risk their youth, reputation, status, education, career, or health.
I wish they valued the wisdom within a woman, as she considers what suffering will come to her, and to her child, should she decide to bear it. Or that they would be there to help, and not scorn her, if she is overwhelmed and her life is becoming a ruin.
I remember the time before Planned Parenthood, and have seen how women's lives have been changed by it. Ivanka's idea was not in support of Planned Parenthood, or that change, at all.
There are so many clear degradations of human life in front of us, that all the religious and the politicians in the world could work nonstop for a century before they even made a mark. When people turn away from living suffering, to focus on the unborn, they lose credibility to me, and I have to wonder: what is their unspoken agenda?
8
Mr. Douthat, you offer misleading numbers to buttress your case, which weakens it in my view. You compare the number of abortions only to the number of prenatal care visits. But Planned Parenthood doesn't do much prenatal care. They usually do referrals for that service. If you had looked at testing for STDs, or visits for birth control, the numbers would have contradicted your argument. That's intellectually dishonest.
15
Ross you are overthinking this, and over-attributing. Just because Ivanka is a master of grooming skills does not mean any litheness in her political ideas are native to that topic. Have we learned nothing from Hollywood liberals? Sometimes they have good ideas. But that is a result of their suaveness about people, not any focused sense of what it means to govern. Rare is the entertainer, star, celebrity, or mogul who can translate one form of being sharp to the other.
Look, I am having trouble too. because it really is not pleasant to realize, we are simply in a political vacuum right now. There is no functional center and much rather, the most basic offices of our government are in constant short- or dead-circuit. Some may rejoice in this, I sure don't.
Looking to Ivanka for source material regarding our politics today is much like looking at Andy Warhol for source material regarding our artistic world in the 70's. It is not a flattering mirror, in my opinion.
Look, I am having trouble too. because it really is not pleasant to realize, we are simply in a political vacuum right now. There is no functional center and much rather, the most basic offices of our government are in constant short- or dead-circuit. Some may rejoice in this, I sure don't.
Looking to Ivanka for source material regarding our politics today is much like looking at Andy Warhol for source material regarding our artistic world in the 70's. It is not a flattering mirror, in my opinion.
5
There is no 'Trumpism' beyond self-enrichment and self-aggrandizement. To try and make sense of the President's political philosophy is to try and make sense out of nonsense. Ivanka fits that profile as much as the president. Her interest is to promote her products and brand. The idea of splitting PP is nonsense. PP's mission is to provide comprehensive women's health services, and like or not, that includes abortion. If she was serious about helping working women, she would advocate for single-stop women's health services. Mr. Douthat, if Ivanka is an heir to anything beyond her father's money, the American Experiment has failed.
7
Mr. Douthat assures us that there is a, "liberal commitment to abortion-as-a-positive-good," versus, "various conservative positions," on contraception and female sexuality.
No, Mr. Douthat. Your argument is badly flawed.
Abortion is not a "positive good." It is an operation that is sometimes medically necessary, most often an individual choice, and a historical reality. And the positions of "conservatives" on contraception basically comes down to a desire by a segment of society to exercise control over women of their family planning and sexuality.
The nation is in a culture war the right took up against individuals in order to get votes, not to enact rational policy. Abortion bans were ended because women were getting hurt, daughters were dying, and the people of America realized the policy of making it illegal was cruel.
Ivanka Trump is among those who would never have to choose carrying a child to term or finding some hack to do an abortion. The wealthy and powerful have options the rest do not. Her ideas make sense for the rich and powerful. Or for the cautious culture warrior. But they are no more real-world solutions than those of her father. Or the GOP.
History shows it is arrogant to wish abortion could be eliminated. To work to end it is cynical and cruel. And there is no reason to believe the GOP would end their war with Planned Parenthood. It is a party that lives, breathes and profits mightily from having enemies. So too the Trumps.
No, Mr. Douthat. Your argument is badly flawed.
Abortion is not a "positive good." It is an operation that is sometimes medically necessary, most often an individual choice, and a historical reality. And the positions of "conservatives" on contraception basically comes down to a desire by a segment of society to exercise control over women of their family planning and sexuality.
The nation is in a culture war the right took up against individuals in order to get votes, not to enact rational policy. Abortion bans were ended because women were getting hurt, daughters were dying, and the people of America realized the policy of making it illegal was cruel.
Ivanka Trump is among those who would never have to choose carrying a child to term or finding some hack to do an abortion. The wealthy and powerful have options the rest do not. Her ideas make sense for the rich and powerful. Or for the cautious culture warrior. But they are no more real-world solutions than those of her father. Or the GOP.
History shows it is arrogant to wish abortion could be eliminated. To work to end it is cynical and cruel. And there is no reason to believe the GOP would end their war with Planned Parenthood. It is a party that lives, breathes and profits mightily from having enemies. So too the Trumps.
677
Well said. That "positive good" line was misleading in a very disturbing and divisive way.
3
kabob is quite correct. A clinic that offered pre-natal counseling, mammograms, STD testing, and birth control but not abortion would not run afoul of liberals in the slightest. There are thousands of such places (I long worked for one -it's called a hospital), and I have never heard any liberal objections.
5
Having arrived at the great age of 36 with not one, but two books of advice for American women on how to live satisfying and productive lives based on her own experience, Ivanka certainly doesn't lack confidence in her "gifts," and neither apparently does Ross. It does not take much critical analysis or imagination to see that splitting up Planned Parenthood services to placate the religious right is the first step in "divide and conquer,"with contraception surely being the next target. Despite the best efforts of Trump's GOP, last time I checked we still had separation of Church and State and abortion is the law of the land.
Since November, Ivanka has shown little real interest in distancing herself from her father's words and deeds and seems happy to appear with him on request, as she did last week in North Dakota. That particular creepy cameo said all we really need to know about Ms.Trump- "Her Heart Belongs to Daddy."
Since November, Ivanka has shown little real interest in distancing herself from her father's words and deeds and seems happy to appear with him on request, as she did last week in North Dakota. That particular creepy cameo said all we really need to know about Ms.Trump- "Her Heart Belongs to Daddy."
59
If your figures about the number of abortions performed vs. prenatal care visits are correct it would mean that the total of the latter would amount to 219 per state per year. If you define prenatal care as "check-ups that allow doctors or midwives to treat and prevent potential health problems throughout the course of the pregnancy," this figure seems highly suspect. Why would you cite the Daily Caller as a reputable source?
60
Coat hangers and back alleys and incest and rape and babies born to mothers who can't take care of them, who cares, lots of older white men have pronounced.
They're more catholic than the pope. No doubt they have a straight pipeline to god via the self-righteous voices in their heads that tell them they're better than "those people".
How's about not minding other people's sex lives, and valuing the families and the already born. The purity of a fetus is not superior to the human it might become, and the value of that life depends on its nurturing. If you eliminate health care for the poor, you are defeating your purpose of helping those "tiny human lives" which don't stop at birth.
They're more catholic than the pope. No doubt they have a straight pipeline to god via the self-righteous voices in their heads that tell them they're better than "those people".
How's about not minding other people's sex lives, and valuing the families and the already born. The purity of a fetus is not superior to the human it might become, and the value of that life depends on its nurturing. If you eliminate health care for the poor, you are defeating your purpose of helping those "tiny human lives" which don't stop at birth.
82
As one commenter noted:
I've heard it said that a child's Right to Life ends at birth.
I've heard it said that a child's Right to Life ends at birth.
3
Planned Parenthood is a federation of local organizations. Some already don't provide abortions
"dwarfing the number of prenatal care visits by a factor of more than 30."
Its absolutely true that most Planned Parenthood patients are seeking to prevent pregnancy. Why would you expect them to seek prenatal care? This is the kind of silly ideologically driven commentary that passes off as thoughtful commentary in the popular media.
That said. Ivanka Trump is at least suggesting an unorthodox approach that might move the ball down the field. But there is a reason Planned Parenthood has become a major provider of abortions. The rest of the medical industry abandoned abortion services, separate abortion clinics were targeted by terrorists and patients seeking services at those clinics were subjected to extreme abuse and harassment. Creating new abortion "ghettos" would simply make abortion providers and their patients more vulnerable.
"dwarfing the number of prenatal care visits by a factor of more than 30."
Its absolutely true that most Planned Parenthood patients are seeking to prevent pregnancy. Why would you expect them to seek prenatal care? This is the kind of silly ideologically driven commentary that passes off as thoughtful commentary in the popular media.
That said. Ivanka Trump is at least suggesting an unorthodox approach that might move the ball down the field. But there is a reason Planned Parenthood has become a major provider of abortions. The rest of the medical industry abandoned abortion services, separate abortion clinics were targeted by terrorists and patients seeking services at those clinics were subjected to extreme abuse and harassment. Creating new abortion "ghettos" would simply make abortion providers and their patients more vulnerable.
41
They provide health care (including to men) to families who cannot afford it elsewhere. Millions would tell you so, but it appears you don't want to know.
40
I was a volunteer escort for Planned Parenthood. What I discovered is that the stand alone reproductive health clinic, known to provide abortions (yeah, I know it does less controversial stuff) is the perfect venue for perpetuating to abortion controversy, which is the last thing you want before an abortion, or for that matter, any surgical procedure. It would be much more beneficial to abortion patients to have the procedure done in a hospital. No one knows what you're going for, when you walk into a hospital, so it would end the protests, & eventually the controversy itself, for all practical purposes.
5
Susan -
I worked for Planned Parenthood. I know full well that we provided a range of health care services for both men and women. But we were clearly focused on reproductive health for women. Most women looking for prenatal care do not go to Planned Parenthood and its silly to compare the number of abortion patients it sees to the number of prenatal patients.
I worked for Planned Parenthood. I know full well that we provided a range of health care services for both men and women. But we were clearly focused on reproductive health for women. Most women looking for prenatal care do not go to Planned Parenthood and its silly to compare the number of abortion patients it sees to the number of prenatal patients.
2
I received health services including my annual exam from Planned Parenthood and found the practitioners kind, knowledgeable, and caring. I recall sitting with others in the waiting room; each there to invest in their own health or the health of their families. I found visiting PP to be a better experience than going to other health clinics and hospitals. They just received the Lasker Award; one of many they have earned for public service. They are my true heroes!
116
"In our increasingly imperial republic, sometimes the most likely heir is already in the line of succession."
This is an absolutely chilling sentence.
This is an absolutely chilling sentence.
108
Trump's victory in 2016 contradicts the thesis of imperial republic and heirs. His column venerating Ivanka, on the other hand, lends it fuel.
