Republicans and Planned Parenthood: The Secret History of GOP Support
Republicans really, really don’t like Planned Parenthood. If the presidential candidates haven’t made that clear, conservatives in Congress did last week when they threatened to shut down the government—yet again—over Planned Parenthood’s federal funding.
But the reason Planned Parenthood exists and even receives federal dollars in the first place is largely because Republicans got it off the ground.
When birth control was legalized, Republicans helped expand access to contraception for low-income people because they recognized its economic value to women, families, and taxpayers. Even when abortion was legalized through Roe v. Wade, a women’s right to choose wasn’t immediately a partisan issue—or much of an issue at all.
Over the past few decades, the Republican Party has shifted further right—and the politics behind this evolution explain why the GOP is trying to stop the very thing that they started 45 years ago.
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