It’s no secret that many people are not a fan of Donald Trump. Now that he is our president, it has angered and terrified the people of our country because of what he plans to do, starting with putting all women at risk. He states “I cherish women. I want to help women. I am going to be able to do things for women that no other candidate would do, and it’s very important to me”. The first part of his statement is very unconvincing, simply because of the fact that he is threatening women’s health care in many ways.

In his third day as president, Trump reinstated the Global Gag Rule. The Global Gag Rule, also known as the Mexico City policy, blocks U.S federal funding for non-governmental organizations that provide abortion counseling or referral, advocate to decriminalize abortion or expand abortion services.  Along with the Global Gag Rule, Trump has made permanent the Hyde Amendment, which is a legislative provision barring the use of certain federal funds to pay for abortions except to save the life of the woman, or if the pregnancy arises from incest or rape. This limits women’s options, making it very hard for them to have an abortion if needed, whatever their reasons may be.

A teacher at Millennium Brooklyn High School shows how doing this not only threatens women’s health, but society as well, stating that “Women’s health is definitely under fire because Donald Trump does not really want to have any federal funding for many of our public health initiatives and Planned Parenthood provides vital health services for women in general, regardless of abortion or not. I feel that this is very concerning because the health of women in our society directly correlates to the success of that society. If you have women in our society who are not being taken care of, you have children who are not being taken care of who are not going to grow up healthy and therefore, you’re going to have a society that is weakened, healthwise”.

A MBHS senior also spoke out on the issue, saying “It scares me that Donald Trump has so much say in how a women gets to treat her body. He isn’t a woman, he doesn’t understand our needs and why these programs are so important to us. It scares me knowing that if something happened to me where I needed these programs that he’s taking away, I won’t even have an option as to what to do and it can possibly change my life forever.” In short, if the women in our society aren’t being properly taken care of, not only will women become weak, but so will society.

Lastly, Trump plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which helps thousands of women cover the cost of many of their health care needs. Before the ACA, insurers were able to charge women more for health care simply because of their gender. The ACA stopped insurers from doing this and denying health coverage. Along with this, he will be closing Planned Parenthood clinics across the country. Planned Parenthood clinics provide women with mammograms, access to birth control, testing, treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, cancer screenings, and routine health care. Shutting these down means less access to the things women need, making it very difficult for them to take the proper steps in taking care of their body if something ever happened. During this time in Trumps presidency, many women are scared for themselves and fear what else Trump has planned for America’s future.