George Bush killed my girlfriend’s job

It’s true, more or less. Thanks to the man-child idiot leader of the free world, D will likely be out of work by the end of the week. How? She works for an organisation that promotes family planning and reproductive health in the Philippines. Her organisation, like every other similar organisation in this very Catholic nation, does not in any way endorse or promote any sort of abortion. But an organisation that funds D's organisation, the UK-based International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) does support such programs. These programs are credited with not only saving the lives of women forced to undergo dangerous backyard terminations (according to IPPF, “This year 19 million women will face serious injury, illness or death as a consequence of abortions performed by unskilled people under unsanitary conditions”) but – insofar as they are generally part of overarching family planning programs – are also regarded (by the Whitehouse, no less) as being one of the best ways to reduce abortion rates. But of course that’s not good enough for Baboon Bush, who is intent on imposing his dangerous moral code onto people who don’t need it and who will die because of it. All while Dubya thumps his carefully calculated, voter-endorsed, conservative Christian chest and adopts his obscene moral postures.

So - D's organisation was subcontracted by another Philippine organization to run a reproductive health program in one of the provinces here. This program is funded by the US government, which now requires any family planning agency that wants access to US government funding to sign Bush's policy (known as the Mexico City policy, after it was created in that city by Ronnie Reagan in the 80s -- then suspended by Clinton and now reinstated by Bush) -- i.e., if an organisation wants any US government dollars, it has to promise to have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with abortion. Because D's organization is funded by IPPF, it can't sign the Mexico City policy -- to do so would mean it loses its IPPF support, its main source of funding. This would effectively kill D's organization. And because D's organization can't/won't sign the Mexico City policy, the US-government-funded program she works (sorry, worked) on will be terminated by the end of this week. Which may be a bit of a shit for her, but really sucks for the thousands of Filipinos who could do with a better idea of how to avoid having 8 kids they have no way of affording.