1
Oh, please. Everybody in Washington has thought of the split "Planned Parenthood into PP-no abortions and PP-abortion services" gambit. Here's the catch. The only way to do and still provide appropriate continuum of care for patients requires several things that are non-starters.
First of all, PP-no abortions has to be able to refer women to PP-abortion services with no restrictions at all. Non-starter for conservatives.
Next, in order to provide a seamless continuum of care, PP-no abortions and PP-abortion services have to share everything: locations, administrative staff, medical, staff, everything. You could set things up so that staff would hit a button or something to switch back and forth from one organization to the other depending on exactly what they are doing and allocate salaries, benefits and other overhead costs (like rent and utilities) depending on the proportion of time spent on each service. The cost to set up the accounting processes and audit it to make sure one organization wasn't subsidizing the other would be awful.
And, in order to do it, you have to admit that there is something wrong with providing abortions at least to the extent that they have to be segregated out into a different charitable organization. Last I can recall, the US has already figured out that separate but equal isn't really equal.
Possible as an absolute, rock bottom, last resort. But never something to volunteer for. Never.
First of all, PP-no abortions has to be able to refer women to PP-abortion services with no restrictions at all. Non-starter for conservatives.
Next, in order to provide a seamless continuum of care, PP-no abortions and PP-abortion services have to share everything: locations, administrative staff, medical, staff, everything. You could set things up so that staff would hit a button or something to switch back and forth from one organization to the other depending on exactly what they are doing and allocate salaries, benefits and other overhead costs (like rent and utilities) depending on the proportion of time spent on each service. The cost to set up the accounting processes and audit it to make sure one organization wasn't subsidizing the other would be awful.
And, in order to do it, you have to admit that there is something wrong with providing abortions at least to the extent that they have to be segregated out into a different charitable organization. Last I can recall, the US has already figured out that separate but equal isn't really equal.
Possible as an absolute, rock bottom, last resort. But never something to volunteer for. Never.
39
I am constantly stunned at how a person like Mr. Douhat, so imaginative as to be able to envision a "tiny human life" for an embryo lacking so much as a brain, can fail so repeatedly to envision the many big human lives lost or cruelly cut short because of a lack of timely or affordable healthcare.
How is it that somebody claiming to value life can fail to be appalled by the fact that some people will fail to get needed treatment due to lack of funds? How can he sleep knowing that our gov't fails to protect children at risk, fails families people with mental illness, fails the homeless?
Take away your Catholic belief about original sin and the sanctity of life from the time of conception, and explain how on earth you can make the case that forcing a woman to have an unplanned and unwanted child shows a greater respect for human life than a first trimester abortion.
How is it that somebody claiming to value life can fail to be appalled by the fact that some people will fail to get needed treatment due to lack of funds? How can he sleep knowing that our gov't fails to protect children at risk, fails families people with mental illness, fails the homeless?
Take away your Catholic belief about original sin and the sanctity of life from the time of conception, and explain how on earth you can make the case that forcing a woman to have an unplanned and unwanted child shows a greater respect for human life than a first trimester abortion.
232
If I were a megalomaniac, I'd think my readership extended to the Trumps, because I've been flogging Ivanka's proposition about PP in this forum for years. But it's a pretty obvious idea -- split PP into two organizations, with one dedicated to abortions and contraception, and (in my version) have that completely separate operation share nothing with the other, including personnel, facilities and funding of any kind, and have it supported entirely by charitable contributions. I've stated that I'd contribute to it. What remained would be dedicated solely to non-controversial healthcare services to women, and could be funded in large part publicly.
I firmly believe that if you don't make the evangelicals pay for something they're unalterably opposed to on religious grounds, most of the diehard resistance would melt away.
But apart from the obvious nature of the solution, I don't assume that the Trumps are fans, because I'm not at all sure that either of them has the sense of humor required to truly appreciate me.
The problem, of course, is that the people who run PP are in BUSINESS to provide abortions and contraception, which is what Margaret Sanger founded its predecessor to do in Brooklyn in 1916, that finally adopted the name "Planned Parenthood" in 1942. That's a long time for very firm convictions to form about what "reproductive health" includes, and it's not an easy thing to transform those convictions.
But, in the end, my (and Ivanka's) idea could have legs.
I firmly believe that if you don't make the evangelicals pay for something they're unalterably opposed to on religious grounds, most of the diehard resistance would melt away.
But apart from the obvious nature of the solution, I don't assume that the Trumps are fans, because I'm not at all sure that either of them has the sense of humor required to truly appreciate me.
The problem, of course, is that the people who run PP are in BUSINESS to provide abortions and contraception, which is what Margaret Sanger founded its predecessor to do in Brooklyn in 1916, that finally adopted the name "Planned Parenthood" in 1942. That's a long time for very firm convictions to form about what "reproductive health" includes, and it's not an easy thing to transform those convictions.
But, in the end, my (and Ivanka's) idea could have legs.
3
Your concept rests on the completely erroneous notion that abortion and contraception are controversial. Virtually every woman uses contraception, including those whose religions oppose it. As for abortions, it's a not so secret fact that many women, including those completely opposed to it, will, at some point, have one. For a variety of private and very good reasons. And their anti-choice partners will support their decision.
This abortion/contraception controversy was fabricated by politicians solely for political gain. Even if these "anti-choice" politicians manage to outlaw abortions in many states it's also a widely known secret that only the poor will suffer unwanted pregnancies. Everyone else will have the wherewithall to obtain abortions by traveling to states that will continue to allow them.
This abortion/contraception controversy was fabricated by politicians solely for political gain. Even if these "anti-choice" politicians manage to outlaw abortions in many states it's also a widely known secret that only the poor will suffer unwanted pregnancies. Everyone else will have the wherewithall to obtain abortions by traveling to states that will continue to allow them.
6
Sounds wonky, at first, but I tend to agree. Don't feel knowledgeable enough to go further.
Open an "abortions only" clinic and you'd be putting targets on the backs of medical professionals, clerical workers, women and their friends and relatives who'd dare to enter the place. I wish the anti-abortion folks had respect for those lives, but they demonstrably do not.
9
Women should have sovereignty over their body just like men do.
And I agree with the CNN commentator who said that the president just does not get that people are not that impressed with Ivanka.
I definitely am not.
And I agree with the CNN commentator who said that the president just does not get that people are not that impressed with Ivanka.
I definitely am not.
381
"[T]he Trumpian habit of ignoring the ideological assumptions around an issue, and groping toward views that more Americans might be likely to support."
Ouch. Was the choice of words intentional?
Ouch. Was the choice of words intentional?
63
"So a politician who proposed to fund a large network of women’s health centers that offered contraceptives, H.I.V. tests, mammograms, prenatal care and adoption referrals, but absolutely no abortions, would run afoul of both the liberal commitment to abortion-as-a-positive-good and various conservative positions."
I know of NO liberal who sees an abortion as something positive. Rather liberals see it as a symptom of "various conservative positions."
"...a larger child tax credit, refundable against payroll taxes to help the working class,..."
Uh, conservatives need to make up their mind. Is social security going broke as conservatives claim? If it is, then why are they trying to further cut its sole funding source, the payroll tax?
"Trumpism as an ideology is on life support,..." Really? A whopping 96% of Trump voters say they do not regret their 2016 vote for him.
I know of NO liberal who sees an abortion as something positive. Rather liberals see it as a symptom of "various conservative positions."
"...a larger child tax credit, refundable against payroll taxes to help the working class,..."
Uh, conservatives need to make up their mind. Is social security going broke as conservatives claim? If it is, then why are they trying to further cut its sole funding source, the payroll tax?
"Trumpism as an ideology is on life support,..." Really? A whopping 96% of Trump voters say they do not regret their 2016 vote for him.
42
Every liberal I've met in the past 50 years believes that a woman should have the right to choose whether or not to continue a pregnancy to term. And I'm talking about a lot of people. & believe it or not, lack of sufficient income is far from the only motive for ending a pregnancy.
4
Two points: You've misstated the stats on Trump. That's 96% of Trump's base, not all who voted for Trump. Second, I'm liberal and I think abortions are good. So now you've at least heard of a liberal who likes them.
1
Ivanka's suggestion is worn--she must be the millionth person to come up with that brilliant idea. Glad to know it was dismissed as a simplistic fix to the problem that Republicans have with letting women determine their own fates.
Ivanka is the consummate dilettante. So sure that her flash of insight will win the day. Ivanka, here's a tip, get lost.
Ivanka is the consummate dilettante. So sure that her flash of insight will win the day. Ivanka, here's a tip, get lost.
158
ivanka's way of tax breaks disproportionately helps the wealthy. This family is clueless about the working poor and middle class they claim to champion.
135
It's appalling that ivanka and Jared are in the west wing, but I have little interest in attacking her. There are more important issues, like minimizing the damage trump is doing. Douthat is a bit right about ivankas PP proposal. But asserting this is an exampLe of trump seeking non-ideological positions that people support? Ha!
Even in this context, I am weary of the abortion wars and conservative mis-statements, yearning to move away from this being the ultimate political and cultural wedge issue.
Why can't conservatives see that abortion is a decision that belongs only to the woman involved? Conservative men Have no business offering their opinions about tiny humans to young woman in crisis pregnancies, unless they are intimately involved. So many things can go wrong in life. Judging and controlling women over decisions they make when things go wrong is cruel. All these points have been argued a million times.
Trump, mr puxxy grabber, despite his eagerness to repeat republican lies about abortion rights, is so insensitive and deluded about women's issues that any position he takes is farcical,
Even in this context, I am weary of the abortion wars and conservative mis-statements, yearning to move away from this being the ultimate political and cultural wedge issue.
Why can't conservatives see that abortion is a decision that belongs only to the woman involved? Conservative men Have no business offering their opinions about tiny humans to young woman in crisis pregnancies, unless they are intimately involved. So many things can go wrong in life. Judging and controlling women over decisions they make when things go wrong is cruel. All these points have been argued a million times.
Trump, mr puxxy grabber, despite his eagerness to repeat republican lies about abortion rights, is so insensitive and deluded about women's issues that any position he takes is farcical,
100
Planned Parenthood is often the only health clinic in poor rural areas; they provide basic care: mammograms, pap smears, contraceptives, diagnostics etc. If an abortion is requested, they can refer the patient to a medical group where medically necessary abortions are provided. It is often up to a Board to determine if an abortion is medically necessary; and, that includes the psychiatric diagnostic. Roe v. Wade settled the issue of a woman's right to privacy, which includes her personal privacy as regards pregnancy. There is no reason to return to a time when girls ended up in back alleys on kitchen tables; or in filthy Tijuana clinics where they often returned septic and sterile. Those with money could either pay for three psychiatric diagnoses, or they could fly to Japan where abortions were safe and legal. If the current Congress would address the deaths visited on women in those countries we are bombing, that would be a step forward. If Ivanka would talk to her father about the 7th Century laws regarding women in Saudi Arabia, that would be helpful. Perhaps Jared's ties to Israel might enlighten Trump and Ivanka: Israel is progressive when it comes to abortions. I am old enough to remember the barbaric laws foisted on young girls who made a mistake and paid for it the rest of their lives. Advice to men who will never be pregnant: mind your own business.
