When The Curmudgeon cried uncle recently and went to see his family doctor about the shoulder pain that had been bothering him for oh, about four months, she quickly diagnosed it as tendinitis of the rotator cuff, said he did not need x-rays or an MRI – she knows he wants to avoid this whenever possible because after radiation treatment and the constant CAT scans that follow such a thing he already glows slightly in the dark – and offered three courses of action.
She could give him some exercises to do and see if they help.
He could go to physical therapy and let someone else give him exercises to see if they help.
Or she could give him a shot of cortisone and put him out of his misery.
The Curmudgeon liked that approach: he came to her with a problem and she laid out his options and offered to send him to the next step along the way if that was what he chose.
She laid out ALL of his options and helped him pursue the option of his choice.
Yeah, so, what’s the point?
The point is that the Trump administration recently announced changes in how it will distribute Title X federal family planning money – changes that will prevent family planning providers from counseling their clients about all of their options.
When women go to a family planning facility for family planning assistance, someone there presents the various options available to them depending on their individual situation and needs. The conversation may touch on sexually transmitted diseases but it’s usually about birth control options – and other options when it’s too late to talk about birth control. Among the options are abstinence, different types of birth control, having and keeping a baby, giving a baby up for adoption, and abortion. If women express interest in any of these options, family planning sites typically give them further information about the services they seek and how to get them. All of these options, it’s important to note, are legal in this country and have been now for many years.
But now the Trump administration has proposed establishing a new rule that calls for any facility that provides further information about one of those options – abortion, naturally – to become ineligible for Title X federal family planning money.
Even though abortion is, of course, completely legal.
The target, of course, primarily being Planned Parenthood.
Because once again, the people who repeatedly insist that they want to get government out of the lives of its citizens are demanding yet again the right to burrow into the vaginas of its female citizens.
The hypocrisy – and the lunacy – never end.
Crossing Against the Light: 