Art from a deer~

they look like tiny red pandas…

Hey friend!

“The Dutch Government is planning to launch an international fund to finance access to birth control and abortion in developing countries, in order to fill the gap left after the Trump administration announced it would no longer fund any overseas aid organisations which discussed abortion.

“Banning abortions does not result in fewer abortions,” Dutch Trade and Development Minister Lilianne Ploumen said, according to Dutch news website NOS. “It leads to more irresponsible practices in back rooms and more maternal deaths.”

The World Health Organisation estimates that 22 million women experience unsafe abortions every year, the vast majority of whom are in developing countries. A 2008 report from the organisation estimated that nearly 50,000 women die from complications in such procedures annually.

Minister Ploumen said that the Trump administration’s decision risked undermining recent advances in women’s health.

“We must not let this happen,” she said.

“We need to compensate for this financial blow as much as possible, with a broad-based fund, where governments, businesses and civil society organizations can donate to - so that women can remain in control of their own bodies.”

The bill, which passed by a vote of 238–183, codifies the Hyde Amendment, a rule passed in 1976 that prohibits any taxpayer money from being used to fund abortions. What H.R. 7 will do, in effect, is cut off taxpayer funding to insurance plans that choose to cover abortion, even though those funds have been prohibited for use on abortion care ever since the Hyde Amendment was passed four decades ago. That’s why the bill’s title, “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act of 2017,” is misleading — it’s already illegal in the United States for federal tax dollars to be used to fund abortions.

guess what? this affects like, every insurance ever. even those of us who have good insurance like tricare. the hyde amendment already makes it impossible to get abortions in any tax-funded facility (like u.s. military treatment facilities anywhere in the world) UNLESS you can prove an imminent threat to the pregnant person’s life. now idk what kind of exceptions we are talking about (if any) with h.r. 7., but you really have to think about what sorts of reasons people have abortions. they’re not always choice or convenience (most of you know this but it bears repeating for the people in the back) but it’s okay if that is why you choose one. but sometimes there are time-sensitive emergencies and even medical professionals don’t treat them as such.

this means termination of ectopic pregnancies may not be covered until something ruptures, which could kill you pretty damned fast. i had to wait two days for blood work to verify that i was at risk with high enough hormone levels before my insurance would allow me to get an abortion. another friend of mine was forced to carry her dead fetus because induction is considered abortion. she ended up getting a severe infection that threatened her life and eventually caused her to go into labor where she delivered a baby she already knew was dead. but this took weeks. and if you’re stationed in a country that outlaws abortion, you have absolutely no recourse unless you can get leave and afford to fly to another country (or find unsafe means like the marine who used the cleaning rod for her weapon on herself) .