So tell me, what's wrong with this picture?

Representative Susan Phillips, of Kansas City, sponsored (and pushed through) a proposal that cut Missouri's funding of contraceptives, as a statement against abortion.

WTF!?!?!?!?

Allow me to quote from the end of the article:
Rep. Rachel Storch, a St. Louis Democrat, pointed to a study that found the teenage birth rate in Missouri dropped 32 percent from 1991 to 2002. The drop was attributed to wider availability of contraceptives.

Now then, you've just cut Medicare and Medicaid funding in the state, to the point of lawsuits, you're cutting abortion access as much as you possibly can, you're cutting social welfare and aid to low-income families right and left, and now those same poor families can't get contraceptives?

Does your election to the Missouri House automatically cancel out your understanding of cause and effect? Or do you really believe the godder's "cross your legs and think of Jeezus" just-say-no program will keep those women from having more babies than they can support?

And the best part (again, quoting the article below): But Phillips said she was comfortable with the change because the group Missouri Right to Life and the Missouri Catholic Conference supported it.

Jesus H Christ on a stick. That makes it all better, doesn't it?






I probably wouldn't be quite this pissed, had I not read The Handmaid's Tale in one sitting Sunday night. That's had my feathers ruffled all week.

( As usual, article archived below )

So much for my productivity today

Got things watered, puttered a bit, then we sat down to eat lunch and order more trees for the orchard here at school. That turned into a quest for a "Yellow Glass" sweet cherry*, and that led me here, and I somehow lost a couple of hours.




* It's a variety Donna saw mentioned in a KSU publication on small fruit varieties for Kansas. It's well recommended, but finding it--yeesh. We found ONE catalog source, a small family-run fruit nursery, where it's sold out. Bugger.