6
There is another aspect to splitting off abortion services. If the government funds much of the rest of Planned Parenthood, then the size of the needed private funding for it becomes much more manageable. They could raise that 3%, much more than they could raise the whole government contribution to all of Planned Parenthood services.
Yes, women are entitled to the choice. However, if we can fund everything else despite The Party of No, then we can more readily provide that choice too.
Yes, women are entitled to the choice. However, if we can fund everything else despite The Party of No, then we can more readily provide that choice too.
9
If you require satellite locations, just for abortions, ones that meet all the excessively rigorous requirements that many states now require, it would exceed that 3%.
2
Sara Tonin -- Yes, there are those who would keep going to try to make it impossible. I'm suggesting that funding is a major hurdle they are using now, and getting past that is worth something, even though they'll keep throwing up more hurdles.
Where are you proposing women go for a safe medical abortion if not to Planned Parenthood? Your neighborhood Walgreens walk-in clinic?? I don't think so...
4
I am so very tired of comments that are inspired by an opportunity to get off a "witty" one liner about Donald Trump, rather than any sincere feeling on the issue. I'm of the generation that saw fairly frequent findings of dead women in New York, dead because they couldn't get a safe, legal abortion. Nonetheless, I was appalled the first time I called Planned Prenthood as a young adult and was answered on the phone with a cheery "Planned Parenthood! Abortion services!" Planned Parenthood could have displayed a sincere wish to keep abortion safe, legal and rare by doing exactly as Ivanka Trump proposed right after the foetal parts scandal. They could have fired that doctor waving around a wine glass and discussing how they could provide specific foetal parts on order. Or they could have said that they were out of the business of providing foetal parts for research. Instead they have done none of this, persuading me that they are far more enthusiastic about providing abortion services with minimal bothersome restrictions than I can tolerate.
2
That story was false. Far too much of the truth was edited out of what the woman said in order to make her sound more salacious. http://www.factcheck.org/2015/07/unspinning-the-planned-parenthood-video/
As for the restrictions Republicans try to impose on abortions--the sole purpose is to make it more difficult or impossible to obtain a safe, legal abortion. For example, they impose waiting times and unnecessary sonograms or other tests. The real purpose behind such requirements is not to give a woman time to think, as proponents claim--the woman probably has not thought about much else since she first feared she may be pregnant. Instead, because women are required in many cases to drive hundreds of miles to access abortion services, and she must have someone to drive her home afterward, the wait requires both people to take yet another day off work (lost money but also creates the necessity of making up a story about what she is doing or where she is going, often a lie that bosses or coworkers can discern, punishing the woman for her behavioral choices, but not punishing her partner), pay for a motel or hotel and childcare for children at home alone, and potentially be required to pay the costs of the ultrasound or other unnecessary test.
Planned Parenthood was never "in the business" of providing fetal parts for research. The smasll fees do not generate profit, barely helping to cover costs. Not helping scientific stem cell research? Sounds very shortsighted to me.
As for the restrictions Republicans try to impose on abortions--the sole purpose is to make it more difficult or impossible to obtain a safe, legal abortion. For example, they impose waiting times and unnecessary sonograms or other tests. The real purpose behind such requirements is not to give a woman time to think, as proponents claim--the woman probably has not thought about much else since she first feared she may be pregnant. Instead, because women are required in many cases to drive hundreds of miles to access abortion services, and she must have someone to drive her home afterward, the wait requires both people to take yet another day off work (lost money but also creates the necessity of making up a story about what she is doing or where she is going, often a lie that bosses or coworkers can discern, punishing the woman for her behavioral choices, but not punishing her partner), pay for a motel or hotel and childcare for children at home alone, and potentially be required to pay the costs of the ultrasound or other unnecessary test.
Planned Parenthood was never "in the business" of providing fetal parts for research. The smasll fees do not generate profit, barely helping to cover costs. Not helping scientific stem cell research? Sounds very shortsighted to me.
9
@Mary Smith
So your concern about the "dead women in New York" was LESS than your feelings about how a phone was answered? Or that a doctor should lose his job because he spoke about the wrong thing at the wrong kind of social event, to someone misrepresenting themselves? Planned Parenthood, running women's health clinics, could slough off abortion services from women's health about as easily as it is to stop young adults from having sex out of wedlock. And your concern for dead women seems limited by your personal feelings about an unfortunate medical necessity.
So your concern about the "dead women in New York" was LESS than your feelings about how a phone was answered? Or that a doctor should lose his job because he spoke about the wrong thing at the wrong kind of social event, to someone misrepresenting themselves? Planned Parenthood, running women's health clinics, could slough off abortion services from women's health about as easily as it is to stop young adults from having sex out of wedlock. And your concern for dead women seems limited by your personal feelings about an unfortunate medical necessity.
10
The video to which you refer was exposed as a hoax. There was no foetal parts scandal other than that it was, indeed, a misleeding and false report.
If only there were some way to formally evaluate the comments other than a thimb's up. Your comment merits a thumb's down.
If only there were some way to formally evaluate the comments other than a thimb's up. Your comment merits a thumb's down.
7
I am not an American.
Ross it is not often I call for a standing ovation but this op-ed says what needs to be said.
I am a democratic socialist and i am a member of our democratic socialist party. When our Conservatives offer a policy idea I listen intently and consider its merit, when the Liberals offer good policy ideas I write my MP telling I like their policy.
I lived in the NWT where the legislative assembly required unanimity to institute policy and it worked because you learned very quickly how to listen.
There is no end of genius in the USA and there are good solutions to all America's problems but the unwillingness to listen and honestly consider anything that is not the official version of your tribe might mean that Lincoln was wrong and government of the people by the people shall perish from the Earth.
Ross it is not often I call for a standing ovation but this op-ed says what needs to be said.
I am a democratic socialist and i am a member of our democratic socialist party. When our Conservatives offer a policy idea I listen intently and consider its merit, when the Liberals offer good policy ideas I write my MP telling I like their policy.
I lived in the NWT where the legislative assembly required unanimity to institute policy and it worked because you learned very quickly how to listen.
There is no end of genius in the USA and there are good solutions to all America's problems but the unwillingness to listen and honestly consider anything that is not the official version of your tribe might mean that Lincoln was wrong and government of the people by the people shall perish from the Earth.
10
This column is brilliant. It is just further evidence that Douthat is its most informed and objective columnist. Douthat makes it worth subscribing to the NYT.
6
Please explain what makes this column brilliant. I imagine he also praised Cathie Black as NYC Chancellor for the fresh ideas she brought to education. I can't see why he is attempting to normalize Ivanka unless he believes that doing so will also normalize her father. He even implies at the end of the column that Ivanka Trump might prove a worthy successor to the current president, thus anointing another presidential dynasty.
2
How does Ivanka have the right to moralize or temporize abortion. The sweatshop Queen makes handbags at the expense of human dignity, for God's sake. Is there a shred of morality in this vacuous human being who thinks that a sharp pair of shoes and a flashy smile is what all women are pining for.
Planned Parenthood has every right to exist and flourish....certainly more than the NRA. And Ivanka's simplistic reduction of it to an abortion clinic is something that Ross shouldn't be defending.
Planned Parenthood has every right to exist and flourish....certainly more than the NRA. And Ivanka's simplistic reduction of it to an abortion clinic is something that Ross shouldn't be defending.
282
If by "ideological heir" you mean devoid of a moral compass and with the sole goal of enriching oneself, then yes. We can only hope that Republicans and the struggling Americans who voted for this train wreck will become tired of being led by a royal family of toddlers.
166
Trying to rebut the point about PP's full range of services by saying that 328,348 abortions "dwarfs" the number of prenatal care visits (by 30X) amounts to breathtaking dishonesty. As noted by someone else, when seen in the context of *all* PP services, abortions are only 3%.
Any reasonable adult would call 3% a small percentage, and yet Douthat cites his figures to mislead readers who don't know this. Contrary to the claims by many anti-abortion folks, most of us who support the option of legal abortion see the issue as a serious ethical question that demands careful and honest reflection. Slippery rhetorical tricks should be put aside so that people on both sides can make their case in a serious and honest way.
Any reasonable adult would call 3% a small percentage, and yet Douthat cites his figures to mislead readers who don't know this. Contrary to the claims by many anti-abortion folks, most of us who support the option of legal abortion see the issue as a serious ethical question that demands careful and honest reflection. Slippery rhetorical tricks should be put aside so that people on both sides can make their case in a serious and honest way.
341
Here's another way to distort the meaning of numbers. There are 5 states with only 1 abortion provider. Nineteen states have 1-5 abortion providers. If you consider states with 1-20 providers, you'll find this is true of 42 states (Guttmacher Institute, 2014).
Now, where do women go for prenatal care? Physicians, nurse practitioners, midwives, public health programs, and walk-in health clinics offer this service. In several large cities, there are hundreds of prenatal providers but no abortion provider.
So, if planned parenthood provides 30 times as many abortions as prenatal care services, maybe it's because there are 1000 prenatal care providers in states with only one abortion provider. Douhat's numbers just show that women do not have equal opportunity to access legal healthcare.
Now, where do women go for prenatal care? Physicians, nurse practitioners, midwives, public health programs, and walk-in health clinics offer this service. In several large cities, there are hundreds of prenatal providers but no abortion provider.
So, if planned parenthood provides 30 times as many abortions as prenatal care services, maybe it's because there are 1000 prenatal care providers in states with only one abortion provider. Douhat's numbers just show that women do not have equal opportunity to access legal healthcare.
3
Ivanka's proposal demonstrated one thing only -- how entirely she misses the point when it comes to the average woman's healthcare and reproductive rights. Split off the abortion clinics? Seriously? Abortion is not PP's main business (see facts, not Douthat's misleading comments), but the right to one's own reproduction is FUNDAMENTAL to control over all other aspects of one's life in this society. Without this emergency fall-back, poor women can never dig their way out of poverty. Uneducated women may never finish school. And the children they already have find their lives that much more limited. But Ivanka, with her maids and her millions, hasn't a clue about any of that. People complain that she "wasn't elected" and "doesn't represent anyone." Thank God for that, I say. And let's hope it stays that way.
