As Netflix’s Qwikster and NBC’s “Joey” proved in the early ’00s, sometimes spinoffs are a bad idea.
First daughter Ivanka Trump learned this recently when she suggested that Planned Parenthood split itself in two, according to a report in The New York Times.
Her idea: One arm would perform abortions, and another would specialize in women’s health services. She pitched this to Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards. “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 naive, failing to understand how central reproductive choice was to the group’s mission,” the Times reported.
Ivanka Trump, like her father, President Trump, has shown signs of not taking “ugh” for an answer. About her Planned Parenthood idea, she told the Times 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.”
“Thesis” generally tends to mean “the point,” as ElleUK.com reminded Ivanka: “The problem with Trump’s proposal is that abortion services are women’s health services. … It’s not hard to imagine that, in Ivanka’s proposed future, the abortion arm of the operation would face the same government opposition as it does today, with fewer resources to defend it.”
In a statement, Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of Planned Parenthood, said, “Let’s be clear: Since federal funds already do not pay for abortions, any proposal that Planned Parenthood must ‘split’ into separate providers is about creating barriers to the full range of reproductive health care.”
It has been a rough few weeks for Ivanka Trump, who has cast herself as a champion of women’s issues, including work and paid maternity leave. The report in the Times revealed that she had initially been reluctant to offer maternity leave at her Ivanka Trump brand. On April 26, NBC News reported that Chinese workers that manufacture clothing for that brand earn approximately $60 a week, or $1 an hour. And reviews for her new book “Women Who Work” have called it both “vapid” and “very vapid.”
