On Thursday afternoon, behind closed doors, President Donald Trump signed a bill that gives state governments the freedom to deny federal funding to family planning centers that include abortion in their services, according to an article in women’s lifestyle website Glamour News.
Sometimes, I still have trouble accepting that Trump is our president. There’s a part of me that has to pinch myself a couple of times to really understand that logic.
It’s news like this that makes me step back and really say to myself, “Wow, he’s actually running our country.” But a question did occur to me: Are people getting used to Trump’s actions?
What makes me scratch my head even more is the fact that Trump focuses on issues that shouldn’t be issues. He tries to limit the rights of transgender people because they’re a potential for violence in the bathrooms, which has never truly been proven. Yet, when it comes to sexual assault and rape, he’s been accused multiple times of sexual violence dating all the way back to the 1970s, according to an article in The Atlantic. As I scrolled through the list of the females that accused him of harassment, I felt a little nauseous.
He declared April Sexual Assault Awareness week and promises people that he will go to lengths to reduce sexual violence in our country. But again, this is coming from the same man who was accused of sexual assault and defended himself by saying “Those women were too unattractive,” for the allegations to be true.
When it comes to contradictory instances like this, I tend to focus on people’s actions rather than their words. And so far, I feel a genuine fear that he’ll continue to take action against minorities such as women and the LGBTQ community. He wears apparel that reads: Women for Trump. But I don’t understand how women could be for Trump, when he’s never there for women.
Title X has been in place since 1970 and not only impacts Planned Parenthood, but contributes funding for numerous other health care centers across the country that provide birth control, cancer screenings, and STD tests to more than 4 million women—and men—each year, many of whom are low-income, according to the Glamour article.
I keep hoping that Trump would put on the shoes of someone else before making executive decisions, but that’s not the case. My only hope is that Trump’s bigoted comments and actions don’t become the new normal for the country.
Email at Kavita Singh at cp@cardinalpointsonline.com