191
Actually, abortion clinics are already mostly split off because most PP offices do not offer abortion services.
3
Stop saying that Ivanka has something to add to the political discourse. What are her qualifications other than being a member of the House Trump?
168
Dear Mr. Douthat,
I rarely, if ever find agreement with you primarily because at least 70% of my views would likely be considered "Progressive." However, abortion is one area where I depart from "liberals/democrats." I appreciate the way progressives care about supporting life after birth and I appreciate the way most conservatives care about protecting life before birth. While I do not believe in a complete ban (I really do believe that a decision re: surgery that would spare the life of woman, e.g., ectopic pregnancy, truly is between a woman and her doctor), I also do not believe in fully publicly funded abortion for anyone, at anytime, at any stage of pregnancy. As a self-identified progressive Christian who also follows the Buddha Dharma I believe in protecting the life of all sentient beings from violence--even the unborn [see the "Heart Sutra" for further details]. So, I really appreciated Invanka's proposal of providing funding for planned parenthood Sans abortion services. Proponents of abortion/PP keep emphasizing the primary healthcare services that would be lost if funding for PP were lost, but this line of protest never struck me as completely forthright. Ivanka's proposal exposed that ploy.
I rarely, if ever find agreement with you primarily because at least 70% of my views would likely be considered "Progressive." However, abortion is one area where I depart from "liberals/democrats." I appreciate the way progressives care about supporting life after birth and I appreciate the way most conservatives care about protecting life before birth. While I do not believe in a complete ban (I really do believe that a decision re: surgery that would spare the life of woman, e.g., ectopic pregnancy, truly is between a woman and her doctor), I also do not believe in fully publicly funded abortion for anyone, at anytime, at any stage of pregnancy. As a self-identified progressive Christian who also follows the Buddha Dharma I believe in protecting the life of all sentient beings from violence--even the unborn [see the "Heart Sutra" for further details]. So, I really appreciated Invanka's proposal of providing funding for planned parenthood Sans abortion services. Proponents of abortion/PP keep emphasizing the primary healthcare services that would be lost if funding for PP were lost, but this line of protest never struck me as completely forthright. Ivanka's proposal exposed that ploy.
4
I too am troubled by abortion. I am more troubled since I followed my children from the first months of ultrasound.
However, the law is clear.
The lives of other people have other needs. What I felt is not something all others have as an option.
It is a question in which both sides have some things right, and the complexity is painful.
Ivanka's proposal is a work around. The whole subject is Rube Goldberg as it is, so a work around is entirely in keeping.
However, the law is clear.
The lives of other people have other needs. What I felt is not something all others have as an option.
It is a question in which both sides have some things right, and the complexity is painful.
Ivanka's proposal is a work around. The whole subject is Rube Goldberg as it is, so a work around is entirely in keeping.
10
There is no publicly funded abortion. It is probably true, however, that separating PP into tiers that do not offer abortion would lead to inefficient doubling of infrastructure and overhead for many PP centers, and prevent many women from exercising their rights as abortion centers would be prohibitively far away and unavailable to the poor. (As is typical for Ivanka, she has zero concept of anything in the life of a poor person).
As a Buddhist practitioner myself, I can understand that abortion can be construed as a violent act against a sentient being. However, what constitutes a sentient being? The Buddha held that mental formations, consciousness, sensation and perception were required: i.e. a functioning nervous system. This does not exist early in human development. The notion of life at conception is not explicitly enshrined in sacred texts. Normally to spare the lives of sentient beings we can pay a farmer/fisherman for animals in order to release them, but this cannot yet be done with a woman whose internal organs are being used against her will. Perhaps in the future we can develop artificial womb technology (it has already been done for animals) that will render all these questions obsolete; we will be able to liberate a fetus from a woman and still allow development to continue.
As a Buddhist practitioner myself, I can understand that abortion can be construed as a violent act against a sentient being. However, what constitutes a sentient being? The Buddha held that mental formations, consciousness, sensation and perception were required: i.e. a functioning nervous system. This does not exist early in human development. The notion of life at conception is not explicitly enshrined in sacred texts. Normally to spare the lives of sentient beings we can pay a farmer/fisherman for animals in order to release them, but this cannot yet be done with a woman whose internal organs are being used against her will. Perhaps in the future we can develop artificial womb technology (it has already been done for animals) that will render all these questions obsolete; we will be able to liberate a fetus from a woman and still allow development to continue.
16
cab - leave it to a Buddhist to make a pretty simple situation complex.
Abortion isn't really about "sentient beings," it isn't about women deciding what to do with "their" bodies, it isn't about men telling women what to do, , it isn't about Planned Parenthood splitting up, and it isn't about "personhood."
All of those are just ways of rephrasing the problem to direct it toward a pre-ordained solution, and they miss the facts, which are undeniable. Once the undeniable facts are understood, the resolution becomes clear. The problem is only "complex" because people make it so.
Very simply, the issue is about ending human life. The purpose of human sexual reproduction is to create human life. Regardless of the pleasure it creates, that is its purpose, and that fact cannot be ignored.
The two people involved in human sexual reproduction, whether or not they admit it or agree to it, are responsible for the consequences. If they would accept that responsibility then they could prevent the needless ending of a human life they never intended to create, but which they acted to create in the first place even if that wasn't their intention.
We stop the endless cycle of copulate-abort, copulate-abort by doing everything we can to provide education and safe and effective contraceptives that do not cause the ending of a human life.
The solution is prevention. Prevent the creation of unwanted human life and the need for abortion is almost eliminated.
Please meditate on that.
Abortion isn't really about "sentient beings," it isn't about women deciding what to do with "their" bodies, it isn't about men telling women what to do, , it isn't about Planned Parenthood splitting up, and it isn't about "personhood."
All of those are just ways of rephrasing the problem to direct it toward a pre-ordained solution, and they miss the facts, which are undeniable. Once the undeniable facts are understood, the resolution becomes clear. The problem is only "complex" because people make it so.
Very simply, the issue is about ending human life. The purpose of human sexual reproduction is to create human life. Regardless of the pleasure it creates, that is its purpose, and that fact cannot be ignored.
The two people involved in human sexual reproduction, whether or not they admit it or agree to it, are responsible for the consequences. If they would accept that responsibility then they could prevent the needless ending of a human life they never intended to create, but which they acted to create in the first place even if that wasn't their intention.
We stop the endless cycle of copulate-abort, copulate-abort by doing everything we can to provide education and safe and effective contraceptives that do not cause the ending of a human life.
The solution is prevention. Prevent the creation of unwanted human life and the need for abortion is almost eliminated.
Please meditate on that.
3
Like it or not Mr. Douthat access to legal, safe abortions IS a part of healthcare for women. You cannot separate abortion out of the total picture of providing needed health care for women. You can argue the ethics all day, but pregnancy affects a woman's health both mentally and physically. Planned Parenthood provides an invaluable service to women who cannot afford a pregnancy termination. Whatever the reason, a woman seeking an abortion is making an informed decision about pregnancy termination, and it is that woman's right to make that decision for herself. It is her health which will be impacted. To deny Planned Parenthood funding for that service or to somehow carve up funding is a disservice to all women. What will be the next, no government funding for hysterectomies because the woman will no longer be able to bear children?
Ivanka as political heir to her father? I pray not. If we somehow survive Mr. Trump's presidency, one novice Trump taking up space in the White House is more than sufficient for a lifetime.
Ivanka as political heir to her father? I pray not. If we somehow survive Mr. Trump's presidency, one novice Trump taking up space in the White House is more than sufficient for a lifetime.
93
"You cannot separate abortion out of the total picture of providing needed health care for women."
True, but you can fund them in more complex ways. So long as the funding gets there, the first priority is served.
True, but you can fund them in more complex ways. So long as the funding gets there, the first priority is served.
3
Federal funds are not used to pay for abortions, which I'm sure you understand.
This means, of course, that Planned Parenthood does not use any of the federal funding it receives to compensate abortion providers for their medical services. Which, in essence, makes moot the issue of separating out "a small operation that ran abortion clinics" from "a larger one whose health clinics didn't perform abortions."
The stated issue is funding. No federal funding is used to compensate abortion providers. Hence, logic dictates that funding "them in more complex ways" is a solution in search of a problem---though I would love to hear the details of your "more complex ways."
Of course, "the stated issue" of "funding" is not really the issue for those who are most virulent per denying funding to PP. Seriously, you know that, don't you? And, given that, reassure me that you were kidding about a "work-around" solution being relevant to what is, indeed, a complex issue that represents a cultural/societal divide whose hidden issues are even more pivotal for women's reproductive health and health choices than the ones around which people most publicly cluster.
This means, of course, that Planned Parenthood does not use any of the federal funding it receives to compensate abortion providers for their medical services. Which, in essence, makes moot the issue of separating out "a small operation that ran abortion clinics" from "a larger one whose health clinics didn't perform abortions."
The stated issue is funding. No federal funding is used to compensate abortion providers. Hence, logic dictates that funding "them in more complex ways" is a solution in search of a problem---though I would love to hear the details of your "more complex ways."
Of course, "the stated issue" of "funding" is not really the issue for those who are most virulent per denying funding to PP. Seriously, you know that, don't you? And, given that, reassure me that you were kidding about a "work-around" solution being relevant to what is, indeed, a complex issue that represents a cultural/societal divide whose hidden issues are even more pivotal for women's reproductive health and health choices than the ones around which people most publicly cluster.
2
Why do abortions have to be funded in "complex ways"? They are a medical necessity and part of the range of health requirements for women. Your "more complex ways" is rubbish-speak for making abortion hard to fund, hard to find, and hard to get.
Your sentimental journeys through pregnancy were pure luck and privilege on your part. Instead of simple gratitude for the arbitrary gifts that life granted you, you want to impose even more misery on those for whom pregnancy may be a disaster.
How does a man reconcile such entitlement and contempt?
Your sentimental journeys through pregnancy were pure luck and privilege on your part. Instead of simple gratitude for the arbitrary gifts that life granted you, you want to impose even more misery on those for whom pregnancy may be a disaster.
How does a man reconcile such entitlement and contempt?
8
We can often tell a person's default political positions by how much they're willing to struggle. If they keep struggling hard to find something good to say about the Trumps and have always committed the same energy to finding something bad to say about Hillary Clinton, their attempts at neutrality and objectivity become transparent soon enough. Here, trying to thread the needle for Ivanka Trump on Planned Parenthood involves the labors of Hercules, and to what end? Do we really want to continue onward with an imperial republic? If so, why? Far better to move democracy forward toward the more representative republic imagined by the most optimistic of the founders. Who would want to encourage Trump's "ideological heir" other than a Trumper?
