Just weeks after her dad was sworn into office, Ivanka Trump requested a meeting with Planned Parenthood head Cecile Richards, Politico revealed. Until Thursday, the sit-down had not been reported.
The meeting was meant to open up a dialogue on the contentious issue of abortion, after President Trump had declared on the campaign trail that he would defund Planned Parenthood because of his pro-life stance. "The main thing that Cecile Richards was doing was explaining that the money doesn't actually go to abortions — we get reimbursed the same way a hospital does. We were clearing up misinformation about how this works," said Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
Trump's "strategic outreach," as Politico described it, hasn't quite panned out:
Since Ivanka Trump's sit-down with Richards, what started as a cordial relationship has soured — and any effort on the part of the politically savvy first daughter to back-channel to the non-profit has transformed into a bitter battle since Ivanka Trump assumed an official administration post.
Richards, fighting the Trump administration, has publicly rebuked Ivanka Trump for her "deafening" silence on the health-care bill. [Politico]
At a Women in the World conference this week, Richards once again lambasted Trump, now a White House official, for her inaction on women's issues.
Read the full story on Trump's effort at Politico.