Chelsea Handler has had enough of President Donald Trump’s pro-life policies and wants his daughter Ivanka to do something about it.
Handler hosted Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards and comedienne Sarah Silverman on her Netflix show to continue the “war on women” narrative and to challenge Ivanka Trump to change her father’s mind about what she believes women want.
“I know all women feel this way toward Ivanka right now, but I’m like, ‘You need to tell that f—ing asshole this is an unacceptable way to treat women,’” Handler said. “We’re moving backward.”
“So far, the White House has been a total zero on women and women’s health,” said Richards. “I think Ivanka’s job now is that she’s in charge of all women’s issues. This would be time to kind of step up.”
In April, Politico revealed that Ivanka Trump met in an “under-the-radar” meeting with Planned Parenthood president and CEO Cecile Richards to discuss possible “common ground” on the issue of abortion.
According to the news report, Ivanka Trump initiated the meeting:
The first daughter requested a sit-down with Cecile Richards, the head of Planned Parenthood and a vocal surrogate for Hillary Clinton on the 2016 campaign trail, to talk about an organization that is being targeted by Republicans seeking to defund it because it provides abortions, among other women’s health services like cancer screenings.
Their under-the-radar meeting — a rarity between a well-known Democratic activist and a close adviser to a Republican president — has not been previously reported.
The outreach, however, has “soured,” says Politico, since the president’s daughter took on an official position within Trump’s administration.
Handler asked Silverman if she thought Ivanka had any influence over her father.
“I’m so dead inside when it comes to all of this,” Silverman responded, adding that she direct-messaged the president’s daughter on Twitter.
“I was like, ‘This is your chance. You are writing your life story here,'” she said.
Handler added she knows what it’s like to have “an asshole “ father as well. However, she explained that she called her own father out her entire life, and wants to know why Ivanka isn’t taking the lead with Trump.
Planned Parenthood is closing clinics rapidly across the country due to reported financial difficulties, though its recently released annual report shows that, last year, the number of abortions, its taxpayer funding, and its profits all increased. At the same time, many of the non-abortion services Planned Parenthood says it provides have sharply decreased.
In March, the Trump administration informed Planned Parenthood the chain would have to quit performing abortions in order to keep its federal taxpayer funding.
Richards rejected the offer, stating that Planned Parenthood is “proud to provide abortion,” which it considers to be a “necessary service that’s as vital to our mission as birth control or cancer screenings.”
Planned Parenthood has been under investigation since the summer of 2015 after undercover journalists exposed an alleged fetal tissue operation. The allegations that Planned Parenthood sells the body parts of aborted babies for a profit led to multiple congressional investigations. Ultimately, the Senate Judiciary Committee and the House Select Investigative Panel have referred Planned Parenthood Federation of America, several of the largest Planned Parenthood affiliates in the country, and three of their business associates in the fetal tissue procurement industry to the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice for criminal prosecution.
A recent Marist poll found that 61 percent of Americans oppose taxpayer funding of abortion, including 40 percent of those who say they are “pro-choice,” and 41 percent of Democrats.