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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP has delivered new support to the anti-abortion movement he once opposed, telling thousands of activists demonstrating in the annual March for Life: “We are with you all the way.”
In an address broadcast from the White House Rose Garden, Trump said he’s committed to building “a society where life is celebrated, protected and cherished”.
He upped the ante by saying that abortions can be carried out to full term in some states.
“It is wrong and has to change,” he said.
You all come for one beautiful cause – to build a society where life is celebrated, protected and cherished.
You love every child, born and unborn, because you believe that every life is sacred, that every child is a precious gift from God.
The moment marked the president personally stepping to the forefront of the anti-abortion movement in the United States as the anniversary of his inauguration approaches.
Last year, Vice President Mike Pence addressed the crowd in Trump’s absence. In the year since, Trump has delivered on rules and policies he had promised in an effort to help curb abortion rights legalised 45 years ago.
Chief among them is the confirmation of conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch.
Trump’s administration also today announced more actions in line with long-standing demands from social and religious conservatives.
Religious scruples
The Department of Health and Human Services spelled out plans to protect medical providers who refuse to perform procedures such as abortions because of moral or religious scruples.
The department also pulled back on an Obama-era policy that posed a legal roadblock to conservative states trying to cut Medicaid funds for Planned Parenthood.
The announcements coincided with the annual March for Life on Washington by abortion opponents, with Trump addressing marchers via video link.
Vice President Mike Pence gave a preview last night when he told the marchers: “In one short year, President Donald Trump has made a difference for life.”
The Department of Health said it is proposing a new regulation that sets out how existing federal conscience protections will be enforced in real-world situations.
That follows an announcement yesterday of a new division in the Office for Civil Rights devoted to protecting the conscience rights of clinicians.
The new rule is “meant to ensure full compliance with laws that have been under-enforced,” said Roger Severino, a conservative lawyer who heads the rights office under Trump.
These provisions are standard stuff when it comes to civil rights enforcement.
Conscience rights
Under the regulation, hospitals, universities, clinics and other entities that receive funding from programmes like Medicare and Medicaid will have to certify that they comply with some 25 federal laws protecting conscience and religious rights.
Most of these laws address medical procedures such as abortion, sterilisation and assisted suicide. Violations could result in loss of federal funding.
Also today, the department took action that may help conservative states cut or eliminate Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood.
The department rescinded guidance to states from President Barack Obama’s administration that narrowed the circumstances in which they can exclude a medical provider to cases involving fraud, criminal activity or being unfit to provide care.
However, states are still required to set “reasonable” standards in determining which medical providers can participate in their Medicaid programs. In addition to providing abortions, Planned Parenthood is a major source of routine medical care for women.
The action follows last year’s failure by congressional Republicans to defund Planned Parenthood.
“This will free up states to once again decide for themselves what reasonable standards may be appropriate,” said Charmaine Yoest, the top spokeswoman for the Department of Health and previously a prominent abortion opponent.
In a statement, Planned Parenthood vice president Dawn Laguens said, “They couldn’t get the votes to pass it in Congress, so now they are pushing states to try and block care at Planned Parenthood. The law is clear: it is illegal to bar women from seeking care at Planned Parenthood.”
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Be great if he came over and helped us keep the 8th
@cormac o neill: LOL no. The 8th is going to be repealed.
@cormac o neill:
LOL! Can you imagine.
The Irish liberal/feminist Meltdown would be off the Richter scale.
Do it Don.
@Seán Ó Briain: well after listening to Joe Duffy today I’d say your wrong . The grey vote along with it taking place in June when colleges are on holidays will ensue it’s defeated
@Seán Ó Briain: You sound confident that the 8th will be repealed? Maybe you’re reading the same polls that said there was no way for Tump to be elected – LOL
@cormac o neill: “well after listening to Joe Duffy today I’d say your wrong.”
Yeah, I don’t think Joe Duffy’s show is a an accurate reflection of any future referendum.
@Fintan O’flaois: Fake news .. Trumps the man
@Fintan O’flaois: “You sound confident that the 8th will be repealed?”
Yes, I’m confident that the 8th will be repealed. What of it?
@Seán Ó Briain: most popular radio show in Ireland and you say not relevant.. Good chap .. Keep listening to fake news
@Fintan O’flaois: honestly.. All lols aside, you think it was a good thing that thing got elected? As for polls and what not, know that there are an awful lot of people who are not voicing their pro choice opinion out loud because there are idiots like some of the people on here who start screaming murder. I don’t know if it will pass, I hope it does. As I’ve said before If it doesn’t I will just continue to help as many women as I can who do not have the means to travel get there if they want to, in fact I’ll double my efforts.
