Tag Archives: popular vote

Pro-Choice Friday News Rundown

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Won the popular vote by more than 2 million. Just sayin'.

Won the popular vote by more than 2 million. Just sayin’.

I hate being the bearer of bad news. Unfortunately, it feels like I’ll be showering our dear readers with doom and gloom for the next month, as well as the full 208 weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency.

First, let’s get the worst out of the way:

  • We at Planned Parenthood are now in grave danger of being defunded. The president-elect has promised this and the Republican-controlled Congress will likely be more than gung-ho to gut us once and for all. I don’t shill for donations often (at all, really) on this blog, but if you can find it in your heart (and wallet) to help us, we and the millions of women we serve would be so thankful. (NY Mag)
  • Trump’s pick for secretary of health and human services, Tom Price, is a creep who espouses radical beliefs about “personhood,” thinks women should have no control over their bodies, doesn’t support insurance coverage of birth control, and is on the “defund Planned Parenthood” train. (The Daily Beast)
  • He’s also a Lying McLiarFace who asserts that “not one woman” ever struggled to afford birth control. (The Atlantic)
  • As of now, Hillary Clinton has trumped The Donald in total votes by more than 2 million (and counting). That isn’t a small margin. It’s “YUGE” and “bigly” (as the president-elect would say). Our soon-to-be commander in chief is not taking kindly to the news that he LOST the popular vote by such a large margin: The reckless, thin-skinned toddler in a 70-year-old body hopped on Twitter (his favorite platform) to assert that, had “millions” of people not voted illegally, he would have won the popular vote.

    First of all — this is a highly dangerous statement as there is literally ZERO evidence of “millions” of people voting illegally. However, if there were even the slightest possibility this could be true (it isn’t), how in THE WORLD can he take the giant leap to posit that everyone voting illegally voted for Hillary Clinton? Couldn’t it be equally possible that these millions of (non-existent) fraudulent voters voted for him, which calls into question whether he REALLY won the election? Funny how he only tosses out accusations of widespread voter fraud when it threatens his ability to claim victory and deem himself the winner. (NBC News)

  • Hillary Clinton wasn’t just failed by the Electoral College. Widespread voter suppression tactics (enacted by Republicans in 2010, right after Barack Obama’s history-making win — coincidence, I’m sure!) closed down at least 868 polling places nationwide and kept potentially millions of people (mostly minorities … probably another coincidence!) from voting. (WaPo)
  • Texas: Epicenter of anti-choice, anti-woman malarkey. They stay on the front lines of the War on Women! The abhorrent legislators there have decided that beginning December 19, all fetuses surgically aborted must be buried or cremated, regardless of gestational stage. Gov. Greg Abbott is claiming this measure is being taken for the “enhanced protection of the health and safety of the public.” Yet this mandate doesn’t apply to women who have miscarried in their own homes? How is this related to health and safety, then? Jeez … I’m sure their aim is not to SHAME women or make them suffer for choosing to abort, right? And I’m sure it’s definitely NOT meant to make abortion providers jump through potentially insurmountable obstacles in finding nearby funeral homes willing to provide fetus funeral services, which can cost upward of $2,000? Oh, and I must mention, Mike Pence did this in Indiana during his tenure as governor. (Broadly)
  • Speaking of vice president-elect Bad Hombre, he is practically dancing on Fidel Castro’s grave and had the gall to refer to him as a “tyrant.” Friendly reminder — Gov. Pence is the man who supported putting a woman in jail for having a miscarriage. #PotMeetKettle (ITV)
  • Could the orange menace known as Donald Trump ax our copay-free birth control unilaterally with no help from Congress? Unfortunately, yes. (Vox)
  • The megalomaniac in chief’s ultra-petty Twitter account is a frightening death spiral into madness. This man is not OK mentally, and that should terrify us all. (Mother Jones)
  • And his cabinet is a crapshow too! It’s shaping up to be the most conservative in decades. (Politico)

Speaking of Trump’s cabinet, I can’t “get the worst out of the way” until I introduce you to our future attorney general: Continue reading →

Post-Election Reflections: Our Bloggers Speak Out

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Photo: Jamelah E.

Photo: Jamelah E.

When Donald Trump won the electoral vote after the presidential election on November 8, the majority of us — by more than a million — were deeply disappointed with the results. In the ensuing days, we battled our depression and wondered what had gone so terribly wrong. Collectively, we imagined what a Trump presidency would mean for civil rights and civil liberties, for the economy and the environment, for education and for health care.

And those of us championing women’s right to bodily autonomy worried that reproductive justice had never been in more danger. Those of us concerned with the safety of the LGBTQ community were terrified that their hard-won gains might be rolled back. Those of us standing in solidarity with other marginalized groups — immigrants, religious minorities, refugees, people of color — were filled with anxiety at the thought that Trump’s hate-filled campaign had empowered bigots to let their prejudice reign free.

Here, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona bloggers have collected their thoughts to share with our readers.

Gene:

I was always inspired by Hillary’s words to the United Nations in 1995, when she said that “Women’s rights are human rights.” Whenever a woman’s reproductive and sexual rights are denied, I take it personally, for it is telling her that she is less of a person and does not have the same rights as I do as a male. So I will resist in whatever ways I can the ignorant, misogynist forces unleashed in this election. I will stand tall with this organization I love, and will openly show my support. One thing we can all do right now is to wear our Planned Parenthood T-shirts whenever we can. It’s a little thing, but it’s guaranteed to make you feel better during these dark days. I wear mine at least two or three times a week, on my walks downtown or when attending various events. It is surprising to me how often I’ve attended large public gatherings and not seen one other Planned Parenthood shirt. Let’s all get out there with our T-shirts and turn Arizona pink. Let’s tell everyone that this is our country, too — one where women have the same rights as men.

Continue reading →