43
Mr. Douthat,
To believe, as most Americans now do, that women should have control of their reproductive lives and that, sometimes, abortion is deemed a necessary choice does not, therefore, mean that "liberals" hold "a commitment to abortion-as-a-positive-good". Women make such decisions because they feel they must. How dare you make such generalizations. How about you become better informed and become an activist on behalf of women's safety, contraception access, and funds with which to decently support their children. Then speak to me about "liberals".
To believe, as most Americans now do, that women should have control of their reproductive lives and that, sometimes, abortion is deemed a necessary choice does not, therefore, mean that "liberals" hold "a commitment to abortion-as-a-positive-good". Women make such decisions because they feel they must. How dare you make such generalizations. How about you become better informed and become an activist on behalf of women's safety, contraception access, and funds with which to decently support their children. Then speak to me about "liberals".
93
Half the people in the U.S. despise the entire idea of aborting children's lives. these kids at the very LEAST deserve legal representation in a court of law. Remember, America is majority Christian.
2
Planned Parenthood facilities have been closing at a steady pace due to the successful efforts of those in the pro life movement which is good for the babies in the womb. Not to worry. There are many pregnancy care centers that are far superior to Planned Parenthood ones. They help mother and babies before, during and after birth. I know because I volunteer at them.
5
Although I am a solid supporter of Planned Parenthood I appreciate all your efforts on behalf of pregnant women. Thank you.
1
Not the same thing. You love babies. Others want nothing to do with them. Confusing women who are searching for abortion services, tactics designed to guilt trip women into carrying babies they don't want, lies about how they will be there for the mom when they have no interest in her or the baby once it's born....we've heard all about these sleazy games played by true believers. "Pregnancy care centers that are far superior to Planned Parenthood ones."--not when the woman is poor or does not want to be pregnant!
6
All babies are born. None are in the womb. Only fetuses are in the womb
4
It would be immeasurably better if we thought of a woman who had earned her way to a position of power in her field to be "in the line of succession", someone whose success or failure depended on the merit of her decisions and work. Ivanka Trump never experienced real competition and accountability in her field. She had the safety net of her daddy's money to shield her from the risks and difficulties of the real world, playing professional woman all her life. Better a woman who has earned her place in the line of succession be considered for the Presidency than a pretender. There are plenty of such woman that the US would be fortunate to have as a President.
35
I have no problem with anyone in Washington trying to forge a solid middle ground on intractable issues. I am all for middle ground. I wish we had more of it.
But with Ivanka, as with her father and most of his cronies, I don't have any idea whether they are actually trying to forge middle ground, or create a scenario in which it looks as if they are. Is it reality, or a reality show?
The proposal to have Planned Parenthood jettison abortion to some new entity is smoke and mirrors. "Change your name so we can continue to fund your non-abortion services while making it really, really clear that we are continuing to not fund abortion." That finds no middle ground, solves no problems, just re-brands Planned Parenthood. Ivanka is big on branding.
And when childcare can cost more than the total take home wages of a working mother on the low end of the scale, can a tax credit be enough to make the equation close, and allow her to work? Or is it another proposal that looks good, but in reality is nothing but show? Is it just a Trumpian side show, to prove something is happening?
Maybe we are being unfair to the first daughter and she wants to be the statesman that her father never will be. But she will have a YUGE hurdle to leap to be convincing that she isn't part of the con.
But with Ivanka, as with her father and most of his cronies, I don't have any idea whether they are actually trying to forge middle ground, or create a scenario in which it looks as if they are. Is it reality, or a reality show?
The proposal to have Planned Parenthood jettison abortion to some new entity is smoke and mirrors. "Change your name so we can continue to fund your non-abortion services while making it really, really clear that we are continuing to not fund abortion." That finds no middle ground, solves no problems, just re-brands Planned Parenthood. Ivanka is big on branding.
And when childcare can cost more than the total take home wages of a working mother on the low end of the scale, can a tax credit be enough to make the equation close, and allow her to work? Or is it another proposal that looks good, but in reality is nothing but show? Is it just a Trumpian side show, to prove something is happening?
Maybe we are being unfair to the first daughter and she wants to be the statesman that her father never will be. But she will have a YUGE hurdle to leap to be convincing that she isn't part of the con.
45
Forget the huge hurdle; she is part of the con.
2
Daddy would very probably like to see his daughter succeed him. Her recent incursion to a presidential meeting this week was not some impulsive action, nor was her appearance in his place at a European NATO meeting. Both were orchestrated to get her face time in the evening news.
Let us hope that Mueller's investigation is fruitful and exposes the kleptocracy that is the Trump Presidency--a presidency that is gutting the values and mores that the vast majority of Americans hold dear. And yes, where in the world is her husband? Perhaps Gen. Kelly has sidelined him, and if so, thank goodness.
Perhaps Mr. Douthat could do a column on legislation, or if he wants to speculate, do one on Dwayne Johnson.
Let us hope that Mueller's investigation is fruitful and exposes the kleptocracy that is the Trump Presidency--a presidency that is gutting the values and mores that the vast majority of Americans hold dear. And yes, where in the world is her husband? Perhaps Gen. Kelly has sidelined him, and if so, thank goodness.
Perhaps Mr. Douthat could do a column on legislation, or if he wants to speculate, do one on Dwayne Johnson.
25
I worked in a inner city PP clinic as a community educator for a year. It was a busy clinic that provided sliding-scale health care services, pre-natal care, parenting classes, and a variety of community education--everything from goal setting to nutrition to safe sex. They did not provide abortions. In fact, I was forbidden to even mention the word. Only the RN could do so and refer them to private clinic (not affiliated with PP). They did good, necessary work for the community and were forced to close for nothing more than political reasons. Shame on those who demonize PP.
64
My state of New Hampshire has seen a 30 percent increase in the number of children doomed to foster care in the last two years, because of the number of parents addicted to opioids. How many anti-abortion zealots are foster parents? People who realize they can't care for children and elect to terminate pregnancies are not the problem. People who irresponsibly have children (many permanently damaged in utero by drugs and alcohol) and elect not to care for them are.
58
It is strange, the amount of media coverage of Ivanka Marie Trump-Kushner. She is a religious convert to Judaism, and ANY conversion as an adult from one religion to another is a sign of either opportunism or of some instability of the conscience. Religious conversion is clearly different from a change of citizenship or nationality, even if the latter is also motivated by opportunism, as one suspects would have been the case of her mother's Ivana Marie née Zelníčková and her current step-mother's Melania née Knavs.
Political ethics requires Ivanka not to mix her business and financial interests with national politics. Back to the office, kitchen, drawing room, or wherever ...
Political ethics requires Ivanka not to mix her business and financial interests with national politics. Back to the office, kitchen, drawing room, or wherever ...
9
Instability of conscience??? I'm not a fan of any Trump, but if a person decides to join a different religion than that in which s/he was born, that may indicate the convert has given much more thought to matters of faith than the average person who remains, actively or not, affiliated with religion of birth. Indeed, Christianity and Islam would not exist if persons of other traditions had not decided to put their faith in a new religion. Similarly, the increase in the number of those who identify as "no religion" also indicates a willingness to express their personal lack of religious affiliation. While loss of faith may be sad, it suggests stability of conscience to openly preach what one practices.
5
"ANY conversion as an adult from one religion to another is a sign of either opportunism or of some instability of the conscience."
Or it could be that the parents had a bad religion, that the child rightly rejected. The members of the parents' church would deny that, and the members of the child's new church would embrace that.
You have to be pretty narrow minded about religion to think that whatever the parents tell a child is what the child ought to believe as an adult, or be unstable or an opportunist.
Or it could be that the parents had a bad religion, that the child rightly rejected. The members of the parents' church would deny that, and the members of the child's new church would embrace that.
You have to be pretty narrow minded about religion to think that whatever the parents tell a child is what the child ought to believe as an adult, or be unstable or an opportunist.
8
Dear Ross,
Why do Republicans want to control the sex lives of women? They really do not have any business interfering with the doctor/patient relationship. Ivanka's proposal simply continues that status quo from a different angle. There is, however, a small but vocal minority that is hell bent on seeing that patriarchal dominance goes well beyond the church door. Wake me up when the DNA labs are swamped with men who want to ascertain paternity, okay? Because women should be allowed to determine whose babies they're going to have without interference from the pulpit.
Why do Republicans want to control the sex lives of women? They really do not have any business interfering with the doctor/patient relationship. Ivanka's proposal simply continues that status quo from a different angle. There is, however, a small but vocal minority that is hell bent on seeing that patriarchal dominance goes well beyond the church door. Wake me up when the DNA labs are swamped with men who want to ascertain paternity, okay? Because women should be allowed to determine whose babies they're going to have without interference from the pulpit.
49
Ross, if I remember correctly, Ivanka could not vote for her father in the NY primary because she had long been a registered Democrat. Given her obvious inclinations, I hardly think that she has any aspirations of following in her father's footsteps - especially given how muddy and tortured those footsteps are likely to become between now and 2020.
For instance, while Trump vainly imagines that he's turning up the heat on Ryan and McConnell, the reality is that by embarrassing this establishment duo, he's merely greasing the skids of his impeachment and removal.
Ross, if memory serves me, Maureen Dowd wrote that Trump elected to run for President because he thought it would be more fun than buying a new yacht. Methinks that by the time this crude, rude, and lewd spectacle is over, Ivanka will be more than content to buy the yacht.
For instance, while Trump vainly imagines that he's turning up the heat on Ryan and McConnell, the reality is that by embarrassing this establishment duo, he's merely greasing the skids of his impeachment and removal.
Ross, if memory serves me, Maureen Dowd wrote that Trump elected to run for President because he thought it would be more fun than buying a new yacht. Methinks that by the time this crude, rude, and lewd spectacle is over, Ivanka will be more than content to buy the yacht.
26
Trump himself had been a registered Democrat.
7
"This anecdote has surfaced repeatedly in stories about Ivanka’s role in the Trump White House"
There is another way to look at this: Ivanka is just as devious and corrupt as her dad and she attempted to make a deal with the same bad faith her father has exhibited practically his entire life.
It isn't for Republicans or Democrats to support Planned Parenthood, but for a nation to honor the rights of self-determination of its citizenry, rather than forcing values on others who don't share them.
Ivanka, Jared, Don Jr., Eric - all are part and parcel of the oligarchy Trump Inc. is, and his GOP now fully supports, regardless of the occasional criticism we hear from prominent Republicans. For all the protestations about Trump, they've all voted in favor of Trump legislation when push came to shove, with the exception of three notable Senators.