@Seán Ó Briain:
Over-confident I would say. Kind of like the Democrats and Remain campaigners.
@Dell: Cheap flights will always be here anyway
@Dell: and a serious amount of people who will vote to keep it in some form but are quiet as the pro choice side attack them also.
@cormac o neill: they will but they are of little use to women who already have children or are in abusive relationships or are too ill or incapacitated to travel. The only thing the 8th and the pro lifers on this country do is to make life even worse for women who are already in dreadful situations.
@Alan McCartney: not to the level the holier than thou pro lifers do, nor nothing near it. I’ve encountered enough of them.
@Dell: na
@Dell: that’s it .. lefties bring religion into everything
@cormac o neill: “Cheap flights will always be here anyway”. Do you really not see your hypocrisy in that statement? Proving this referendum isn’t necessarily about abortion and more about the geography of where it happens. Happy for them to travel to have one but not happy to let it be done in Ireland. NIMBY Hypocrite.
Uneducated children grease the wheels of capitalism..
@cormac o neill: was that an attempt at a joke or do you actually think holier than thou is limited to religion?
“One the one hand, Irish people condemn their churches. On the other hand, they are indoctrinated to the core by them. Tell me, what’s so wrong with this people”. That’s a poem by someone, not sure who now, just saying..
@Gaz o’keeffe: yes very true, not in my backyard keep Ireland pure thinking….
@cormac o neill: Does your mother know you have her phone? Give it back,there’s a good boy.Run along,the adults are talking..
@cormac o neill: Yeah, keep exporting the issue.
@cormac o neill: What exactly do you mean by the ‘grey vote’. Are you expecting that all older people will vote like lemmings and that people vote based on their age. I know older and younger in large numbers out campaigning against repeal for months now.
Donald Trump will go down in history as the best president America has ever had. Watch this space!
He is so right on anti-abortion, he has been the voice for poor children that has not been born. The people who have been born arrogantly sit in judgement on the life of a child who has not been born yet!
Once again Irish politicians are out of step with the rest of the world!! And if were to hold a referendum we should repeal same-sex marriage! Totally against God, acts of sodomy!
Mr Consistent.
Donald showing real leadership once again.
@FrankDapavia: Here Here
@FrankDapavia: Mr. Consistent? Like when he supported abortion in the past and then changed his views? Real consistent. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLvGCl8mmNA
@Seán Ó Briain:
Politicians have been known to change their views on occasion. Depending on which way the wind blows. Something which cannot be said about The Don who constantly flies in the face of public opinion.
@Seán Ó Briain: Just like Michael Martin
@FrankDapavia: hows the DACA “”deal” going? the YUGE border “wall” ? Are Mexicans still “paying” for that one ? “Replacing and repealing ” the ACA (OBAMACARE) ?
@FrankDapavia: So is he consistent or not if he demonstrably has been shown to change his mind on a multitude of issues?
@Francis Mc Carthy:
The point about DACA was that it was a gross overreach of the powers of executive orders. It is now with lawmakers where it belongs.
Mexico obviously won’t pay for the wall but it is progressing smoothly.
Obamacare has already been rendered a lame duck.
@Thought for Food:
So no deal on DACA,
So no Mexico paying for “wall”
Obamacare still here
LOLS
@Seán Ó Briain:
He hasn’t actually changed his mind though. He is consistent in his election promises which cannot be said of most politicians.
@FrankDapavia: *canned laughter*
@Thought for Food: Obamacare is not a ‘lame duck’ by any stretch of the imagination.
@FrankDapavia: Its to keep his base sweet so that they don’t read about the negative press about paying off some young porn star… He would sell his own granny if it made a profit…..
@Seán Ó Briain: Can a person not change their views? What about Leo Varadakar, Simon Harris & Micheál Martin, all Prolife before the last election and ‘have come on a journey’ is the way I read about them, as justification for their change of heart. Being very selective there now.
@FrankDapavia: He’s as consistent as you and your ever changing profiles. Poor illiterate Julie scrappedso soon?
Parents choice and ultimately the womans choice. No one elses buisness.
@Martin Ryan: What about the child?
@Adam Reid: the child can be sectioned in this country against her will
@Adam Reid: Mother knows best if she decides no then no it is ! Let me know if you ever get an opinion from the unborn that would be truly amazing.
@Martin Ryan:
Why does the mother know best?
@Thought for Food: Who would know better? A politician !!
@Thought for Food: That a pregnancy can kill her.A mother should know what a pregnancy entails.
@Francis Mc Carthy:
Chest buster from Alien etc?
