An anti-choice Democratic state lawmaker lost his primary battle to a progressive candidate this week, and Ivanka Trump clarified that her father’s new paid-maternity plan wasn’t only meant for “mothers in recovery.”

Anti-Choice Democratic Rhode Island House Majority Leader Ousted by Progressive in Primary

Rhode Island House Majority Leader John DeSimone, an anti-choice Democrat, lost his primary battle Tuesday to pro-choice progressive candidate Marcia Ranglin-Vassell.

Ranglin-Vassell, who was endorsed by the Rhode Island Progressive Democrats of America and Planned Parenthood Votes! Rhode Island PAC, received 50.6 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s Democratic primary to DeSimone’s 49.4 percent. The victory came down to just 17 votes.

After a Friday recount, Ranglin-Vassell maintained her win and picked up an additional four votes, according to the Providence Journal. The results have not yet been certified by the state’s election board.

DeSimone co-sponsored several pieces of anti-choice legislation, such as a failed ban on so-called partial-birth abortions and a failed “informed consent” bill.

The Rhode Island Right to Life Committee expressed disappointment at the loss of “very dear pro-life [friend] in the [person] of incumbent Representative and House Majority Leader John DeSimone” in a Wednesday statement. The group noted that the night’s losses had left it “a bit weary and our PAC funds are completely depleted.”

Though Democrats dominate Rhode Island’s legislature, the state has seen many attacks on abortion access and received a failing grade from reproductive rights advocates NARAL Pro-Choice America in the group’s annual report card for reproductive rights.

According to WPRI, “in Rhode Island–which amended its constitution in 1986 to explicitly rule out a right to abortion–only about one-third of state legislators are publicly pro-choice, and many Democrats are avowedly pro-life.”

Rhode Island Working Families, a progressive political group, lauded the night of victories for progressives in a statement posted to the organization’s Facebook page.

“Last night was a huge night for champions of working families’ priorities,” said Georgia Hollister Isman, state director of the organization. Pointing to other candidates endorsed by the group, “Each of these folks took the fight to their opponents on $15 an hour minimum wage, paid sick days and other working families priorities.”

“The message these victories sends is clear—voters are hungry for bold progressive policy,” the statement continued.

Ivanka Trump: GOP Nominee’s Paid-Maternity Benefit Just for “Mothers in Recovery”

Ivanka Trump clarified that her father’s paid-maternity proposal was meant for “mothers in recovery,” during an interview with Cosmopolitan.

Speaking with Prachi Gupta by phone on Wednesday about her father’s recently introduced plan to provide paid maternity leave to new mothers, Trump said the proposal “takes huge advancement and obviously, for same-sex couples as well, there’s tremendous benefit here to enabling the mother to recover after childbirth.”

When Gupta followed up by asking about how the benefit would apply to same-sex couples, Trump said those marriages would be impacted the same way if there was a “mother who has given birth” and a couple was legally married, going on to dismiss the suggestion that men in a same-sex marriage wouldn’t get the same treatment when adopting children:

OK, so when it comes to same-sex—

So it’s meant to benefit, whether it’s in same-sex marriages as well, to benefit the mother who has given birth to the child if they have legal married status under the tax code.

Well, what about gay couples, where both partners are men?

The policy is fleshed out online, so you can go see all the elements of it. But the original intention of the plan is to help mothers in recovery in the immediate aftermath of childbirth.

So I just want to be clear that, for same-sex adoption, where the two parents are both men, they would not be receiving special leave for that because they don’t need to recover or anything?

Well, those are your words, not mine. [Laughs.] Those are your words. The plan, right now, is focusing on mothers, whether they be in same-sex marriages or not.

Trump claimed that the details of the maternity leave proposal and how it related to LGBTQ couples were “fleshed out online,” but the campaign’s fact sheet on the Republican presidential nominee’s child-care plan fails to get into specifics when it comes to the issue. The proposal on maternity leave makes no mention of the how the benefit would apply to LGBTQ families, and the plan devotes just two lines to it: 

Q: Will Same-Sex Couples Receive The Benefits?

The benefits would be available in the same way that the IRS currently recognizes same-sex couples: if the marriage is recognized under state law, then it is recognized under federal law.

Donald Trump has already made it clear that he opposes marriage equality, and has said he would “strongly consider” nominating justices to the Supreme Court who would overrule its landmark decision legalizing same-sex marriage. He has voiced some support for same-sex couples receiving the same benefits that married opposite-sex couples have, but isn’t clear how his positions would play out should he be elected.

Iowa Rep. Steve King (R) weighed in on Trump’s child-care plan and how LGBTQ families might fit into it. King told CNN’s Chris Cuomo during an appearance on New Day that the “proposal about supporting mothers and fathers and families and encouraging more babies in this country, that is good.”

When asked whether he would “include the LGBT community” in that, King said: “I want to respect all people but I want to promote the natural family, Chris, and I think that’s the most wholesome thing that we can do.”

“The natural family is a man and woman joined together hopefully in holy matrimony blessed by God with children,” King said.

What Else We’re Reading

Rewire attended the conservative Values Voter Summit, where Trump and his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R), spoke.

Trump thanked the “really, really good executives” at a water treatment facility in Flint, Michigan during a trip to the city this week.

“Trump’s call for a flood of poll watchers could disrupt some voting places,” reported Patrick G. Lee for ProPublica.

The Huffington Post reported that Trump donated to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) dark money group, then lied about it.

“Native Americans in Nevada will have to travel almost 100 miles round-trip to vote,” reported ThinkProgress.

Delaware’s “former secretary of Labor won the Democratic primary for Rep. John Carney’s at-large House seat Tuesday night, and is likely to be the first woman and first African-American the First State sends to Congress,” reported Roll Call.