Trump's 'Taxpayer First' Budget Is Another Assault on Women

Following months of underhanded attacks against women in the form of executive orders and characterization of rape, c-sections, and post-partum depression as preexisting conditions under Trumpcare, it's no surprise that Donald Trump's "Taxpayer First" budget proposal for 2018, which was unveiled in detail Tuesday, is deleterious to women. In addition to cutting funding for reproductive health services, the proposed budget disproportionately cuts funding to programs that affect women, such as Medicaid and Food Stamps, Fortunereports.

The Trump administration has been gunning for Planned Parenthood since he took office in January, and the "Taxpayer First" budget proposes the unprecedented move of cutting all federal funding from the organization that provides lifesaving services to women, according to a leaked executive summary of the budget obtained by HuffPost:

"Trump's budget proposal bars the nation's largest family planning provider from participating in any federal program, including cancer screening programs funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Zika virus prevention, HIV/AIDS testing and prevention, Violence Against Women Act grants to prevent sexual assault, maternal and child health programs and sexually transmitted disease and infertility prevention grants."

Upon hearing about Trump's budget, Hillary Clinton, speaking Tuesday at the Children's Health Fund Annual Benefit, called the cuts "cruel," according to International Business Times.

In his first few days after assuming the presidency, Trump signed an executive order that bans U.S. aid to overseas nongovernmental organizations that provide or advise on abortions. In April, he rescinded a President Obama-era order addressing the gender pay gap and sexual harassment. If that weren't enough, the proposed plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, the American Health Care Act (which House Republicans passed earlier this month) counts sexual assault, c-sections, post-partum depression, and domestic violence as preexisting conditions for which a person could be denied insurance.

Beyond proposing to deny women lifesaving reproductive services, Trump's budget proposal calls for slashing $610 million in Medicaid, which will adversely affect women since two-thirds of the program's adult recipients are women, according to Fortune. But the assault on women doesn't end there. The proposal calls for cuts to funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants, and Children, a program that seeks to "reduce infant mortality and morbidity, provides food vouchers for for low-income pregnant women, nursing mothers, and children under five years old, as well as breastfeeding support and nutrition education," according to The Guardian.

Finally, the budget calls for eliminating President Obama's Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which benefited nurses, teachers, and public defenders by canceling student debt for governmental and nonprofit employees who'd made on-time payments on student loans for 10 years, according to Fortune. Elimination of the program disproportionately affects women, as 90 percent of nurses and 75 percent of teachers are women.

"This administration is mounting an onslaught against the needs of children, people with disabilities, women, and seniors," Hillary Clinton, a key figure in getting the Children's Health Insurance Program off the ground when she was first lady, said Tuesday.