Anyways, less off the dramatics Francis.
https://youtu.be/AMwkQVpy98A
@Eleanor of Aquitaine: don’t watch youtube videos.
you do know that in the U.S., that childbirth is 14 times more fatal to the woman than her procuring a safe,legal 1st trimester abortion,yes ?
wow!
@Martin Ryan: except the dead child of course.
@Adam Reid: You mean foetus!
@Iohanan: Foetus.
@Adam Reid: what child ?
@Francis Mc Carthy:
Don’t watch YouTube, good for you.
Anyways here is the non YouTube video which is restricted by YouTube.
https://www.prageru.com/playlists/restricted-youtube#27
@Iohanan: that happens in illegal abortions.Do you remember the story on here, where a young ‘child’ inserted bicycle spokes into her vagina ? She died from severe internal injuries…
@Francis Mc Carthy:
You do know that Human life is aborted every 30 seconds in the US, Right?
@Seamus Mc Meel:
Human Foetus.
@Francis Mc Carthy: In Ireland, we don’t get a lot of dead mothers like the do in the countries with abortion legalised. Strange, that. Now before you rush in with Savita and other negligence cases, we are among the safest countries for pregnant women.
@Francis Mc Carthy: 14 times more fatal for the mother perhaps but abortion is a few thousands times more fatal for the baby, what’s your argument?
Another triumph for Trump.
@Nick Drake: What triumph? He didn’t do anything apart tell the crazies what they wanted to hear.
@Sean: Oh Sean, there there. Lie down and rest your head.
@Nick Drake: oh nick.. Tell us what triumph he achieved here nick? Telling a bunch of pro lifers what they want to hear? If this constitutes a triumph for you well you know what, good for you. Aren’t you the easily pleased little pro lifers.
He’s just a troll playing to the crowd again and what a crowd. He’d sell his grandmother…. #eejit
@Polly Dolan: He is the President of the greatest country in the world.. you don’t get there by been an ejit
@cormac o neill: being* eejit*
Looks like you’re banned from entry so.
@cormac o neill: Plenty of eejits have been the President of the most powerful country in the world.
@cormac o neill: The biggest open prison in the world also.
@cormac o neill: You are correct apart from every time he uses twitter or when he is racist or sexist. Come to think of it he may not be an ejitt as they could be endearing and there is nothing remotely even pleasant about that man.
@cormac o neill:
Can I ask you to explain why you think America is the greatest country in the world?
@cormac o neill: He’s not reading this, you won’t get any brownie points.
@Seán Ó Briain: I have U
@Gillian Scully: Throw all ur liberal shite there now .. none of it sticks anyway
@Seán Ó Briain:
People who need to focus on correcting grammar often have no other salient point to make.
@Seán Ó Briain: *entering
@Thought for Food: Pure sign of losing the debate
@Tweed Cap: USA..USA..USA
@cormac o neill: ..
@cormac o neill:
That explains everything so.
@cormac o neill: good grief… Your not really that stupid are you? Ah hang on… Yup, I’m afraid you are.
@cormac o neill: you do if enough eejits fall for your S***E spiel!!
@cormac o neill: it’s not the greatest country in the world.
@Michael Flanagan: it’s not even the greatest country in North America
@cormac o neill: How does it feel, having one’s head up 45′s colon and eating regurgitated sh!te
Isn’t this the same lad who basically disowned one of his own children for years (the daughter that you rarely hear about or see). If memory serves, it took prompting from Ivana to actually get him to stump up some cash for her when she started college. Hardly a guy you want to take advice from when it comes to the idea of parenthood and procreation.
Every republician president was against abortion but did nothing about it….Trump seems like it is more than just an election promise…
@John003: He is better liar than past Republican presidents…….and a bigger one too.
@Larry Doyle: As well as an honest one
@cormac o neill: lols
@John003: what exactly can he do ? Abortion has been legal over 40 plus years .Most Americans are in favour of it..
A victory for him,would be no abortions after the 20th week..
But what will they do with all of the disabled children that will end up on peoples doorways…?
@John003: what exactly can he do ? Abortion has been legal over 40 plus years .Most Americans are in favour of it..
A victory for him,would be no abortions after the 20th week..
But what will they do with all of the disabled children that will end up on peoples doorways…?
Trump has his faults but his right on this leo and michel martin could learn from him.
There are more votes in pro life than pro choice ask Labour they lost 30 seats last election. Pro life voters are loyal pro choice not so much
What a man!
