The Oklahoma State Department of Heath has just announced that it will end its WIC contract with the state’s Planned Parenthood affiliates, effectively cutting off the federal funding that the organization’s clinics rely on to provide health services to low-income women.
“We don’t like the idea of ‘killing babies.’ Therefore, we will cut off money for food for starving babies.” - Republican logic.
And now I want to burn things.
WHAT.
THIS IS LITERALLY TAKING FOOD FROM THE MOUTHS’ OF 5 YEAR OLDS, TODDLERS AND INFANTS. NOT TO MENTION THEIR PARENTS. I AM GOING TO SPIT ACID.
When I was a cashier at the local grocery store, most of the parents using WIC couldn’t even get goddamned APPLES. WIC provides a HUGE relief for families, but the allowance is fucking spartan. Most of the time you could get peanut butter OR lentils OR tuna, cheese but only if it’s something fairly plain, and most of the families that came through weren’t even given some damn bread even though it’s on the possible foods list. The average sale would be:
- a gallon and a half of milk
- a 16 oz. box of cereal
- dozen eggs
- one 18 oz. jar of peanut butter
- THAT’S IT
- SERIOUSLY
- THAT’S ALL
unless the family got formula, which let me fucking tell you in case you didn’t know, is absurdly expensive. It’s roughly $23 for a can, that lasts a week MAYBE, and adds up to about $100 (minimum!) a MONTH just to feed one baby.
“Oh just breastfeed then!” Listen, if people can’t shell out an extra $100 a month then I can bet they can’t afford a damn breast pump, let alone the time that goes into pumping and storing formula or a job that allows breaks to do so (if it even has a place to pump). Not every parent can breastfeed or pump, and not every parent can just BE THERE to breastfeed their baby without a pump or formula.
So yes, this is going to severely harm many families.
Fuck you, Oklahoma DOH.
BUT OH MY GOD, YOU GUYS, THERE’S NO “WAR ON WOMEN!”
(Source: skeptikhaleesi)
