Definitely what Jesus would do
Quick question: Does this sound like healthcare to you?
Gov. Mike Pence announced a $3.5 million contract Monday with the anti-abortion organization Real Alternatives. [...]
The stated purpose of the Pennsylvania-based Real Alternatives is to "actively promote childbirth instead of abortion." [...]
[Pence] called the move an "important step" for the health of women and families.
In the contract, Real Alternatives is bringing resources to existing pregnancy centers and adoption and social services agencies "so more women can be served and fewer abortions chosen."
Of course it doesn't sound like healthcare to you, because you are not a "pro-life" idiot, like Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R-As If Couldn't Have Guessed). You know that telling ladies to "choose life" is in no way equivalent to, say, smearing their pap holes to make sure they don't have cancer in their ladyparts. Or squeezing their boobies or prescribing their contraception for sexing and not-sexing purposes. Or any of the number of things that constitute actual lady healthcare provided by actual medical staff who went to school to learn how ladyparts work.
This group, Real Alternatives, which appears to be your typical crisis pregnancy center , does not do any of that. If you're worried about STDs, the group can refer you to a clinic that can test your cooter, but what you really need to know is how to say no to doing sex in the first place. Because we all know how effective "abstinence" is.
Think you might be pregnant? Well, Real Alternatives apparently doesn't employ any medical professionals to examine you, but it will provide you with a free stick to piss on and "a referral to a health care provider to confirm the results." Real Alternatives can also help you figure out how to tell your boyfriend he's gonna be a daddy -- and how to resist any attempts to "coerce" you into not having that baby.
Oh and if you're homeless, well, Real Alternatives can help you find a "temporary shelter" where you can crash until you pop that baby out, and also tell you about all the services available for to help out poor pregnant ladies who can't afford to feed or clothe or house themselves.
Funny thing, though. Guess where the $3.5 million is coming from?
The governor's office said the contract will be funded through existing monies from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program.
Cool! So the program that provides assistance to families in need will have less money to provide assistance to families in need so the state can instead invest in telling families in need to have more babies! What a fan-fucking-tastic plan! But maybe the state has a few million extra dollars to "actively promote childbirth" since Gov. Pence implemented "welfare reform" in 2014 because, as he explained:
“You know, it’s the old story,” he continued. “Give someone a fish, and they’ll eat for a day. Teach them to fish, they’ll eat for a lifetime. I think this is an idea whose time has come here in the state of Indiana.”
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So Gov. Pence is giving money to this "counseling" group -- that, again, does not actually provide any healthcare whatsoever but is somehow supposed to improve women's health, UH HUH -- to tell women that just because they're broke and homeless is no reason not to have that baby, because look at all these great programs to help them! Except that Gov. Pence made it that much harder to qualify for those programs because, come on, ladies, learn how to catch your own damn fish.
But hey, maybe with all those millions of dollars being taken from the mouths of Indiana's poorest residents and given to "pro-life" zealots, Real Alternatives could add a new program to counsel broke and homeless women on how to ask their boyfriends to teach them how to fish.
[ The Indy Channel ]
We live just over the northern border and consequently get our local news media from there, so I am regularly disgusted. (However, WVPE is a little gem of a public radio station.) Michigan has many faults, but it is a bastion of liberalism and intelligence in comparison. The awful things these people in power try to do are too numerous to mention, from selling out their little piece of Lake Michigan to BP, their piece of the toll road to an Australian company that later went bankrupt, and their education system to a company (Bush-connected) that has at least twice been paid to administer statewide testing that had to be retaken because of numerous errors - all paid for by tax payers.
Recently I stopped in a large grocery chain store on a Sunday (late afternoon) and placed 2 bottles of wine on the counter. Was told that NO alcohol could be sold on Sunday! You'd think they at least might have placed a warning sign over the huge wine and craft beer selection! (Actually, that was probably deliberate - if I would have seen it, I might have abandoned my cart full of other items and stomped out.) They pretend it's for religious reasons (so you don't come drunk to church, I guess), but no doubt it has to do with cutting into the revenue of their "state stores".
"Indiana Stealing $3.5 Million From Poors, Giving It To ‘Pro-Life’ Church Ladies"
Yeah, that's what the Teahadists mean when they preach about "an end times [happening now, according to Tea Party wingnuts] transfer of wealth from the wicked [you] to the 'righteous [them]." Here, let Mr. Cruz god-splain to ya, again, how this "transfer of wealth" is supposed to work (your tax dollars into the pockets of the Duggars and such like): http://www.democraticunderg...
Ron Paul's "Biblical Economics" speech at Faith and Freedom Coalition, in which Ayn Rand morphs into Jesus, video courtesy of CNN: https://www.youtube.com/wat...
Judge Napolitano explains further: https://www.youtube.com/wat...
This is who Ralph Nader wants the left to align itself with: the 'Tea Party' white supremacist-progressive alliance against Democrats (Ron and Ralph on Napolitano's show): https://www.youtube.com/wat...
Why are we shocked? Reminder: "we" allowed these people to elect themselves to public office in 2010 and again in 2014... because "both sides"? Not by miles and miles. Obama cuts faith-based initiatives; Teahadists in Congress restore it: http://thinkprogress.org/he...
I might also remind us that "progressives" were cheering on a couple of these 'Tea Party' scumbags (the twin fraud Pauls), because: stupid: http://www.theguardian.com/...
"According to the Christian Right, only the Bible and God can determine how our economic system is run."http://www.alternet.org/new...
Tools.