Donald “I’m For Defunding Planned Parenthood” Trump Takes The RNC Stage Tonight

“I’m for defunding Planned Parenthood, very strongly.” [Rewire, 11/20/15]

Cleveland, Ohio — Tonight, Donald Trump is the star of the Republican National Convention. There’s no way to predict what kind of horribly sexist, racist things he might say, but we already know where he stands — and it’s not with women. While “nobody hates Planned Parenthood quite as much as Mike Pence,” Trump’s running mate, Trump has made it clear he is is just as committed to blocking patients from accessing health care — including safe, legal abortion — at Planned Parenthood as Pence is. That’s why a Trump-Pence administration would be so dangerous for women and their families and why everyone who supports access to reproductive health care, which is the majority of Americans, must unite to make sure we don’t let that happen.

Donald Trump is “for defunding Planned Parenthood.”

Trump said he would support a government shutdown over Planned Parenthood funding. “Asked directly by conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt if it’s worth shutting down the federal government to strip Planned Parenthood’s $528 million in government funding, Trump replied: ‘I would.’ And Trump blamed Cruz’s colleagues for abandoning him during the fight to defund Obamacare two years ago. ‘If the Republicans stuck together you could have done it with Obamacare also, but the Republicans decided not to stick together and they left a few people out there like Ted Cruz,’ Trump said. ‘If they had stuck together they would have won that battle. I think you have to in this case [on Planned Parenthood] also, yes.’” [POLITICO, 8/4/15]

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Trump would “defund” Planned Parenthood. At the RNC this week, Mitch McConnell said: “Congress passed a bill to defund Planned Parenthood. President Obama vetoed it. Donald Trump would sign it.” Watch here.

Trump picked one of the most extreme anti-abortion governors in the country as his running mate. Mike Pence has spent his political career, as a member of Congress and as governor of Indiana, trying to block women from accessing health care at Planned Parenthood. And he's so extreme, even his fellow Republicans have a problem with anti-abortion legislation he signed into law. That’s why he’s considered a “hero” to anti-abortion extremists. [NYT, 7/16/2016]

Donald Trump would appoint anti-abortion judges who would overturn Roe v. Wade.

On CNN’s State of the Union, Trump said being “pro-life” would be a litmus test for SCOTUS nominees:

JAKE TAPPER: You're pro-choice or pro-life?

TRUMP: I'm pro-life… .

TAPPER: How important is that issue to you now when President Trump picks Supreme Court justices? Would that be a litmus test?

TRUMP: It is. It is. [CNN’s State of the Union, 6/28/15]

Trump said that it would be helpful to ask his nominees to the Supreme Court about abortion:

CHUCK TODD: Is this [abortion] going to be a litmus test for the Supreme Court nominees that you pick?

TRUMP: Well, I think I would certainly be asking them the question. And I think it would be, if not a litmus test, it would certainly be helpful in terms of my choices. [Washington Post, 8/17/15]

Trump said the “biggest way” to ban abortion is “by electing me president”: “Asked on Fox News what one thing he would do to ‘protect the sanctity of life,’ Trump told host Bill O’Reilly, ‘I will protect it, and the biggest way you can protect it is through the Supreme Court and putting people on the court. Actually, the biggest way you can protect it, I guess, is by electing me president.’” [Huffington Post, 5/11/16]