Radical feminist Gloria Steinem says she will send the portion of her income tax that would normally go toward funding Planned Parenthood directly to the organization if the Trump administration strips the abortion group of its funding.
Speaking as a panel member for women’s rights activists Donor Direct Action, Steinem urged a tax resistance movement similar to the one Vietnam War protesters used in the 1960s.
“In this case, we can say ‘I’m sending the part of my income tax that should go to Planned Parenthood, I’m sending it directly to Planned Parenthood. Come and get me,’” she said, reports Reuters. “They come and collect eventually, but it costs them way more to go through the process.”
Steinem’s comments come as a new law in Texas is requiring burial or cremation of fetal remains, and the Ohio state legislature has passed a “heartbeat” bill that would ban abortions once a fetal heartbeat can be detected.
Planned Parenthood receives more than a half-billion taxpayer dollars annually. The group has been under congressional investigation for the past year following the release of videos that alleged Planned Parenthood harvests the body parts of babies aborted in its clinics and sells them for a profit.
The abortion chain spent about $30 million trying to elect Democrats and Hillary Clinton in the 2016 races.
Trump has vowed to appoint pro-life Supreme Court justices and has said Planned Parenthood should not receive federal funding if it continues to provide abortions. State legislatures have passed laws to eliminate late-term abortions and improve safety standards for women in abortion clinics who choose to undergo the procedure. Planned Parenthood and the ACLU, both of which have taken advantage of progressive activist judges, however, have challenged these new laws in court.
“The overall political lesson is that we need to pay as much attention to our state legislatures as we do to Washington,” said Steinem. “We have not done that. The battle is being fought there.”
The Obama administration has sought to override state laws that redirect federal funding from Planned Parenthood – its political ally – toward other healthcare centers that have met the federal government’s criteria.
These federally qualified healthcare centers (FQHCs) provide more comprehensive services to low-income families than Planned Parenthood. Nationally, there are 13,000 FQHCs – a figure that outnumbers Planned Parenthood facilities by 20 to 1.
Despite the overwhelming number of FQHCs, however, the Obama Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has asserted that by redirecting funding away from Planned Parenthood, the states “have interfered with” low-income individuals’ ability to access federal assistance quickly.