The Venn Diagram Of Abortion Ban States And States With Sh*t Social Safety Nets Is A Circle
We probably could have guessed that.
Since the dawn of the abortion debate, those of us who believe in reproductive rights have been patiently pointing out that the party that opposes abortion is the same party that only wants tax money going towards poor people in our country if it’s being used to send them off to kill other poor people in other countries. For years, however, because abortion was legal, Republicans were able to talk about the joys of forcing us to have babies against our will in the same breath as they decried “welfare mothers,” funding for education, child care, child health care, or increasing the minimum wage and other things that reduce the financial burden of parenthood.
There was no real conflict between wanting to force people to have children and not giving a flying fuck about children once they are born, because the former was still but a dream.
Now, however, things are a little different. But just a little.
A recent AP investigation has “discovered” that the states that have banned abortion also tend to be the states with the least accessible maternal care and the most porous social safety nets.
Tennessee fared poorly at WIC enrollment, Medicaid, having enough maternal care and requirements for paid family and medical leave, an October study found.
Other states with similarly restrictive abortion laws — such as Idaho, Alabama, Missouri, Georgia and Mississippi — ranked poorly on numerous measures, too. Researchers said restrictive states had a slightly higher average birth rate and a much lower average abortion rate than the least restrictive states.
“In general, these states that restrict abortion are the more fiscally conservative, the more socially conservative states,” said Dr. Nigel Madden, lead author of the study published in the American Journal of Public Health.
This does not seem to have worked out so well for residents. The AP spoke to multiple Tennessee women who have found themselves completely fucked by the whole situation, as well as the non-profits trying to help them with the things the government doesn’t provide.
“It’s survival, every day,” said Janie Busbee, founder of Mother to Mother, a Nashville-based nonprofit providing baby supplies for low-income moms. “If we took some of that stress off of them, then maybe they’d have time to dream.” […]
Anika Chillis, a 39-year-old single mom in Memphis, has Medicaid, WIC and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as food stamps). While she’s deeply grateful for the help, she said it also can disappear — like when she temporarily lost WIC.
“It’s hard,” she said, sitting on a park bench as her 2-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter played nearby. “Groceries are constantly going up.” And being a single mom “makes it doubly hard on you.”
And those things are only going to get worse with Trump in office.
Nonprofit leaders fear their job may get harder with a new administration in Washington and a GOP-controlled Congress. Republicans could seek significant changes to federal assistance programs they’ve long criticized, like Medicaid and food stamps.
“We’ve been through four years of a Trump administration, and the goal under the Trump administration was to cut social services,” said Signe Anderson, the [Tennessee Justice Center’s] senior director of nutrition advocacy. “I’m concerned … for families in Tennessee and across the country.”
They should be. At least they’re swift enough to realize they’re going to be fucked, unlike several of the interviewees in a Washington Post article published this week — low-income Trump supporters from New Castle, Pennsylvania, who were just ever so sure that Trump was going to ensure they got to keep their benefits. Or even improve them!
Via Washington Post (archive):
“He is more attuned to the needs of everyone instead of just the rich,” [single mother Lori] Mosura, 55, [who receives $1,200 each month in food stamps and Social Security benefits] said on a recent afternoon. “I think he knows it’s the poor people that got him elected, so I think Trump is going to do more to help us.” […]
Steve Tillia, 59, receives $1,600 a month in Social Security disability payments and $300 in food stamps to support himself and his son. Tillia, who said he is unable to work after suffering from mini strokes, still drives around New Castle with a Trump flag anchored on the bumper of his SUV.
Tillia said he’s confident that Trump and GOP leaders will reduce spending by “cutting the fat” out of government — and not slashing benefits.
“It’s not cutting government programs, it’s cutting the amount of people needed to run a program,” he said. “They are cutting staff, which could actually increase the amount of the programs that we get.”
Oh, definitely.
The fact that these people can’t take a look at states like Tennessee that are run by Trump-loving Republicans and notice how completely screwed they are, social safety net wise, is genuinely concerning. Are they not able to Google? Because if they were to Google, they would see that, during his first term, Trump proposed major cuts to the SNAP program that would have kicked three million people off of food stamps, along with major cuts to housing programs and Medicaid, and tried to get rid of the Affordable Care Act entirely. These things didn’t go through, but it’s what he wanted. It’s what he proposed to pay for his tax cuts, for the rich.
Like, how do they think he’s going to pay for his new promised tax cuts to the rich, again?
It is also still entirely likely that Trump and a Republican Congress will follow the Project 2025 playbook and use the Comstock laws to bar the shipping of abortion pills or any equipment related to performing abortions through the mail — which would mean we’d all be in the same situation as the Tennessee residents currently struggling under the combined forces of social and fiscal conservatism.
This should be real fun for us all.
PREVIOUSLY ON WONKETTE!
I've explained to her that I'm the comedian in the family, but she doesn't listen to me . .
Wife: "Maybe if we start calling our body parts gun-sounding names like “revulva” or “shooterus” the GOP will stop trying to regulate them."
"It takes forever for the government to help me because they're overworked. I think the best solution is to significantly cut the staffing numbers."