The Republican Party just adopted a wide-ranging platform outlining the party's positions on taxes, foreign policy, gun rights, and… Planned Parenthood.
The platform, approved Monday by a voice vote of delegates, singles out the healthcare provider by name for the first time in history, Planned Parenthood says. And the position couldn't be clearer: In addition to backing the elimination of public funding for the healthcare provider, the platform falsely suggests that Planned Parenthood opts to "sell fetal body parts rather than provide health care."
"We oppose the use of public funds to perform or promote abortion or to fund organizations, like Planned Parenthood, so long as they provide or refer for elective abortions or sell fetal body parts rather than provide health care," the platform reads. "We urge all states and Congress to make it a crime to acquire, transfer, or sell fetal tissues from elective abortions for research, and we call on Congress to enact a ban on any sale of fetal body parts."
The GOP's opposition to Planned Parenthood is nothing new. Republicans in Congress have repeatedly voted to strip all of its taxpayer funding (legislation called the Hyde Amendment already prohibits the use of federal funds for abortion in most cases). A number of states have launched investigations in the wake of videos alleging that the organization was engaging in the illegal sale of fetal tissue. Those claims have been refuted both by Planned Parenthood and the findings of the very probes targeting the organization. Planned Parenthood says it donates fetal tissue for research — a completely legal practice.
Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, called the platform "an attack on the millions of patients who rely on Planned Parenthood health centers each year for basic health care."
"It’s an attack on the brave doctors, clinicians, staff, and educators who have been facing down violent rhetoric and threats just to provide people with things like cancer screenings, birth control, and well-woman exams," she said. "This attack in the party’s platform is unconscionable, and explains why Trump has a gender gap of historic proportions. Trump is doing exactly what he said he would do: trying to unite the party by making women and their access to health care a target.”
Groups that oppose abortion rights praised the language as the GOP's "most pro-life platform, ever."
“The Republican platform has always been strong when it comes to protecting unborn children, their mothers, and the conscience rights of pro-life Americans," Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, a pro-life nonprofit organization, said in a statement. "The platform ratified today takes that stand from good to great."
Trump, for his part, has voiced support for Planned Parenthood in the past, saying it "has done very good work…for millions of women." But the presumptive GOP nominee has also said during his campaign that he doesn't think the providers should receive federal funding "as long as you have the abortion going on."
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