People donating to Planned Parenthood in Mike Pence's name
While President-elect Donald Trump's views on abortion weren't always crystal clear, those of his vice president-elect, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, have never wavered.
He staunchly opposes abortion rights and in 2011 led the charge to defund Planned Parenthood as a member of the House of Representatives, an effort that ultimately failed but nearly forced the federal government to shut down. As governor, he signed one of the nation's most stringent abortion laws, which mandated that miscarried or stillborn fetuses be buried or cremated and that women have an ultrasound at least 18 hours before a scheduled abortion. It also barred abortions of fetuses with disabilities or because of their race, sex or ancestry.
They are views that garnered him high praise from many anti-abortion institutions and an equal amount of disdain from abortion rights advocates.
The first likely helped his ticket win the White House.
The second has made him, at least in the last week, a regular contributor to Planned Parenthood.
The organization allows donors to make a monetary gift "in honor or in memory of someone special," so in the field marked "Honoree Information," contributors are placing their cursor and typing the same name: Mike Pence.
And in the address field, which indicates where donors want the certificate of appreciation sent, they're writing in the Indiana governor's office in Indianapolis.
Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards told the Atlantic she'd seen "an unprecedented outpouring of support" and nearly 80,000 donations. In a tweet sent Nov. 12, Planned Parenthood confirmed that many donors are contributing not just in Pence's name, but they're writing in the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton.
Online, women and men tweeted out screenshots of their donation forms bearing Mike Pence's name, an action further promoted when actress Amber Tamblyn and comedian Amy Schumer, both outspoken Clinton supporters, shared the governor's address on their social media accounts.
When Pence signed into law the controversial Indiana abortion legislation earlier this year, some of his female constituents responded in a way not unlike the Planned Parenthood donations.
They called up his office to talk about their periods.
Their logic was this: if the governor wanted to be involved in the decisions women make with their doctors about their bodies, then why not talk to him like they'd speak to their gynecologists.
In a Facebook group called Periods for Pence, which garnered bipartisan support, Indiana women posted about their conversations with staffers in the governor's office. Opponents of the women's phone calls called them "childish" and "immature," the founder of Periods for Pence told The Post, to which she responded: "This is a ridiculous response to a ridiculous bill."has seenhas