Planned Parenthood slams Trump’s rumored choice of women’s issues ambassador

Planned Parenthood sharply criticized President Trump on Saturday over his rumored nominee to be the next ambassador-at-large for global women’s issues at the State Department, saying her appointment would be like “putting an arsonist in charge of the fire department.”

Politico reported Friday night that Penny Young Nance was being considered for the post. Nance currently serves as the president and CEO of Concerned Women for America, a conservative women’s group. Its online mission statement says it “protects and promotes Biblical values and Constitutional principles through prayer, education, and advocacy.”

In a press release Saturday, the executive vice president for the group’s political wing called Nance’s expected nomination proof that the Trump administration doesn’t care about women’s issues.

“For Trump to even consider putting Penny Nance in charge of U.S. programs designed to protect and empower some of the most vulnerable women in the world shows a fundamental disdain for women’s health and their lives,” said Dawn Laguens. “This would be putting an arsonist in charge of the fire department.”

Laguens ripped Nance for her organization’s website referring to the authorization of the Office of Global Women’s Issues as a “wasteful and unnecessary idea.”

“Under Penny Nance’s leadership, the anti-women’s health organization Concerned Women for America called the authorization of the very same Office of Global Women’s Issues a ‘wasteful and unnecessary idea,” the release reads.

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Laguens charged that Nance is just the latest effort from the Trump administration to clamp down on women’s rights.

“Trump is stacking his administration with officials who are fundamentally opposed to women’s health and rights, who don’t believe in birth control, and go so far as to hold a minor hostage in order to prevent her from seeking a legal abortion,” she said.

In an email to The Hill, Nance disputed Planned Parenthood’s claim that she opposes birth control, accusing the organization of lying about her views on the issue.

“Neither Concerned Women for America nor I have ever taken a position against birth control but instead, like most Americans, draw a bright line between birth control, which prohibits conception, and abortion or abortion-inducing drugs, which end life. Planned Parenthood once again lied,” Nance wrote in an email.

This article was updated after it incorrectly attributed remarks from CWA’s website to Penny Nance.