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January 25, 2017 3:31 PM   Subscribe

Dutch international development minister Lilianne Ploumen stands up to Trump to plug a $600m gap in funding after he reimposed the global gag rule. [SLTheGuardian] “These are successful and effective programmes: direct support, distributing condoms, making sure women are accompanied at the birth, and making sure abortion is safe if they have no other choice,” she said. Ploumen admitted that replacing the $600m that Trump has pulled from family planning services was a tall order, but added: ‘You should never compromise on your aims from the outset. Six hundred million dollars is a very ambitious target but we’re committed to it.’
posted by stillmoving (13 comments total) 42 users marked this as a favorite
 
*slow clap*
posted by Literaryhero at 3:34 PM on January 25, 2017 [5 favorites]


What would it take to donate to that fund? I'd love to have a way to push American dollars at global women's health care, even if our gov't is refusing.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 3:42 PM on January 25, 2017 [13 favorites]


This is great, but I can already hear the PVV voters scream: "No money to those filthy foreigners!!!".
posted by Pendragon at 3:43 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]


It's an economic krijg de pleuris.
Translated meaning is close to "gets the tuberculosis" but is generally used in Dutch where you might use FUUUUUUCK YOU!)

posted by Stanczyk at 4:28 PM on January 25, 2017 [12 favorites]


What are the chances that this would survive Geert Wilders' rise to power?
posted by acb at 4:39 PM on January 25, 2017


acb--Based on my extremely limited understanding of Dutch politics, Wilders' whole schtick is precedented on Western liberalism in opposition to Islamic conservatism. So it would be harder for him to argue against something like this, and in fact, he might not be inclined to at all.
posted by adamrice at 4:50 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]


This is good.
posted by JoeXIII007 at 4:54 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]


Is he adamantly sticking to "Western liberalism" as his pretext, or moving towards a Putinist "Western Christian traditional values" frame?
posted by acb at 5:30 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]


This is fantastic. Good on the Dutch.
posted by tobascodagama at 6:45 PM on January 25, 2017


acb--Based on my extremely limited understanding of Dutch politics, Wilders' whole schtick is precedented on Western liberalism in opposition to Islamic conservatism. So it would be harder for him to argue against something like this, and in fact, he might not be inclined to at all.

On the other hand, this could be a gambit by Wilders' opposition to get him to put up or shut up about Dutch traditions of tolerance.
posted by jonp72 at 7:22 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]


The Right's answer to this?
Good. About time someone else paid instead of the US running up further deficit numbers.
posted by Postroad at 7:27 AM on January 26, 2017


I don't give a shit about the optics or who pays, I just want women to have access to health care.
posted by tobascodagama at 9:11 AM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]


There was an article about this on the CBC yesterday evening, as Canada is one of the countries the Netherlands has approached. I've written to the Minister of International Development (Marie-Claude Bibeau - marie-claude.bibeau@parl.gc.ca) to express my support for Canada's involvement in filling this stopgap.

I'm feeling a bit helpless as a Canadian watching this all go on, but I'm trying to find things to do like writing to support this type of thing so I can make some difference.
posted by urbanlenny at 12:14 PM on January 27, 2017 [3 favorites]


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