Fox News Is Outraged That Planned Parenthood Called Out A Female GOP Candidate For Policies That May Hurt Women

Fox News attacked Planned Parenthood Action Fund for acknowledging that 2016 Republican hopeful Carly Fiorina's policy positions may threaten women's health, suggesting that her positions could not harm women because Fiorina is female.

Fox & Friends co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck took issue with a Planned Parenthood Action Fund poll that asked “which GOP presidential contender is the worst for women's health” because it included a female candidate, Carly Fiorina. On the May 21 edition of the program, Hasselbeck wondered, “How is a female candidate a threat to women?” before suggesting even conducting such a poll on the election's impact on healthcare policy was inappropriate because Planned Parenthood receives government grants.

Hasselbeck steered clear of addressing Fiorina's actual policy stances, many of which would disproportionately harm women.

Fiorina has pushed to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which greatly improves women's access to health care, claiming that it “does not solve problems -- it creates them.” She supported a dangerous ban on abortions after 20-weeks so extreme even Republican congresswomen opposed it. Running for U.S. Senate in 2010, Fiorina said that she would "absolutely" repeal Roe v. Wade if given the opportunity.

She has opposed policies to address the gender pay gap, disputing the necessity of the Paycheck Fairness Act, and repeatedly objected to efforts to raise the minimum wage, which would greatly benefit the nearly two-thirds of minimum wage earners who are women and help close the gender pay gap.