ABORTION/DEMS/PLANNED PARENTHOOD/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The Trump administration’s overhaul of a federal family planning program is opening a new front in the abortion wars on a divided Capitol Hill. A rule the administration released Friday [2-22-19] will effectively cut off tens of millions of dollars to Planned Parenthood and other clinics that offer abortions, while steering some of that Title X federal funding toward anti-abortion, faith-based care providers. It’s not the all-out defunding of Planned Parenthood that the Republicans have long sought, but it’s unacceptable to Democrats with new authority over health care and federal spending…But in the face of a divided government, both sides admit the next two years will largely be a fight to preserve the status quo and rally their bases on the divisive issue ahead of the 2020 election. While House Democrats publicly aspire to ‘systemically’ reverse many abortion restrictions on the books, they say they’ll mainly focus on preventing Republicans from imposing new ones.”
–Alice Miranda Ollstein, “Trump abortion rule has both sides digging in,” Politico, February 22, 2019 5:46 pm