There are a lot of people — many, many people — who are upset by Jill Duggar’s decision to work as a missionary in Central America.
To some people, the issue is that Jill and her husband, Derick Dillard, constantly ask fans for donations when, as famous reality stars, it seems like they should be able to afford any and all expenses themselves.
To others, it’s unthinkable that Jill would live in El Salvador while pregnant when the country advised women to avoid pregnancy until at least 2018 to avoid complications from the Zika virus.
As for us, we simply think this: why not both?!
There’s no feasible reason why Jill and Derick would need the mountains upon mountains of donations they ask for — if anything, they should ask fans to donate to specific causes, not directly to them.
And yes, it’s unbelievably dumb to risk the health of her unborn baby, especially when the Zika virus causes such devastating complications.
But for Jill, it doesn’t matter what we think, or what anyone else thinks.
And she proved that in this tragic new blog post she made, all about how the whole dang family is sick after returning to their home in El Salvador.
“The first few days we were here,” she wrote, “amidst the settling in and busy schedule, Israel and I were battling coughs and colds and Israel developed a low-grade fever.”
She said that the fever was because of an eye infection, the same infection he’d gotten the first time they traveled to Central America.
She also wrote that “Israel and I were also welcomed ‘home’ by a couple of fire ant bites (something we aren’t used to back home in NW Arkansas).”
And if that wasn’t enough, she added “Oh, and our second night here Israel decided to test out the instant hot water dispenser and quickly learned it wasn’t a toy when some of the water came out on his hand.”
“We cooled the burn and applied burn salve and he only had a little redness in the morning.”
Still, despite three separate incidents within the first two days after their return, Jill explained that “Good health is something we learn not to take for granted living in a rural area in a place that doesn’t guarantee the same amenities we have back home.”
“We frequently pray for protection from bacteria, accidents and other things that would complicate things or send us running to the doctor.”
… OK.
While it’s great that Jill has her faith, it would also be good for her to take some more practical precautions: for instance, to avoid becoming pregnant in an environment where serious birth defects are entirely possible.
And it turns out that many of her fans feel the same way.
“So irresponsible,” one person commented. “For a prolife family you’re really being nonchalant about Zika and your unborn baby.”
“Y’all are stupid as f-ck!” another person told her. “I understand the want to help but damn your pregnant!!! And decided to go to a damn country where it could seriously harm you AND your baby? Dumbass.”
Solid arguments, right?
Get it together, Dillards.
