In case you're somehow already over the "Mother of All Bombs" news, things are fucked on the domestic policy side today too. Donald Trump, who lost the popular vote by 2,864,974, has signed the Republicans' wet dream of a bill that won't actually do jack shit about preventing abortions, but will allow states to pull funding for preventive care services provided by organizations that also provide abortions—you know, like Planned Parenthood, aka the place that's likely provided health care to most women you know. Because The Handmaid's Tale isn't prescient. It's a blueprint conservatives have been working hard to carry out since abortion was legalized in 1973.
Here's the New York Times. Emphasis mine, because behold the true enemy of the Republicans. It's women being able to find out if they have cancer or an STI. Glad to see you have your priorities in line, gentlemen:
The measure nullifies a rule completed in the last days of the Obama administration that effectively barred state and local governments from withholding federal funding for family planning services related to contraception, sexually transmitted infections, fertility, pregnancy care, and breast and cervical cancer screening from qualified health providers — regardless of whether they also performed abortions. The new measure cleared Congress last month with Vice President Mike Pence casting the tiebreaking vote in the Senate.
This is horrible news for low-income women who rely on organizations like Planned Parenthood for their basic healthcare needs. It's also frustrating to see the GOP yet again passing legislation that contributes to the misconception that federal funds cover abortion and must be stopped—lol no, this hasn't been true since 1977, when a cowardly politician sold Congress on the Hyde Amendment, which bans federal funding for abortion, a move that by design cuts off abortion access for the nation's poorest women.
(Just to rub salt in the wound, nullifying the Hyde Amendment was a priority in Hillary Clinton's reproductive rights campaign platform. It's among many of the reasons I happily voted for Clinton, who won the popular vote by 2,864,974.)
Because I can't just leave you with this demoralizing news, Northwest abortion fund The CAIR Project is participating in a social media visibility campaign on April 18 with the National Network of Abortion Funds in conjunction with their annual bowl-a-thon fundraiser, putting one of my favorite things to shout into a meme:
Shout it from the rooftops.
After all, my taxes pay for the "president's""Mother of All Bombs." It's about time women were extended the same basic courtesy as a goddamn death machine, don'tcha think?