Ivanka is Daddy's Girl. Whether or not she has the sophistication to see through the sham she proposed is irrelevant. Ivanka would no more publicly go against her father than will her siblings or her husband. It doesn't matter whether she has the sophistication or the education to know how deeply unethical she is. She does unethical things and she finds plenty of people who give her a pass...
There is no Ivanka's way. There is only Daddy's way and that makes triangulating with him all the more unseemly.
---
https://www.rimaregas.com/2017/09/08/the-dangers-of-centrism-a-few-cases...
There is another way to look at this: Ivanka is just as devious and corrupt as her dad and she attempted to make a deal with the same bad faith her father has exhibited practically his entire life.
It isn't for Republicans or Democrats to support Planned Parenthood, but for a nation to honor the rights of self-determination of its citizenry, rather than forcing values on others who don't share them.
Ivanka, Jared, Don Jr., Eric - all are part and parcel of the oligarchy Trump Inc. is, and his GOP now fully supports, regardless of the occasional criticism we hear from prominent Republicans. For all the protestations about Trump, they've all voted in favor of Trump legislation when push came to shove, with the exception of three notable Senators.
Ivanka is Daddy's Girl. Whether or not she has the sophistication to see through the sham she proposed is irrelevant. Ivanka would no more publicly go against her father than will her siblings or her husband. It doesn't matter whether she has the sophistication or the education to know how deeply unethical she is. She does unethical things and she finds plenty of people who give her a pass...
There is no Ivanka's way. There is only Daddy's way and that makes triangulating with him all the more unseemly.
---
https://www.rimaregas.com/2017/09/08/the-dangers-of-centrism-a-few-cases...
61
You have a great blog!
1
Sure, Mr. Douthat, the Ivanka Way is so clever in its approach to the issue of abortion and Planned Parenthood. Ivanka did the same bait and switch when she invited Leonardo DiCaprio and Al Gore to Trump Tower to meet with her Dad to discuss the Chinese hoax known as global warming.
Let's make legalized abortion impossible for poor women, the ones who can't afford to have children, but then are called irresponsible by the right-wing in this country.
Cecile Richards didn't fall for the ploy of the con man's con daughter. There is nothing more that the evangelical crowd in this country would like than to divide and conquer Planned Parenthood.
How is it that Republicans don't want to provide healthcare for the poor, don't want to provide contraceptives for women (the women should pay if they want to have sex, yet Viagra is covered by insurance), don't want to help poor, working women with childcare or Head-start?
President Trump once likened his sexual experiences in the Eighties as 'his personal Vietnam.' That's the upbringing Ivanka had, the influence.
Ivanaka is a clueless, former model, unqualified person, with a clothing line made with cheap labor in foreign countries, the daughter of a wealthy, habitual liar, who doesn't pay taxes and has been sued by mom and pop stores for not paying his bills and sued by people who fell for Trump University.
Ivanka says she doesn't know the definition of complicit, but she is beyond complicit in propping up her deplorable Dad.
Let's make legalized abortion impossible for poor women, the ones who can't afford to have children, but then are called irresponsible by the right-wing in this country.
Cecile Richards didn't fall for the ploy of the con man's con daughter. There is nothing more that the evangelical crowd in this country would like than to divide and conquer Planned Parenthood.
How is it that Republicans don't want to provide healthcare for the poor, don't want to provide contraceptives for women (the women should pay if they want to have sex, yet Viagra is covered by insurance), don't want to help poor, working women with childcare or Head-start?
President Trump once likened his sexual experiences in the Eighties as 'his personal Vietnam.' That's the upbringing Ivanka had, the influence.
Ivanaka is a clueless, former model, unqualified person, with a clothing line made with cheap labor in foreign countries, the daughter of a wealthy, habitual liar, who doesn't pay taxes and has been sued by mom and pop stores for not paying his bills and sued by people who fell for Trump University.
Ivanka says she doesn't know the definition of complicit, but she is beyond complicit in propping up her deplorable Dad.
128
Very well written.
1
Bill Clinton had it right: Abortion should be safe, legal, and rare.
Before legalization, it wasn't safe, and women died.
If you want to get rid of abortions, support birth control. Make it free.
And if you care about "tiny human beings," how about supporting child care and parental leave, and trying to strengthen rather than shred, Obamacare.
Finally, if you want to do serious political analysis, don't talk about the president's daughter as though she were an independent political actor, or a one-woman think tank.
Before legalization, it wasn't safe, and women died.
If you want to get rid of abortions, support birth control. Make it free.
And if you care about "tiny human beings," how about supporting child care and parental leave, and trying to strengthen rather than shred, Obamacare.
Finally, if you want to do serious political analysis, don't talk about the president's daughter as though she were an independent political actor, or a one-woman think tank.
353
Ivanka Trump is not the president. She is not the average woman, or American. She has no idea of what the average American is going through today. If she wants to help 99% of American women let her come and live with us for a few months to see what we worry about, care about, fight for, and feel we need. And yes, control over our reproductive lives, better pay, more flexible work hours (not the way so many minimum wage jobs work now as in just in time scheduling) and human friendly policies would go a long way towards making all our lives better.
78
So hen3ry women's reproductive rights take precedence over a human life in the womb. There are many women who would disagree with you. I am one of those women. It is truly selfish to think a baby in the womb does not have worth or should not come to full term. Those in the pro life movement are rooting for the innocent baby who deserves to live.
1
Yes. Women's reproductive rights DO take precedence over a fetus.
"Rooting for"? It's totally sick that you have to set it up like a contest- like the fetus will WIN and the woman will LOSE! She will the right to decide who uses her body- you know who else advocates for taking away a woman's right to decide who uses her body? Rapists. You should consider the company you keep. It's so obvious that you people hate women, and yet you refuse to admit it.
No "innocent babies" deserve the right to use my body to survive and force me to under go major trauma (including potentially major abdominal surgery) to exist in the world. If any person did to a woman without her consent what a fetus does to a woman t would be assault and battery.
"Rooting for"? It's totally sick that you have to set it up like a contest- like the fetus will WIN and the woman will LOSE! She will the right to decide who uses her body- you know who else advocates for taking away a woman's right to decide who uses her body? Rapists. You should consider the company you keep. It's so obvious that you people hate women, and yet you refuse to admit it.
No "innocent babies" deserve the right to use my body to survive and force me to under go major trauma (including potentially major abdominal surgery) to exist in the world. If any person did to a woman without her consent what a fetus does to a woman t would be assault and battery.
7
Dear hen3ry and other interested parties. People leading the lifestyle of the Ivankas of the world would gain nothing by living among the "lower and working classes" for any length of time because they know they will eventually return to their pampered lives and so get to privately sneer and laugh at the rest of us. We will have nothing but their contempt and I can guarantee you, we will not get any satisfaction from their temporary discomfort whatsoever.
2
It's outrageous for Douthat to assert that liberals see abortion as a 'good' thing.
Having worked in the Baltimore Planned Parenthood clinic I guarantee you that every person there would have loved to reduce the need for abortion to zero through effective sex education and contraception.
The goal of planned parenthood is simply that: Being able to have a pregnancy when a couple is ready and willing.
Having worked in the Baltimore Planned Parenthood clinic I guarantee you that every person there would have loved to reduce the need for abortion to zero through effective sex education and contraception.
The goal of planned parenthood is simply that: Being able to have a pregnancy when a couple is ready and willing.
259
To say that "Ivanka has been considerably less embarrassing than most" is ridiculous. She has built a brand that relies on exploiting Chinese laborers, while her husband's company solicits their oppressors. That is only the beginning of her exploits. She is totally cut from the same cloth as the rest of those heinous conservatives in our government, and her idea of compromising a woman's right to choose is proof of that.
109
I don't even support the pretext for this editorial. Women (should) have the right to control their reproductive choices. Period--with no phony negotiations from heiresses or Republican members of congress.
282
Absolutely. Maybe it's time for Planned Parenthood to re-run ads that ask: "Is your son pregnant?" as Republicans seem to think reproductive choices are tainted by immaculate deception.
17
The reason the right to an abortion exists is because women will seek abortions in unsafe environments, just as they did before legalisation. The Right's finger-wagging at so-called abuses in the practice negates the good done, and the deaths avoided.
Ross and his ilk want to promulgate the idea that an abortion is easy for the mother. It is not. It is not convenient, cheap, emotionally simplistic, or without deep regret.
Moralising around the issue among the close-your-legs crew, who sweat away their hours in the dark, will not suffice. Talk to a doctor who was practicing before Roe v Wade and they will populate your imagination with untold horrors.
This piece is about sniping while moralising and flattering a woman who, should she require an abortion, can afford to go to another country to have one. Her father, the defended here, has no doubt a litter of abortions in his wake.
Let's not pretend Trump is anything but a frequent flyer down the clinic. More rationalising from the Right.
Ross and his ilk want to promulgate the idea that an abortion is easy for the mother. It is not. It is not convenient, cheap, emotionally simplistic, or without deep regret.
Moralising around the issue among the close-your-legs crew, who sweat away their hours in the dark, will not suffice. Talk to a doctor who was practicing before Roe v Wade and they will populate your imagination with untold horrors.
This piece is about sniping while moralising and flattering a woman who, should she require an abortion, can afford to go to another country to have one. Her father, the defended here, has no doubt a litter of abortions in his wake.
Let's not pretend Trump is anything but a frequent flyer down the clinic. More rationalising from the Right.
92
Planned Parenthood IS split up into two entities: one that privately funds abortion, and one that uses public and private financing to provide basic female healthcare, not abortions.
Is the point to separate public funds from abortion, or to make abortion services more difficult to access?
Is the point to separate public funds from abortion, or to make abortion services more difficult to access?
46
Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood would never have approved of having a smaller abortion operation for a number of reasons. The abortion business brings in the bulk of its revenue and helps pay her over $500,000 salary. Another reason is that she thinks she is helping women control their own reproductive rights which she would never deny them. These women feel it is their body and they should have complete domination of it. These women would also never agree to a smaller abortion practice as they are the ones who donate the most money to the cause. This is a closed discussion for them.
4
Wrong WMK, abortion is not even 10% of what Planned Parenthood does for women, children and families. It doesn't bring in the bulk of their revenue. Planned Parenthood offers women of all ages gynecological care, contraception advice and care, prenatal care, and then last of all, abortions. They provide pap tests, HIV testing, breast exams, treatment for STDs.
72
WMK, who has control of your body, since you seem to be saying that you -- and the rest of us -- should be denied our reproductive rights. Who dominates the discussion about your health other than you?
