... having been breathed out

Feeling pretty cynical & discouraged about the domestic gag rule announcement, or—not even the domestic gag rule announcement, not this one; not this time more than any other; it's not like I'm surprised; but feeling pretty cynical & discouraged about the political role of reproductive healthcare as this threat and bargaining chip perpetually held over the heads of women and all people with uteruses and the desire for control over their own lives, who then have to beg, borrow and cheat in order to try to get cis men to care about their humanity; feeling pretty cynical and discouraged about how every time this stupid rule is put back in place, which is done as a display of pure power and political clout, it abrogates bodily autonomy and the ability of particularly low-income people to shape their own futures; feeling pretty cynical and discouraged about how transparent the administration—any administration! pick one! my favorite was the Bush II administration which reinstated this rule on their first day in office!—is in their lack of any genuine moral principles or investment in lowering abortion rates or bettering the health or well-being of infants, let alone the parents of those infants if the parents of those infants aren't white people with a household income of $200,000 or more a year.

It was sort of my formative "shit is more fucked than you knew" moment, when I was working for Planned Parenthood and that Bush II edict came down; and every time it comes back around I am punched in the guts by it all over again, so. That happened today, which was cool.