Lech Walesa: Put gays behind a wall

[The Brain]

Is Cuba a mythical place, like Timbuktu?

[Ed Anger]

Where Meri can get everything payed for from the magic bag of Fidel.

[viper37]

Obviously, I know next to nothing about what's covered and what's not in state-funded care. Even if we ever did get Medicare for all, I can't imagine that IVF would be covered. Certainly, abortions would not. I'm just trying to figure out where the line is when the state pays for it.

IVF wasn't covered by the public before, so everyone who wanted it had to pay, and then have it.
Now it's covered by the state and couples needing it have to wait many years to get it.  I think international adoption is getting less of a bother than this.

[Sheilbh]

What I'm trying to wrap my head around is the bolded part. Is it common in countries with state-funded medical care to pay for IVF? What the justification for that? Do they also cover abortions? (I'm assuming that abortions are legal in Poland. Is that a poor assumption?)

In the UK you can get IVF on the NHS, though there's obviously a waiting list. Each of the nations have their own guidelines, in England it's available for women aged 23-39, who have three years of fertility problems or who've got an identifiable fertility problem (blocked fallopian tubes, for example). The doctors also consider BMI, whether they've got children already and the number of previous fertility treatments they've had. It is entirely equally available for lesbians or single mothers.

The NHS also covers abortions. It various across the country but between 60 and 90% of abortions are NHS-funded.

[Martinus]

Poland! Seriously in need of another partition.

What's a positive is that, while several years ago this would have probably gone unnoticed, today he is being steamrolled by pretty much all the media.

He used to be defended by the centre-left media because right wingers hate him for political reasons (they say he is a communist plant and handed Poland over to post-communist oligarchs) but now he has lost support from all quarters.

[Sheilbh]

I still support him, though on this he's wrong. The man's a hero.

[Martinus]

I still support him, though on this he's wrong. The man's a hero.

Well it would have been better for everyone if the communists shot him before 1989.

[Sheilbh]

Well it would have been better for everyone if the communists shot him before 1989.

Looking at the region Poland seems to have had one of the more successful post-Communism transition. You're certainly up there with the Czechs and Baltics.

[Martinus]

Also, I'm glad you think the idea to put a minority "behind a wall" seems "wrong" to you. That's a really strong condemnation for an idea like this. 

[Sheilbh]

I'm a calm kind of guy

[Martinus]

I'm a calm kind of guy

And the fuhrer was a wonderful dancer 

[Sheilbh]

Wow. No need to compare me to Hitler

[Martinus]

Wow. No need to compare me to Hitler

I am not comparing you

Anyway, it's not the first time that you seem to have a boner for an elderly conservative "strongman" homophobe politician. Can we say: daddy issues? 

[Sheilbh]

My dad's an elderly socialist whose closest friend is a native American-Canadian Anglican monk (and former lover of my uncle). He's not got much in common with conservative homophobes of any age.

But Walesa led the fight against a totalitarian regime at great personal risk - he'd have to do a lot before I thought much less of him. Same for Nelson Mandela or Vaclav Havel. Though, I do prefer the latter two...

[CountDeMoney]

Btw, just to shock you, France has full state funding of abortions (for any reasons) and the IVF (including for single moms and lesbian couples).

Not shocking.  France is a modern, progressive nation that has its shit in order.