Ivanka Trump Told Planned Parenthood to Quit Doing Abortions to Keep Its Tax Funding, It Refused

By Steven Ertelt
Life News

During a secret meeting in January, first daughter Ivanka Trump told the Planned Parenthood abortion business it should stop doing abortions and instead to do them under another name so Planned Parenthood itself could continue to receive its taxpayer funding.

Planned Parenthood has repeatedly refused that suggestion as abortion is an integral part of its business. It called Ivanka’s suggestion “naïve.”

Trump met privately with Cecile Richards, the head of Planned Parenthood, shortly after her father took office, Politico reported last month. The sit-down was requested by Trump, who wanted to learn more about how the organization works.

But what did Ivanka Trump talk about with the head of the abortion corporation? The New York Times has more:

Ms. Trump approached its president, Cecile Richards, to start a broader dialogue. She also had a proposal: Planned Parenthood should split in two, Ms. Trump suggested, with a smaller arm to provide abortions and a larger one devoted to women’s health services.

White House officials said Ms. Trump was trying to find a common-sense solution amid the roar of abortion politics. But Planned Parenthood officials said they thought Ms. Trump’s advice was naïve, failing to understand how central reproductive choice was to the group’s mission. Ms. Richards sharply criticized Ms. Trump for not publicly objecting to the Republican health care bill that failed in March, and Ms. Trump felt stung.

Speaking generally, Ms. Trump complained in the interview that many advocacy groups were “so wedded to the headline of the issue that sometimes differing perspectives and new information, when brought to the table, are viewed as an inconvenience because it undermines the thesis.”

Despite the tension, Ms. Trump helped preserve and increase funding for women’s health in the government spending deal devised over the weekend, a White House official said. But the victory may be short-lived: The coming bill that would repeal the Affordable Care Act may include a measure to strike Planned Parenthood’s funding.

During the campaign President Trump repeatedly said he would defund Planned Parenthood unless it stopped killing babies in abortions.

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