GOP war on women is going nuclear

With conservative Republicans in control of all three branches of government, the GOP war on women is about to go nuclear.

Abortion has been the main battlefield for half a century, but now even contraception is eyed with disdain.

Tom Price, President-elect Donald Trump’s Health and Human Services secretary, has said “not one” woman has trouble affording it — a statement so patently untrue that it qualifies as a lie: 55 percent of women age 18-35 have difficulty affording birth control. Millions of working women and men have trouble finding enough money to feed the kids they have, let alone buy contraception.

Price believes employers should be able to not only deny health coverage for birth control but to fire women who use it. (Don’t ask how they’re supposed to know.)

As to equal pay for equal work? Not in this administration.

We once hoped women would resist these affronts, which mainly endanger the poor. Rich women can pay for The Pill and fly to Sweden for an abortion on a whim. This is how it was before Roe v. Wade.

But enough women voted GOP to elect Trump — a man who brags about sexual assault, bullies young girls by name on Twitter and disdains anything female that doesn’t meet beauty pageant standards. So it will take both men and women to repel this attack — people across the nation who share true family values grounded solidly in respect for women.

At the heart of the struggle is Planned Parenthood.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the macho cabal emerging from the weird crucible of Trump Tower all want to de-fund Planned Parenthood, which gets $500 million a year. But by law, none of that federal money — zero — pays for abortions. Which by the way comprise just 3 percent of what Planned Parenthood does.

The money is for health care, especially family planning, for nearly 3 million low-income women. It goes for 500,000 breast exams and 400,000 Pap tests a year, saving the lives of tens of thousands of women. It contributes greatly to stopping unintended pregnancies, which cost taxpayers more than $10 billion every year. Contraceptives substantially reduce the number of abortions, a value virtually all Americans share.

Critics say the $500 million could be diverted to women’s clinics that do not offer abortion. That’s absurd. Planned Parenthood has nearly 1,000 health centers in all 50 states. No comparable agencies exist to do this work.

Planned Parenthood Mar Monte alone schedules about 8,000 health care visits per week in Northern California and Nevada. If it disappeared, more than 240,000 patients would lose access to this type of preventive health care, the kind that saves public money.

The GOP war on women no longer is just a catch phrase. Donald Trump’s team makes it painfully real — like the imminent wars on the environment, clean energy, air and water, and Social Security and Medicare, all critical fronts on which to fight.

But none cuts to the core of our values more deeply than the assault on American women’s right to control their own bodies.

Who will stand up to it?

Planned Parenthood has nearly 1,000 health centers in all 50 states. No comparable agencies exist to do this work.