As Trump rewrites public health rules, Pence sees conservative agenda born again

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

As Trump rewrites public health rules, Pence sees conservative agenda born again

As a member of Congress and governor of Indiana, Mike Pence pushed to reshape public health, building his policies from his Christian religious views. Now as vice president, Pence has a broader platform to push changes domestically and abroad.

By YASMEEN ABUTALEB and JOSEPH TANFANI in WASHINGTON Filed May 30, 2019, 11 a.m. GMT

In a sweeping social policy shift, the Trump administration is seeking to remake health rules at home and abroad for women, gay and transgender people, restricting access to abortion, curtailing support for contraception and narrowing the scope of civil rights in healthcare.

The turnaround has its foundations in the quiet, behind-the-scenes influence of Vice President Mike Pence, who has been driven throughout his political career by his evangelical Christian beliefs to restrict abortion and prioritize the rights of religious conservatives.

Pence has been in the spotlight for leading the administration’s failed effort to repeal and replace Obamacare. But other changes, affecting health policy domestically and abroad, are moving ahead with far less attention.

Under the direction of two secretaries recommended by Pence, the Department of Health and Human Services has moved to slash funds from teen pregnancy-prevention programs, curb abortion both in the United States and abroad and strip civil protections for transgender patients.

The administration has emphasized abstinence programs, led by appointees who believe contraception harms women, and pushed to cut government funds for Planned Parenthood – a longtime cause for Pence while he was in Congress. Planned Parenthood, a national network of healthcare providers, offers infertility services, contraception and abortions.

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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-pence-hhs/

[RedParrot]

1. As governor, Pence pushed an extremist religious agenda.

Pence never missed an opportunity to harm women and LGBT Hoosiers. Pence got his rubber stamp legislature to turn the top education official into an appointed position after a woman opponent of his won election by a wide margin. Pence bent over backwards to close women's clinics and defund an LGBT group that was helping troubled gay teens. Pence misogynist and homophobic record in Indiana is quite extensive.

We were very happy when Trump picked Pence as his VP. While Pence was trailing in the polls, there were no guarantees that Pence would be defeated. We all had a collective "good riddance" with Pence as Trump's running mate.

To our shock and horror Trump won the Electoral College while losing the popular vote by more than 3 million votes.

Pence now has the opportunity to do on the national level the evil things he did in Indiana.

[uriel1972]

2. and this is why...

The Religious Right will support Trumpf to the end.