Why should a woman submit to an open discussion about her own body?
And, while I'm at this, what salary do you think would be appropriate for the head of Planned Parenthood?
Why should a woman submit to an open discussion about her own body?
And, while I'm at this, what salary do you think would be appropriate for the head of Planned Parenthood?
5
Planned Parenthood is a nonpofit organization, not a business.
5
So Douthat slips this in : "disposing of tiny human lives is a vanishingly small portion of its [ Planned Parenthood's] work. But this is highly misleading."
These are not "tiny human lives." They are not human - unless you want to declare that a single divided cell that has implanted into a womb is human. And I am sorry, it is not. It has the potential to become human.
It is not a tiny life. It is a living collection of cells that has the potential to become a human life. But it is not.
The woman carrying these cells, however, is a bona fide human life. Let's be careful with our words as they frame our arguments.
These are not "tiny human lives." They are not human - unless you want to declare that a single divided cell that has implanted into a womb is human. And I am sorry, it is not. It has the potential to become human.
It is not a tiny life. It is a living collection of cells that has the potential to become a human life. But it is not.
The woman carrying these cells, however, is a bona fide human life. Let's be careful with our words as they frame our arguments.
962
I couldn't have said it better.
3
Thank you!! As a practicing Catholic who is pro choice, I repeat this over and over again to pro lifers.
3
What is an actual right wing extremist to write about in the age of Trump? There's always halfhearted fantasizing about the so-called president's daughter.
Billionaire heiresses are born with the ability to obtain contraception and/or abortions whenever and wherever they like, no matter what the law says, no matter what restrictions they (or their daddies) claim to support. Every woman should be granted the same sovereignty over her own body as Ivanka Trump enjoys.
Billionaire heiresses are born with the ability to obtain contraception and/or abortions whenever and wherever they like, no matter what the law says, no matter what restrictions they (or their daddies) claim to support. Every woman should be granted the same sovereignty over her own body as Ivanka Trump enjoys.
422
Well stated, Neal.
5
Mr Douthat is misleading with his numbers (not surprising since he linked to The Daily Caller). Yes, 328,000 abortions. But also:
4,266,689 for STI testing and treatment
2,808,815 for contraception
665,234 for cancer screening and prevention
1,317,582, other women's health services
108,309 other services
Abortion makes up 3% of their services
4,266,689 for STI testing and treatment
2,808,815 for contraception
665,234 for cancer screening and prevention
1,317,582, other women's health services
108,309 other services
Abortion makes up 3% of their services
562
I knew that Douthat is a right-wing columnist but lately, I was starting to respect him because I have seen some of his articles that were critical of some of Trump's actions/statements.
So, when I read the numbers Douthat quoted in his article, I had no reason to doubt that they were indeed correct and it seemed to support his thesis about why Planned Parenthood may/should be split up into two entities.
But if your numbers are correct, and 'abortion makes up 3% of their services' only, it shatters all my respect for this guy. Was he trying to fool us? Has he fallen so low?
So, when I read the numbers Douthat quoted in his article, I had no reason to doubt that they were indeed correct and it seemed to support his thesis about why Planned Parenthood may/should be split up into two entities.
But if your numbers are correct, and 'abortion makes up 3% of their services' only, it shatters all my respect for this guy. Was he trying to fool us? Has he fallen so low?
25
If you read carefully, he is comparing the number of abortion appointments only to the number of prenatal appointments. That means he is excluding from his count all the appointments to get contraception, general exams, std screenings, mammograms, etc. It is a cute trick to compare appointments related to pregnancies that the woman wants to end with an abortion to appointments related to pregnancies that the woman wants to end in a live birth, but it isn't representative of all the functions of Planned Parenthood. Not even close.
8
Thank you for the facts. I would quibble with you over one point, however. Mr. Douthat isn't "misleading" with his numbers. He is effectively LYING with his numbers. Let's call it for what it is, and let's call him for what he effectively is. A Liar.
16
What Ross Douthat says here must be taken with a grain of salt. He and other social conservatives will do anything to deny women access to abortion. They advocate using the power of the government to force women to give birth against their will and to force their own religious beliefs on the rest of us. The majority of Americans support Planned Parenthood exactly as it is. Only 22 percent agree with Republican efforts to defund this crucial organization.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/31/us/the-next-battle-in-the-war-over-pl...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/31/us/the-next-battle-in-the-war-over-pl...
256
Who would have ever thought that "Feminism", the celebration of Women, would be about encouraging women to kill their children? Seriously, I would have never thought that in a million years.
Father Douthat infers the eventual replacement of our GasBag Trump with a HandBag Trump, thereby maintaining the magical Trump family mantle of disinterest in any meaninful public policy that might actually help human beings born without golden shoelaces.
Donald Trump demonstrated his deep interest in public policy long before he ran for President by avoiding paying taxes and debts at all costs year-after-grifting-year.
Donald was the inspiration behind the 'charitable' Trump Foundation, most famous for making political contributions, self-dealing and buying six-foot portraits of Donald Trump.
Ivanka, the Kardashian of the Trump family, understands the critical Trumpian value of looking good while completely ignoring human suffering that her Daddy raised her with.
Ivanka, a woman of great wealth and power - who Donald has a lifelong crush on - had a chance to stand up for the powerless women of the world as an Oval Office insider as her medieval father cut billions of funding to needy women around the world as he implemented and expanded the Global Gag Rule restricting women’s access to comprehensive health care around the globe, cut funding to the UN Population Fund, and tried to kill the ACA which provides key contraception access to females.
"With great power comes great responsibility"...as the expression goes, unless of course, you're Ivanka Trump, in which case....with great power come great handbags.
With female leaders like Ivanka Trump, who needs misogynists ?
Donald Trump demonstrated his deep interest in public policy long before he ran for President by avoiding paying taxes and debts at all costs year-after-grifting-year.
Donald was the inspiration behind the 'charitable' Trump Foundation, most famous for making political contributions, self-dealing and buying six-foot portraits of Donald Trump.
Ivanka, the Kardashian of the Trump family, understands the critical Trumpian value of looking good while completely ignoring human suffering that her Daddy raised her with.
Ivanka, a woman of great wealth and power - who Donald has a lifelong crush on - had a chance to stand up for the powerless women of the world as an Oval Office insider as her medieval father cut billions of funding to needy women around the world as he implemented and expanded the Global Gag Rule restricting women’s access to comprehensive health care around the globe, cut funding to the UN Population Fund, and tried to kill the ACA which provides key contraception access to females.
"With great power comes great responsibility"...as the expression goes, unless of course, you're Ivanka Trump, in which case....with great power come great handbags.
With female leaders like Ivanka Trump, who needs misogynists ?
803
You did fine till you made her an exemplar of her gender, an excuse for misogyny. I don't think you'd have gone that way if she were male.
1
Best comment yet, Socrates.
3
A celebrity with an "aspirational brand"? What does that mean? That she pays lip service to women's health and rights while never fighting her dad very hard on equal pay for equal work, or raising the minimum wage which would be a true boon to single working mothers?
Let's leave your premise of Ivanka as political heir aside and examine one of your nastier than usual statements about Planned Parenthood:
"So a politician who proposed to fund a large network of women’s health centers that offered contraceptives, H.I.V. tests, mammograms, prenatal care and adoption referrals, but absolutely no abortions, would run afoul of both the liberal commitment to abortion-as-a-positive-good and various conservative positions."
I frankly don't know any liberals who see abortions as a "positive good." Shame on you for implying that abortion is retroactive birth control for sexually precocious teens.
No woman gleefully runs down to the abortion clinic: it's an agonizing option when there's no way out, wrenching decisions you'll never have to face, Ross.
More important, it is the law of the land, which in case you forgot is a secular one. A law that allows women who don't share your religion the freedom to exert personal privacy about her medical health.
Donald Trump famously told Chris Matthews that a woman who has an abortion should be "punished"--not the father or doctor, just the woman.
I wonder what "heir apparent" Ivanka would think about that?
Let's leave your premise of Ivanka as political heir aside and examine one of your nastier than usual statements about Planned Parenthood:
"So a politician who proposed to fund a large network of women’s health centers that offered contraceptives, H.I.V. tests, mammograms, prenatal care and adoption referrals, but absolutely no abortions, would run afoul of both the liberal commitment to abortion-as-a-positive-good and various conservative positions."
I frankly don't know any liberals who see abortions as a "positive good." Shame on you for implying that abortion is retroactive birth control for sexually precocious teens.
No woman gleefully runs down to the abortion clinic: it's an agonizing option when there's no way out, wrenching decisions you'll never have to face, Ross.
More important, it is the law of the land, which in case you forgot is a secular one. A law that allows women who don't share your religion the freedom to exert personal privacy about her medical health.
Donald Trump famously told Chris Matthews that a woman who has an abortion should be "punished"--not the father or doctor, just the woman.
I wonder what "heir apparent" Ivanka would think about that?
669
Just for a moment, imagine the reaction in the Daily Caller (and the like) if, for instance, Malia Obama had proposed to the NRA that Democrats would back off if they broke their institution in two, leaving a small, separate faction devoted to gun rights, while directing the bulk of their time and money to instead be spent on gun safety and anger management.
The courts say abortion is protected by the Constitution. If states can regulate abortion practice for politically motivated purposes, what's to stop the states from regulating guns the same way?
Conservatives would do well to remember that rights, and slippery slopes, cut multiple ways.
The courts say abortion is protected by the Constitution. If states can regulate abortion practice for politically motivated purposes, what's to stop the states from regulating guns the same way?
Conservatives would do well to remember that rights, and slippery slopes, cut multiple ways.
33
Indeed. I have been asking in various fora for years why, if abortion is murder (as many claim) should not the woman, who has just purchased a murder for hire, not be treated as a criminal? I have yet to receive an answer, let alone a coherent one --- naturally, since it is obvious that should the logic of the situation prevail, support for the criminalization of abortion would be greatly reduced. In fact, I doubt very much that the cynical ideologues and demagogues who have used the issue as a political club with which to beat liberals, would ever want to give it up by actually achieving it. That is why, IMO, there has never been a serious effort to overturn Roe v. Wade.
10
Sorry, as a liberal I do see abortion as a positive good -- I see bringing unwanted children into the world as a positive bad. Doing it in a world as overpopulated with humans as our world is, a world facing catastrophic changes from climate change and other serious environmental deficits which are all accelerated by population growth is a reprehensible evil.
But you are right that no woman gleefully runs down to the abortion clinic and that it is a difficult choice, about which, however, contrary to reactionary dogma, most women are relieved, even if saddened, to have made.
