Planned Parenthood chief to join DNC unity tour with Sanders, Perez

Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards will join Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on the final leg of their national tour later this month as the party seeks to mobilize liberals against President Trump’s actions targeting funding for abortion providers.

Richards will join Perez and Sanders in Las Vegas on April 22, The Hill has learned. It’s the final stop on the nine-state Perez-Sanders unity tour, which aims to unite grassroots liberals and mainstream Democrats against the Trump agenda.

“Regardless of where they live or their political affiliations, most people understand that it is absurd for Republicans in Congress to support huge tax breaks for billionaires while pushing for cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid,” Perez and Sanders said in a joint statement.

{mosads}“They understand that the recent Republican healthcare proposal, which would have thrown 24 million Americans off of their health insurance, substantially raised premiums for older workers and defunded Planned Parenthood while, at the same time, providing almost $300 billion in tax breaks to the top 2 percent is a disgraceful idea.”

Richards, who will participate in the event in her capacity as head of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, joined the tour a day after Trump signed a law giving states more ability to withhold funds from organizations like Richards’s.

Democrats say the bill, passed last month by the Senate with a tiebreaking vote cast by Vice President Pence, is an effort to defund Planned Parenthood.

The law rolled back an Obama-era rule that required state and local governments distribute federal Title X funding to healthcare providers irrespective of whether the providers also perform abortions. No federal funds may be used for abortion services under current law.

Republicans say that eliminating the rule gives power back to the states, but Democrats see it as an attack against Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers.