Sheryl Sandberg & Elaine Wynn Each Donate $1 Million to Planned Parenthood | Dems Introduce HER Act Bill

Two powerhouse -- Sheryl Sandberg and Elaine Wynn -- women have each made $1 million donations to Planned Parenthood. Sandberg has been criticized for not speaking out forcefully enough on core women's issues, especially issues that impact poor women.  The Facebook COO has apologized for not speaking out about the women's marches on January 21, 2017.

Stopping by her Facebook page today, Sandberg has posted a ONE video about poverty being sexist. 

Sandberg's donation came just days after President Trump reinstated an expanded version of the Mexico City policy, aka 'the Global Gag Rule', a decision that threatens to topple family planning goals worldwide. 

“We don’t have to guess ― we know what this [rule] will do,” wrote Sandberg in a Facebook post. “The last time the global gag rule was in effect, research showed more women who lost access to contraception had unwanted pregnancies and abortion rates doubled. The best way to prevent abortion is through more family planning services, not fewer... Women’s rights are human rights – and there is no more basic right than health care. Women around the world deserve our support.”

That’s why I support passage of the Global Health, Empowerment and Rights (HER) Act to reverse this order and allow health organizations to freely provide full health advice and services to women.

Women’s rights are human rights – and there is no more basic right than health care. Women around the world deserve our support."

Related: Melinda & Bill Gates Sound Alarm Around Devastating Impact of Mexico City Plan's New Restrictions AOC Women's News

Democrats Seek Permanent Repeal

The HER Act bill was introduced in the House of Representatives by New York Democrat Congresswoman Nita M. Lowey, writes New York Magazine. Democratic New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen is sponsoring the bill that would permanently revoke the Mexico City policy, which was first enacted in 1984, by President Ronald Reagan. Two Republican Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)

“[The Global Gag Rule] has not decreased the rate of abortions and unwanted pregnancies under previous Republican administrations,” Lowey said in a statement. “In fact, its severe limits on access to family-planning services will dramatically erode progress on maternal and child health, and the policy will weaken the effectiveness of our foreign assistance by making ineligible some of the most capable and effective international partners.”

It's not expected that the bill will pass in a Republican-controlled Congress, but we must do everything possible to inform Americans about the devastating impact of the new restrictions on women and families. 

Sandberg & Women's Marches Inspired Elaine Wynn

Inspired by Sheryl Sandberg's $1 million donation to Planned Parenthood, Elaine Wynn has made a similar donation. Wynn said her decision was also impacted by the Women's Marches all over America the day after Trump's inauguration as president. 

 “As a woman, a mother, and a grandmother, I’m proud to do what I can to help protect access to reproductive health care,” the billionaire said in an emailed statement to Fortune Magazine. 

Wynn is the co-founder of Mirage Resorts and Wynn Resorts, will split her donation between the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood of the Ricky Mountains, the affiliate that serves Las Vegas, where Wynn resides part-time. 

Town & Country recently interviewed the woman who counts Warren Buffett, Maria Shriver, and Duke University's Mike Krzyzewski as confidants and has homes in Southern California, Sun Valley and New York, as well as her apartment in Vegas. The twice-married to Steve Wynn of Wynn Resorts fame can do about anything she wants to do with her life. Yet she likes rolling up her sleeves as president of the Nevada State Board of Education where she revels in solving questions of school reform by putting her own millions into the pot of better education for America's young people. 

Elaine Wynn, 74, has a more glamorous venture in development, now that she serves as a powerhouse leader of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), where she has pledged $50 million on a new building project. Wynn also supports the Smith Center for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas.

The New York Times profiled Elaine Wynn in August 2015, writing:

For an interview, which took place in a museum boardroom, Ms. Wynn discussed publicly for the first time her record-smashing $142.4 million acquisition in 2013 of a Francis Bacon triptych of the painter Lucian Freud. She also spoke about the division of art assets in her 2010 divorce, the financial terms of which have already been scrutinized for their impact on Wynn Resorts, a company that she co-founded.

Wearing a sleeveless tangerine Fendi dress and looking a decade younger than her 73 years, Ms. Wynn called the Bacon portrait of Freud a work of “extraordinary power and beauty” and a natural companion to two paintings already in her collection: one by Bacon, purchased post-divorce, and a major self-portrait by Freud, “The Painter Surprised by a Naked Admirer,” bought beforehand, in 2005.