Before we even had time to put on a clean pair of undies and throw back some coffee, the Trump administration announced the horrifying news: they want to cut Title X funding from ALL CLINICS who provide abortion, make abortion referrals or mention abortion in their literature. This would force nearly 4,000 health care providers to choose between receiving federal funding and lying to their patients who ask about abortion. It’s a nightmare. If YOU have had a pap smear or get your birth control at an affordable clinic that also provides abortion care, it’s probably because they get Title X funding to make that possible! Maybe you should call your congressperson, and let them know what this ruling would mean for you! We will be following this story as it develops, so stay tuned!
Statement from Lizz on Title X: “The defundamentalists in this administration have yet again put dangerous, ignorant and arbitrary requirements on healthcare providers. Putting a gag on what healthcare doctors at Title X clinics can recommend for their patients is putting them at serious risk, especially poor women and women of color.”
On the GOOD side this week, South Bend, INDIANA said NO to a FAKE clinic we warned you about that was trying to open up beside a new (and very real) Whole Woman’s Health Clinic before the real clinic even opened. And that net neutrality bill in the Senate that we explained was vital to reproductive rights passed!
Even more news on the DOWN side, those monsters screeching outside of clinics are still there even after we gave the patients who they so mercilessly harass a chance to respond to their nastiness. And those gateway-to-Gilead laws designed to make abortion rights inaccessible that we highlighted for you are still being pushed in state across the country.
It seems like everybody in the world has been talking about the Royal Wedding, so you KNOW we found a way to make it about the patriarchy! When she gets married, Meghan Markle will become Her Royal Highness, Princess Henry of Wales. Taking his name? She’s taking his FIRST name, for Chrissakes!
Here’s one massive change to what is quite literally the Patriarchy—if the happy couple have a daughter, she will be 7th in line for the crown. In 2013, they changed the rules and made the succession to the throne, well, gender fluid. Specifically, a person’s gender now “does not give that person, or that person’s descendants, precedence over any other person.” There’s still the whole “hereditary nobility” thing, but at least it’s no longer overtly sexist.
So even institutions that date to the Dark Ages are emerging from the Dark Ages. And we in the Former Colonies are fighting to avoid getting sucked back into the patriarchal darkness by marauders with anti-choice agendas.
So if you’re into the Royal Wedding, have a fairytale time. At LPJL we’ll still be here monitoring reality for you.
