It Is What It Is

Rosie: 

Rosie: 

Rosie: 

It may just be me, I don’t know. But every single time I see this on my dash or on someone’s blog or anywhere else, I kind of just breathe a sigh of relief. That’s one more person who cares. That’s one more person who doesn’t hate me.

Because it means so much, especially when all the media is spewing out is that I’m a terrible person and no one wants people like me near them. It means so much because I’m tired of people who won’t sit next to me in class, or who choose to join the longer line at the grocery store because they don’t want to be beside me and my family. It means so much when I have to lift my head any time someone says the words Islam or Muslim because I’m scared that they’ll say something that’ll hurt, when I have to pay attention to the news because who knows what so and so is saying now, who knows which of my people are being attacked now, who knows what’s going to happen to me now.

It means so much because I’ve been given the idea that the world is against me. And a huge part of it may be, but at least I’ve been reminded that some of it, just a small group of people, acknowledges that I’m a person too. That people like me are just that, people.

Y'all, it’s only Day 1, and things are looking GRAVE AF. Today Trump re-instated a law that will kill thousands of women – and I am not exaggerating here. He did this 2 DAYS after the women’s march, surrounded by a group of smirking old dudes. Lovely. The policy is called the “Global Gag Rule”.

Here’s what you need to know:

The Global Gag Rule bans health organizations around the world from receiving US funding if they so much as *mention* abortion. The organizations are also banned from providing abortion services – even though other funding sources, like donations, are used to pay for them. (The Helms Amendment bans the use of US funds for abortion abroad.)  The GGR is not a budget cut, it is a special stipulation for funding targeting reproductive health organizations specifically.

As you might imagine, this policy puts international health centers in a very difficult position. They either lose funding for things like STI screenings and birth control, or they leave patients seeking an abortion to do it on their own.

We saw the devastating impact of this policy when President Bush signed it into effect in 2001. Take Ethiopia, where unsafe abortion is the second-leading cause of death (after HIV/AIDS). Organizations there decided they could not turn women away, and thusly experienced a massive birth control supply crisis as punishment. 16 other countries also saw US donations of contraceptives and condoms abruptly cut off.

I know it’s not their thing, but the GOP desperately needs to put on their thinking caps here. What happens when you cut off birth control access? Oh yes! More people get pregnant! And what happens when you cut off safe access to abortion services? Oh, right. People die. Every year 50,000 women die from a lack of access to safe abortion. The last time the GGR went into effect, the abortion rate INCREASED. There are literally 90 katrillion studies showing that banning abortion *does not stop abortion from happening*, it just means they happen in dangerous conditions. That’s a fact. And, at least to this chick, facts still matter.

Then there are the effects that GGR has on HIV/AIDS prevention efforts. In some of the communities affected by the rule, HIV infects as many as 1 in 4 people.

Overall, this is a law that has well documented effects of death and destruction. On what fking planet is this policy “pro life”? I’m pissed, naturally. It’s unbelievable (well, not really) that our government would put women around the world in this much danger FOR LITERALLY NO REASON. Seriously – WTF?? I will not stand for it, and I hope you’ll join me in sending a vocal NOPE to our leaders.

This week, Senator Gillibrand and Senator Shaheen are introducing bi-partisan legislation to permanently REPEAL the Global Gag Rule. They are calling it “HER Act”. It’s unclear to me what is possible given that we have a 1-party government now, but given that lives are on the line, I am going to do what I can to fight back at every turn. 

Which means his administration will likely be doing this for any government agency that spreads any news, information, or jokes they don’t like.

Which means his administration will likely be doing this for any government agency that spreads any news, information, or jokes they don’t like.