“Right now in many states they allow children to be born from his or her mother’s womb in the 9th month. It is wrong, it needs to change”. -Donald Trump
LOLS
@Francis Mc Carthy: True https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-flubs–speech-its-wrong-for-babies-to-born-in-ninth-month
@Francis Mc Carthy: I think he meant torn, which I would like to think regardless of what side of the abortion debate a person is on, the vast majority would consider that abhorrent.
@Larry Doyle: 404
@Griff: 405
@Griff: why would i find that abhorrent ? Do you know the circumstances as to why any late -term abortion is carried out? Luckily,there is a handful of brave doctors that do these terminations.
@Francis Mc Carthy: Hey at least he says what he’s thinking… lolz..
@Jason: is he thinking?
He’s hardly going to a ProLife Rally to say he disagrees with them. It’s called a Rally for a reason, and thats exactly what he did. His knowledge on the subject a bit suspect though just like his knowledge on how the Green Card Lottery works, he has no clue and no one in his party steps up to explain it to him so he can understand it and talk about it. Unbelievable.
@Noel Falkhall: Not to mention that he doesn’t understand that a government shutdown won’t affect the military or that social security payments don’t affect the national debt… well except for when the GOP raid it to pay down interest on the debt… Funnily enough Idiocracy just so happens to be on Film 4 right now (like that wasn’t planned to coincide with the anniversary of his inauguration) and it’s really not much different to watching Trump and his cabinet try to run things. And before anyone chimes in about the stock market or jobs.. Well jobs growth is the lowest it’s been in 7 years and warnings are already doing the rounds of a stock market slide. As Joe Kennedy once said if the shoe shine boy is giving you advice on the stock market then the bull market is dead.
@Noel Falkhall: I was amazed at his level of knowledge concerning the whole area of abortion, listening to his speech and having heard the detractors previously knocking him and saying he wasn’t up to speed. His minor error in saying born instead of torn is hardly a major issue but no doubt, the lazy press and media will run around like a delighted junior infants schoolboy shouting Miss, Miss, look, he said born, miss.
Well said Mr Trump.
Some states have abortions of babies up to full term…horrific. That’s murder.
If the repealers get 12weeks passed it will be 24 and 40 weeks next.
How can anyone advocate to end the life of a defenceless little baby all because it’s their choice….
@Pconor: you can not comment because you are not in their circumstances
@Pconor: up to 12 weeks a foetus is no more than a clump of cells no bigger than a grape. But don’t let facts get in the way of your effort to make very difficult situations even worst for thousands of women.
@Pius Flynn: You are only allowed to comment if it is horses or whales or lobsters! Never children, ever.
@paddlingAlong: You are about 25 years behind in your science, a ghrá.
So.. The “pro lifers” here as selling the same shtick to refuse women the right of autonomy over their own bodies and reproductive systems (breeding slavery) as the biggest Mysogonist and liar in the world.. Hmmm kind of says it all really..
@Jay Warner:
Never heard such nonsense.
Runs with the hares, hunts with the hounds. What a man!
I don’t believe trump gives a damn about abortion.
@Frank Drebin: exactly.. He is telling a crowd that he knows are pro life what they want to hear. And some of the idiots on here think he’s sincere. I’m pretty sure that man hasn’t been sincere since he first strung a sentence together.
I’d vote for Trump in an instant he has more balls than all our politicians put together I don’t think Leo even has a pair.
@Gary Stonebox: less brains though
Lefty liberals going to be very angry over this! lol
I can’t believe Lefty Liberal website reported this, RTÉ has nothing of the sort
Long live President Trump!
#SavetheEighth
#TimeForWarAganistLeftyLiberals
#SmallBattleWon
@James: i have a wee feeling that the majority of Americans won’t be too amused with this kind of crap..They see abortion as a legal right for the woman .Which it is.Just more uselessness from a useless POtuS.
Bit late to change them now, if you ask me
“a society where life is celebrated, protected and cherished”.
Ffs, this is the USA we are talking about. Perhaps the great Mr trump could start with healthcare for the children that actually exist. Or do something about the gun war on his own people. Trump is nothing but a shallow shameless opportunistic chancer.
If you cannot see the dichotomy here you lack critical thinking.
I wonder how many of his mistresses availed of abortion. What a joke of a man. Imagine men got pregnant! Trump would have his own suite in a hospital.
If his porn star mistress got pregnant he’d have the nearest Planned Parenthood booked.
Fair play to him.
Shame on those who campaign and vote for a woman’s ‘right’ to kill her own child.
I think Willie O Dea got it right, we should all vote according to our conscience. I’m for life of mother and baby. In the end all we can do is what we believe in.
There are those who see no value in human life and they can vote accordingly, its their business.
have your say