People born male and presenting male can get fucking breast cancer. God fucking dammit.
Their argument is that “reproductive cancers” are covered, but that breasts are only a “reproductive organ” on women.
Cruel and pointless.
Notably, the drummer from KISS, the actor who played Shaft, and Beyonce’s father.
The law states that “reproductive cancer of any type” be covered. Officials added male breast cancer under that category after a working group of experts reviewed the science. The decision noted “the marked similarity of male and female breast cancer.”
The Trump administration’s memo argues that designation is a mistake. “The Biden Administration falsely classified male breasts as reproductive organs,” Kasperowicz said in his statement to ProPublica.
A former official who was involved in the VA’s decision last year said that while there were discussions about how to interpret “reproductive cancer,” the scientific consensus among VA oncologists was clear. “The evidence showed that male and female breast tissue respond similarly to toxic exposures and share nearly identical biological and mutational profiles,” said the former official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing concern for his job prospects in government. “Expanding coverage to male breast cancer was the right call.”
Rosie Torres, who advocated for the PACT Act after her husband became sick, said the current administration is putting politics above patriotism and people. “It shouldn’t matter who signed the bill,” Torres said, referring to Biden. “If you don’t like the ‘reproductive’ word, do it under another category. Don’t remove it. These are peoples’ lives.”
That’s a dumb technicality. Wonder if they’re really that dumb, or this was pushed through because someone’s benefiting from denying care. The right thing to do if you want to “well aktually” the term “reproductive cancer” would be to figure out how to cover it under whatever term brings you joy, not just leave them to die.
??? the fuck
the cruelty is the point
It’s obnoxious that this was all brought about from a law using “reproductive” to describe cancers rather than just saying “cancers in the breasts or genitals”. Lawyer seems to be one of the go to professions for aspiring politicians and then they just fuck up people’s lives with imprecise language.
Also, trans women can breast feed their children. Are they women in the eyes of the VA? And if not aren’t their “male” breasts reproductive?
While the “reproductive cancer” thing is ridiculous, I want to know why the fuck the VA is pointing cancer treatment at all???
I imagine there are plenty of service-related cancers, and they likely pay for services received elsewhere if that expertise isn’t available at a VA hospital.