I am long past the age when I could be faced with the need for this option, but I will fight like the dickens for all those women younger than I am to continue not to be forced into the back alleys again for necessary health care.
As for those people who would force a ten year old to risk her life giving birth to the baby implanted in her from the rape of her father, or any woman to bear a child of rape, or a child so deformed it can never have any hope of living any kind of decent life -- the evil within them stops my heart it is so great.
We have untold numbers of children already on this earth in great need. There is no justification to add to that number by forcing women to risk their lives (and pregnancy to term is always a greater threat to women's lives than a professional legal abortion) bearing children they do not want or do not feel they can care for.
But you are right that no woman gleefully runs down to the abortion clinic and that it is a difficult choice, about which, however, contrary to reactionary dogma, most women are relieved, even if saddened, to have made.
I am long past the age when I could be faced with the need for this option, but I will fight like the dickens for all those women younger than I am to continue not to be forced into the back alleys again for necessary health care.
As for those people who would force a ten year old to risk her life giving birth to the baby implanted in her from the rape of her father, or any woman to bear a child of rape, or a child so deformed it can never have any hope of living any kind of decent life -- the evil within them stops my heart it is so great.
We have untold numbers of children already on this earth in great need. There is no justification to add to that number by forcing women to risk their lives (and pregnancy to term is always a greater threat to women's lives than a professional legal abortion) bearing children they do not want or do not feel they can care for.
14
Mr. Douthat concludes: ", , ,Trump will have a would-be ideological heir. It could be . . . another celebrity with an aspirational brand, critics to her left and right, and an instinct for heterodox-but-popular ideas. In our increasingly imperial republic, sometimes the most likely heir is already in the line of succession."
Color me crazy, but somehow I believe one Trump will prove far more than enough.
Color me crazy, but somehow I believe one Trump will prove far more than enough.
270
There is far-fetched--and then there is Mr. Douthat's concluding comment: ", , ,Trump will have a would-be ideological heir. It could be . . . another celebrity with an aspirational brand, critics to her left and right, and an instinct for heterodox-but-popular ideas. In our increasingly imperial republic, sometimes the most likely heir is already in the line of succession."
If Donald Trump founds a political dynasty here in the USA, I am moving to some Cacastan where the kleptocracy has been openly established and is evident to one and all.
If Donald Trump founds a political dynasty here in the USA, I am moving to some Cacastan where the kleptocracy has been openly established and is evident to one and all.
138
It would be the ultimate grotesque irony if a trump political dynasty were to fester and grow after the outcries against Bush and Clinton dynasties.
22
Ivanka does not have political savvy so much as she has marketing skills. She knows how to spin lackluster products. And that is what she has done for Donald, beginning with his campaign. Ivanka made a point of selling herself as a mom wanting a Trump presidency, knowing that he could not similarly sell himself. She shadows her father around the world, putting a gentle face by his abrasive attitude. She tweets more sanely, if vapidly, than Donald.
It is absurd to conceive of a president's daughter having an office near his and being referred to as a Senior Advisor. Ivanka has no place in governing. But this is the "Trump way" more than the "Ivanka way" - a family enterprise that changes shape to exploit wherever they find themelves. There is no future for the rest of us here.
It is absurd to conceive of a president's daughter having an office near his and being referred to as a Senior Advisor. Ivanka has no place in governing. But this is the "Trump way" more than the "Ivanka way" - a family enterprise that changes shape to exploit wherever they find themelves. There is no future for the rest of us here.
289
Dear Ross,
Planned Parenthood provided service to 2.7 million men and women
935,573 Cancer screenings were provided = pap smears, breast exams
4,500,000 screening s and treatments were provided for STD's
62% of PP centers provide same day appointments
78% provide evening or weekend care for working women
18,864 pre-natal referrals, 65K family practice services, sex education to 1,500,000 individuals
Planned Parenthood participated in over 70 research projects
Pregnancy Prevention (male and female services) prevented an estimated 580,000 unwanted pregnancies
Most individuals visiting PP are under 150% fed. poverty level.
Get over Ivanka. Trump's on the make, on the take Family of Grifters have nothing to teach the rest of us about morality.
Countries which provide access to contraception and early termination have vastly lower rates of unwanted pregnancy and abortion.
Planned Parenthood provided service to 2.7 million men and women
935,573 Cancer screenings were provided = pap smears, breast exams
4,500,000 screening s and treatments were provided for STD's
62% of PP centers provide same day appointments
78% provide evening or weekend care for working women
18,864 pre-natal referrals, 65K family practice services, sex education to 1,500,000 individuals
Planned Parenthood participated in over 70 research projects
Pregnancy Prevention (male and female services) prevented an estimated 580,000 unwanted pregnancies
Most individuals visiting PP are under 150% fed. poverty level.
Get over Ivanka. Trump's on the make, on the take Family of Grifters have nothing to teach the rest of us about morality.
Countries which provide access to contraception and early termination have vastly lower rates of unwanted pregnancy and abortion.
1172
Thank you winchestereast! This evidence underscores just how "pro-life" Planned Parenthood and its dedicated leadership and staff members truly are.
5
the voice of sanity. thank you.
4
In the first place, the idea of keeping abortion safe and legal already has majority support. It certainly polls a good deal higher than The Donald does. And insofar as Ivanka's pet project is concerned, what good does a payroll-tax deduction do for a single mother who isn't able to work because she can't afford to pay for child care? Those women who are most in need of such assistance wouldn't be able to take advantage of it. In addition to that tax credit, the government should fund child care centers that would afford single moms (and most especially those who are in receipt of public assistance) the opportunity to engage in employment. As things now stand, Ivanka's position amounts to just one more sop to the super-affluent whose tax cuts would no doubt be higher than anyone else's and who already have au pairs attending to their young dauphins.
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Ivanka may be smarter than her father, but I have small kitchen appliances that are smarter than her father. And maybe we’d want to see what Mr. Mueller comes up with before imagining the current president’s legacy.
It should require more than a passing kind word about Planned Parenthood to put the daughter of the buffoon-in-chief in the running. When this president goes, it should be a sad day for everyone in his circle. The swamp needs to be refilled with the despicable cowards in Congress who supported him, aided and abetted him and lied for him. It will be years before we get the bad taste of this administration out of our mouths..
Planned Parenthood is necessary not because a presidential daughter deigns to say something nice about it, but because any country in the 21st century should recognize the importance of women’s health. The number of abortions is meant to sound large, but it’s in the context of almost 2.5 million visits to Planned Parenthood clinics.
No one benefits from forcing a woman to have a child if she cannot or will not be able to take care of it, least of all the child. What the invisible man the sky thinks about it is irrelevant. No one needs to appease the god-bothering set at the cost of denying women the right to control their reproductive behavior.
It should require more than a passing kind word about Planned Parenthood to put the daughter of the buffoon-in-chief in the running. When this president goes, it should be a sad day for everyone in his circle. The swamp needs to be refilled with the despicable cowards in Congress who supported him, aided and abetted him and lied for him. It will be years before we get the bad taste of this administration out of our mouths..
Planned Parenthood is necessary not because a presidential daughter deigns to say something nice about it, but because any country in the 21st century should recognize the importance of women’s health. The number of abortions is meant to sound large, but it’s in the context of almost 2.5 million visits to Planned Parenthood clinics.
No one benefits from forcing a woman to have a child if she cannot or will not be able to take care of it, least of all the child. What the invisible man the sky thinks about it is irrelevant. No one needs to appease the god-bothering set at the cost of denying women the right to control their reproductive behavior.
1017
To gemli ~ Have I written recently how much I appreciate your comments and your splendid wordsmithing? Fabulous comment.
39
@gemli: Correction: Planned Parenthood serves 2.5 million patients per year. Many of those people make multiple visits. So the number of visits for other services is even higher than you cite--in contrast to the comparatively small number of visits for abortions.
23
Indeed she deserves a column -- and that would be my dream if she and some of the other amazing posters wrote rotating op-eds.
6
Why has the NYT's spent a whole page on nothing?
To have been a daughter of Trumpster allowed his nepotism to bring her into his group of advisors. However, what has she done lately? As a aside what ever happened to Kushner?
They must be back to running their businesses.
Ooh, wait a minute. That's not supposed to be done when you are part of the President's confidents.
To have been a daughter of Trumpster allowed his nepotism to bring her into his group of advisors. However, what has she done lately? As a aside what ever happened to Kushner?
They must be back to running their businesses.
Ooh, wait a minute. That's not supposed to be done when you are part of the President's confidents.
126
The New York Times wastes too many of its resources on fluff pieces of the Trump Dilettantes. It could spend more resources helping Mueller bury the Trump Mafia.
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Do you not know how the opinion section operates at a newspaper? The columnist has right of way on the topic.
2
Are you serious? "The Ivanka Way" would banish a legal medical procedure even further into back alleys, with no guarantee that Daddy would call for increased funding the remaining part of PP and even less guarantee that the Congressional Republican would allow it. If you are really sincere about reducing abortions, the thing you should do is encourage PP, not threaten to break it up.
And anyway, Ivanka as a moderating influence on Daddy is wishful thinking based on an anecdote that smacks of fake news.
And anyway, Ivanka as a moderating influence on Daddy is wishful thinking based on an anecdote that smacks of fake news.
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"If you are sincere about reducing abortions...encourage Planned Parenthood..."
Did you read the part where PP performed 328,348 abortions last year, 30 times more than their number of prenatal visits?
Not advocating for or against abortions; just for logic.
Did you read the part where PP performed 328,348 abortions last year, 30 times more than their number of prenatal visits?
Not advocating for or against abortions; just for logic.
1
"Not advocating for or against abortions; just for logic"
Clever but not quite clever enough. Douthat picked the ratio relative to prenatal visits from out of the air. Furthermore, PP is one of relatively few avenues for safe, legal abortion but one of a multitude available for prenatal and other visits.
Clever but not quite clever enough. Douthat picked the ratio relative to prenatal visits from out of the air. Furthermore, PP is one of relatively few avenues for safe, legal abortion but one of a multitude available for prenatal and other visits.
41
And did *you* read the part where PP had 2.5 million visits (total; prenatal and abortions aren't the only things they do)? Not in Mr Douthat's piece; he seems to have omitted that part, but the numbers are easily available elsewhere.
27
Some issues cannot be carved out so neatly and abortion is one of these. We are either going to trust women to make their own medical decisions, or we aren't.
Whether this anecdote is true or not, I cannot imagine any member of the Trump family having any reference point in order to make a decision to interfere, or not interfere, in women's health issues. They have no need to worry about health care, and they show no instinct to educate themselves on the world around them.