Ivanka Trump tried to convince Cecile Richards to split Planned Parenthood in two — with one entity doing abortions, and another organization focused on women’s health that didn’t do abortions — thereby not jeopardizing federal funding. Planned Parenthood said no way.
A few months ago, Ivanka Trump organized a private meeting with Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards, and, until recently, the details of their discussion has been kept under wraps. But a New York Times profile on the First Daughter from earlier this week contained a largely overlooked section about that meeting, and it reveals how sincerely dedicated Planned Parenthood is to providing abortion-on-demand as its central “service.”
At the time of the meeting, Dawn Laguens, Planned Parenthood’s executive vice president, told Politico that Richards would “make sure that Ivanka fully understood . . . why it would be a terrible idea for Planned Parenthood to be removed from being able to see Medicaid patients” and explain “that the [federal] money doesn’t actually go to abortions.”
Because of the lack of clarity about what actually transpired during the meeting, some pro-lifers were concerned that the Trump administration might be more open to compromise with Planned Parenthood than they had hoped, especially given Ivanka’s reputation for being more progressive when it comes to “women’s rights.”
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