A majority of voters in 13 Republican-held Congressional districts in which Hillary Clinton won are against the defunding Planned Parenthood — as well as the GOP's Obamacare replacement bill, according to a Public Policy Polling survey released to The Hill on Tuesday.
The survey of 7,488 registered voters found that 59 percent of voters in those districts oppose defunding Planned Parenthood, compared with the 35 percent who support it. More than half — 54 percent — say they would be less likely to vote for their GOP representative if they voted to defund Planned Parenthood, compared with 30 percent who say they would be more likely to support them.
"Voters in these districts like Planned Parenthood, they like the Affordable Care Act, and efforts to hurt those things will imperil the Republicans in these districts as they look toward reelection next year," says Public Policy Polling Director Tom Jensen.
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More than half (55 percent) oppose the GOP's American Health Care Act, while 31 percent support it. Meanwhile, 53 percent support the ACA, while 36 percent oppose the current health care law.
Separately, The Hill cited a New York Times report that Ivanka Trump in January met with Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards and suggested that the organization split into one smaller faction providing abortion services and another for all other health services.
However, Planned Parenthood called Trump's suggestion "naive," according to the NYT report.
Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, told Politico last month that Richards wanted to meet with Trump "to make sure that Ivanka fully understood what Planned Parenthood does, how it is funded, and why it would be a terrible idea for Planned Parenthood to be removed from being able to see Medicaid patients."
"The main thing that Cecile Richards was doing was explaining that the money doesn't actually go to abortions — we get reimbursed the same way a hospital does," Laguens told Politico. "We were clearing up misinformation about how this works."
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Katie Kuehner-Hebert
Katie Kuehner-Hebert is a freelance writer based in Running Springs, Calif. She has more than three decades of journalism experience, with particular expertise in employee benefits and other human resource topics.
