So, since I stepped into the fray last night with my political polemic, and since tonight I watched the wonderful West Wing, with it's most vocabularific verbal jousting and witty rejoinders served up with weighty issues of the day, AND since the topic du jour on said TV drama was the Global Gag Rule on family planning clinics abroad which receive US dollars, wherein if they discuss -- and yes, I said discuss, not perform -- abortions, they are subject to losing ALL aid for their country... While in Real Life, last month, our PotUS extended that Gag Rule by making HIV/AIDS funding contingent upon doctors not even raising the possibility of abortion. Let's recap: Right Hand -- even talking about abortion is baaaad, we shouldn't support it, so let's take $$ for family planning and healthcare away from women and their children living in poverty so they won't even discuss it -- meet Left Hand -- freedom of speech and thought are basic tenets of our great nation, and upholding the right of healthcare professionals to advise their charges with all of the options available, even ones we might find repugnant, is a right we must support. You do not have to support abortion to support the right of a qualified medical provider to explain all of the options available to a woman.
Let me take this opportunity to go out on another ideological limb, since, really EVERYTHING is political, and remind you that March is International Women's Month. So run, don't walk, to your favorite organization and make a donation, a stand, and celebrate women. You can get write a letter to your US Representative (for Americans) here or make a donation here (everyone).
Need more information? May I recommend the following: Planned Parenthood, the Center for Reproductive Rights, Population Action International, National Organization for Women.
Don't even get me started on the environmental damage-and-devastation plotline West Wing explored tonight.
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