It wasn't enough that Trump picked misogynists like (the now ousted) Tom Price or anti-abortionists like Charmaine Yoest to be in his administration. It also wasn't enough that Trump kept up with every republican president since Ronald Reagan by implementing the global gag rule that forbids overseas organizations who receive American funds from using THEIR OWN money on abortion law reform, procedures, information, or referrals. That was just in January of 2017.   The sexual assault enthusiast who routinely and loudly disrespects women (usually black ones) on twitter has been doing quite a bit in the past fourteen months to make life for women harder than it has to be. Here are the top eight ways. 

1. He Rolled Back the 2014 Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Order

In March 2017 Trump rolled back this Obama-era policy that got rid of forced arbitration clauses in employee contracts. These clauses made it hard for women to come forward about sexual harassment and gender discrimination in the workplace. The policy also required companies with federal contracts to observe paycheck transparency to ensure fair pay between the sexes. Hm. Why would Trump want to get rid of either of these things, unless he's trying to make it more unpleasant for women in the workplace? 

2. Withholding Title X Funds

In April 2017, Trump signed a bill that allows states to withhold Title X family planning funds from providers that also have abortion related care. Before Obama, THIRTEEN states withheld these funds from clinics. Despite the fact that the money was to be used on non-abortion services (because the Hyde Amendment makes it illegal for the money to be used on abortions.) 

Related Read: Once Again, Trump Is Trying To Defund Planned Parenthood 

3. De-Prioritizing Transwomen

In June 2017, the Department of Commerce removed gender identity and sexual orientation from the list of protected categories under the equal employment policy, marginalizing transwomen even further and severely impacting their already poor unemployment rates. Two months later, Trump placed a now defunct ban on trans-people joining the military. 

4. Teen Pregnancy? Who Cares! 

In July 2017, Trump's administration slashed two years of funding from a 5-year grant dedicated to teen pregnancy prevention research. Perhaps this is where Chief of Staff for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health, Valerie Huber comes in. She's the abstinence-only education junkie that Trump personally selected for a position of power. By the way, numerous studies have shown that abstinence-only education does NOT decrease rates of teen pregnancy. 

5. Bye Bye, Data

In August 2017, Trump shut down an Obama-era policy that would make businesses collect pay data by gender, race, and ethnicity to determine who has pay inequalities. This of course will make America great I'm sure. 

6. Sexual Assault on College Campuses Has Been De-Prioritized

In September 2017, the hilariously unqualified Betsy DeVos ended Title IX, an Obama-era guidance that made college campuses take sexual assault allegations more seriously. Trump fan-boys on every campus rejoiced.

7. Civil Rights Protections? Forget About Em!

In October 2017, Jeff Sessions stopped civil rights protections for transpeople and instructed law enforcement agencies to prioritize religious freedom violation claims over concerns regarding women, minorities, and the LGBTQ community. This is of course the same month that the Health and Human Services Department made it possible for employers to drop coverage of birth control from health plans on the basis of religious and moral objections. 

8. The Roy Moore Thing

In a move that surprised nobody with sense, in December 2017 Donald Trump endorsed a child predator to the senate. That same month he also banned the CDC from using terms like fetus, diversity, evidence based, and transgender in their 2018 budget. 

With the Russia scandal, racism, and blatant pocket-lining, it's bad enough. But all of these things I just listed have really made me sick to my stomach as a woman. This is why I stopped watching The Handmaid's Tale. I'm already living in dystopia. When VP Mike Pence said that abortion was going to "end in our time", he means legal abortion. Abortion will continue (as it has for centuries), but will be much more dangerous. The Trump administration is bringing us back to a reality where the majority of American women will be forced to seek out dangerous illegal abortion providers, to self-abort, or to raise a child they cannot afford or do not want. The threat of restricting access to affordable contraception also looms. People may not remember, but after abortion and the birth control pill became available, more women than ever before graduated from college and built careers in spaces that were traditionally male. It is clear that the Trump Administration is trying to force women into traditional roles of motherhood.

Also, here's some extra news.

Mississippi is currently passing a bill that makes abortions after 15 weeks illegal. The state only has ONE abortion provider, and they are planning to sue. But should the bill be made into law, women (largely of color) will suffer in Mississippi. 

The bill also contains an important bit of misinformation: It claims that “the maternal health risks of undergoing an abortion are greater than the risks of carrying a pregnancy to term” in the second trimester of pregnancy. In reality, at every stage of pregnancy, an abortion is safer than continuing the pregnancy and giving birth, a fact that’s amplified by Mississippi’s sky-high maternal mortality rate, which ranks 40th in the nation. The state also ranks dead last when it comes to its unintended pregnancy rate, a seemingly obvious target for improvement for legislators concerned with abortion.

-Mississippi Has Passed a 15-Week Abortion Ban, the Country’s Most Severe Restriction (Christina Cauterucci)

References

• Trump's First Year Was Terrible For Women — Here's Why (Andrea Gonzalez Ramirez)
• 8 things Trump has done to hurt girls and women since taking office (Brittany Levine Beckman)
• Here's Everyone Who Has Left The Trump Administration (Andrea Gonzalez Ramirez)