It's an early Christmas for Republicans. Tax reform has passed, which means the Obama-era individual mandate has officially been eliminated. Jacqueline Ayers, Director of Legislative Affairs at Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund, joins Cheddar to discuss how the new bill will impact women's health.
Planned Parenthood believes attacks on health coverage have no place in any legislation, especially not in a tax bill. Ayers explains how the move could result in 13 million people losing access to healthcare coverage. Thanks to the ACA, nearly 10 million women gained coverage, and the number of uninsured women was cut nearly by half. This bill threatens to reverse that progress.
Ayers talks about what Planned Parenthood will do as soon as this legislation is signed. The organization worries most about low-income women, who most likely won't voluntarily sign up for healthcare unless they're forced to, because of the cost.
Palestinians in the sealed-off Gaza Strip are scrambling to find safety, as Israeli strikes demolish entire neighborhoods, hospitals run low on supplies and a power blackout is expected within hours.
The U.S. has already begun delivering critically needed munitions and military equipment to Israel, and the State Department now says that at least 11 American citizens have been killed in the weekend Hamas attacks on Israel.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom rejected a bill on Sunday that would have made free condoms available to all public high school students, arguing it was too expensive for a state with a budget deficit of more than $30 billion.
