In what seems like an extremely overwrought satire, the Department of Health and Human Services recently canceled over $38 million in grants to programs that address infant mortality, maternal health, community cancer screenings, and other things of actual importance, in favor of programs that prioritize firm penises, fertility, and exercise.
Because, you know, who cares if the infants die or mothers die or the mother strangles her children as a result of postpartum depression? What really matters is how much a bro can lift and how his sperms are doing.
These programs had been funded by the Office of Minority Health, which the Trump administration tried to eliminate last year on the grounds that they thought it was “DEI” and therefore bad. They’re still around, but they did lose 40 percent of their budget and a significant number of their employees.
Via NOTUS:
Administration officials wrote to grantees that going forward, awards should directly advance “reducing overmedicalization in health care by addressing the root causes of infertility” including hormonal imbalances, endometriosis, uterine fibroids, low sperm count, low testosterone levels and erectile dysfunction as root causes.
Yes, because the only issues with hormonal issues, endometriosis and uterine fibroids is how they affect fertility. Not, you know, the many other health problems caused by hormonal issues and the serious physical pain caused by both endometriosis and fibroids.
The administration wrote to several grantees working on maternal health that while “maternal and infant health are important issues,” their work “does not advance minority health with regards to OMH’s current priority areas.”
One of those grantees, the Denver-based nonprofit Illuminate Colorado, sends nurses to the homes of minority women in the days after they give birth, checking to make sure they’re able to care for themselves and their newborns.
“It was news to us that maternal and infant fatality prevention wasn’t a priority,” said the group’s co-executive director Jillian Fabricius.
Yes, especially since the US has the highest maternal mortality rate of any high income nation on Earth.
There is a certain irony in the fact that the Trump administration is so dead set on killing programs that address the health issues of women and minorities, given that they are so obsessed with the fact that the rates of ADHD and autism have increased (the Office of Minority Health has also historically tracked disparities in neurodevelopmental disorders). Why? Because one of the reasons for that increase is that, for a very long time, both of these conditions were largely only ever studied (or diagnosed) in white boys, without any consideration that they might present differently in different populations. Which they actually do. ADHD, in particular, presents very differently in girls and women, who are more likely to have what is now called “inattentive type” ADHD, and are more likely to “zone out” than be hyperactive (partly because they’re less likely to feel like they can “get away” with hyperactivity or misconduct in general). They are more likely to be initially diagnosed with anxiety and depression as a result. This is also the case for Asian populations, who are, across the gender spectrum, also often less likely to be able to get away with misbehaving and thus frequently underdiagnosed. In Black boys, ADHD has also been historically undiagnosed, with symptoms being diagnosed instead as Oppositional Defiant Disorder. This is very seriously problematic, as ODD is considered a precursor to Conduct Disorder, which itself is considered a precursor to Antisocial Personality Disorders and other personality disorders in general. So it’s as close as we come to saying that someone is a “born criminal.” Black females with ADHD or autism are still among the least likely cohorts to be diagnosed due to both racial and gender biases, because, whether the Trump administration likes it or not … intersectionality is real.
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This is just one example of why diversity is an important consideration in health. It is an important consideration even in the things that the Trump administration is willing to prioritize, as Black women are up to three times more likely to get uterine fibroids than are white women.
This is not a political correctness thing, this is not about anyone’s feelings, other than the feelings of white men who apparently cannot emotionally handle not being considered the default for all things. This is why the Office of Minority Health is so important and why it is not traditionally run by adherents of manosphere streamers who think the only issues of real importance are working out, their boners, and pushing women to have more babies, regardless of whether or not said babies make it out alive.
Still, as much as I’d like to put all of the “blame” for this nonsense on the toxic masculinity of the Trump administration, there’s also another, possibly even more insidious reason for these “priorities.” By focusing on “treating root causes” and “exercise,” they are putting the onus for health care on the individual. Health problems can then be seen as a righteous punishment for failing to take personal responsibility for one’s health, thereby reducing or eliminating any onus upon society to take care of the sick and undermining the concept of health care as a human right.
Well, with the noted exception of boners and the sperms, as we clearly have a societal obligation to ensure their abundance.
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It says more about RFKJr and MAGAts/MAHA as a whole than anything. Your plumbing problems shouldn't become society's, sad limp dick "alphas."
OT: So, is Zombie Rigor Tortoise alive or dead? He's been in a superposition of states for 87 days now, right?