Life

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No, Trump's Health Plan Won't Be Better For Moms

by Jenn Rose

It's just days until President-elect Donald Trump takes office, Congressional Republicans are already taking steps to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and while Trump has said that he plans to replace the ACA with his own plan, nobody knows what that plan will be (maybe not even Trump). While some apologists are claiming that Trump's healthcare plan could be better for women than the ACA, but honestly, that's a completely ludicrous notion.

Sure, it's not technically false to speculate that Trump's plan could be better. He could also round up all the women into camps, or pass a law making it legal to marry your own children. But all three scenarios are extremely unlikely, and adopting a fingers-crossed attitude towards the Trump administration is just as dangerous as walking into traffic armed with nothing but the hope that there might not be any cars coming. Trump has offered no details on his plan, nor any evidence that he even has a plan, other than shouting "free market" over and over until he's blue in the face. And if his history, and the history of the Republican party as whole, are taken into consideration, it's clear that healthcare is just one more way that Trump's presidency will be a disaster for women.

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The Republican Party has historically sided against women's best interests on a variety of issues. They're against abortion, and they want to defund Planned Parenthood (which provides all sorts of women's health services). They're against equal pay, women in the military, and affordable child care. Now let's talk Trump specifically. Trump's track record with women in general is abysmal. He constantly reduces women to nothing more than their looks, characterizing them as either pigs or pieces of ass. He's been accused of sexual assault and harassment by dozens of women, and although he has denied each accusation in turn, the entire world heard him brag about committing such acts to Billy Bush. He's famously said that "you have to treat [women] like sh*t."

Trump's history specific to women's health care is equally disturbing. He's appalled at the very idea that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sometimes pees (in a toilet, where it's supposed to go), he implied that Fox News' Megyn Kelly criticized him because she was on her period, and he once publicly shamed gymnast Shawn Johnson for having cramps when she appeared on his reality show, Celebrity Apprentice. He called a lawyer "disgusting" when she requested a breast-pumping break during a deposition. He said that women should be punished for having abortions. And while he's stayed silent on birth control himself, his secretary pick for Health and Human Services doesn't believe there is one woman who can't afford it, and his healthcare policy advisor thinks that the pill causes abortions.

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Does Trump sound like a man who can be trusted with women's health? Sure, he might be a fan of IUDs because they can prevent blood from coming out of your wherever, but he's already shrugged off the burden of women having to travel out of state for health care. And I can't imagine he'll keep the ACA mandate that requires employers to allow women breaks and a private room to pump their "disgusting" breast milk. Trump has never exhibited genuine concern for women, or even a basic grasp of their health care needs. As for those who were depending on him to surround himself with a knowledgeable cabinet, that ship has long since sailed. No woman should tell other women to look forward to the next four years, and saying "Who knows, his plan could be better than Obama's" is just incredibly naive.