Planned Parenthood Has Received More than 20,000 Donations in Mike Pence’s Name
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The preacher from Footloose future vice president Mike Pence is not going to want to open his mail for a while, because the deeply conservative, anti-gay, anti-choice politician is getting a lot of “thank you” cards from Planned Parenthood for donations made in his name. Abortion rights and women’s health care look to be in a fraught position after the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Trump and his VP pick, Mike Pence–who once passed a law requiring women to pay for funerals for miscarriages and abortions, and also banning abortion because of genetic fetal abnormalities–have vowed to do their absolute best to get rid of a woman’s right to decide for herself whether or not to have an abortion. Trump told 60 Minutes that his goal would be to get rid of Roe v. Wade, which made abortion access a legal right in all U.S. states, and have the legality of abortion be decided by the individual states themselves. That would mean women might have to travel across the country to terminate a pregnancy, and that’s an insurmountable barrier for a lot of poor women. Pence, on the other hand, is a die-hard true believer, and if he had his way abortion would just flat-out be illegal in the U.S. (Given his track record, he’d probably even want to require investigations into any miscarriages to make sure they’re actually accidents.) Pence has also tried to defund Planned Parenthood on several occasions, and this week people have been making a ton of donations to Planned Parenthood, to help them provide health services and defend reproductive rights in what looks to be a very adverse political environment. To add a bit of fun to it, some people discovered that it is possible to make a donation in someone’s name, and that person would receive a thank-you letter informing them of the donation. The choice was obvious.
According to People, Planned Parenthood has received 160,000 donations in the past week, and more than 20,000 of those have been in the name of Mike Pence. Pence’s office will be getting more than 20,000 thank-you certificates from Planned Parenthood. Other donations have been made in the name of Hillary Clinton, and that’s a tribute she’d actually be happy to see, so that’s another way to go. To everyone who’s been donating their time or money, have a high-five! 
