GOP Kicks Women Out Of Contraception Debate – Says It’s About Religion Not Women (VIDEO)
All the not-so-young dudes that made up the Congressional contraception panel
If you’ve been following the debate on contraception over the last couple of weeks, you might have noticed a fascinating trend. Hormonal contraception is taken solely by women. It is prescribed by medical professionals for a variety of medical conditions, including some that would be very painful without birth control pills and some that could be deadly. Yet, on TV and now in Congress, neither women nor healthcare experts have been allowed to participate in the debate.
Media Matters posted this graph. Of about 300 cable TV panelists discussing the debate, just one was a healthcare provider. The rest were the usual array of political pundits with some righteously indignant religious leaders thrown in.
Congress, in an attempt to be even less “fair and balanced” than cable news, has decided to take women out of the debate altogether. In a hearing with the House Oversight Committee, Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) was asked by ranking Democratic committee member, Elijah Cummings (D-MD) to include the testimony of a woman. Issa refused, making the claim that,
“As the hearing is not about reproductive rights and contraception but instead about the Administration’s actions as they relate to freedom of religion and conscience, he believes that Ms. Fluke is not an appropriate witness.”
From Think Progress:
And so Cummings, along with the Democratic women on the panel, took their request to the hearing room, demanding that Issa consider the testimony of a female college student. But the California congressman insisted that the hearing should focus on the rules’ alleged infringement on “religious liberty,” not contraception coverage, and denied the request. Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) walked out of the hearing in protest of his decision, citing frustration over the fact that the first panel of witnesses consisted only of male religious leaders against the rule. Holmes Norton said she will not return, calling Issa’s chairmanship an “autocratic regime.”
Video here:
It’s one thing to be told that one of our most basic liberties, a liberty that women have had for two generations, may be in danger. It’s one thing to be told that medicine for real conditions that affect millions of American women may not be provided by health insurance. It’s quite another when we are told not to worry our pretty little heads about issues that directly affect our bodies because our opinions are irrelevant.
Follow me on my new Facebook page!
Related posts:
Author: Wendy Gittleson
As a child of an artist and a Vietnam war activist, I was born a liberal. Raised half in rural, upstate New York and half in Boulder, Colorado, I have a unique perspective on politics and on life. I now call the San Francisco Bay area home.
9:18 pm
I’ve stated many of the things in the above posts before, so I won’t repeat what so many of you have said on Facebook so eloquently. Mitch Hagelberg, Christine Dizard, and Brendan Mitri, kudos to you and the others who are tired of this inhumane game the “leaders” of the churches are playing with our lives and future.
Since you’ve all covered these topics, I’d like to touch on another that I believe it’s time to consider. The so-called “Christians” are all howling about the terrible persecution they’re suffering under while trying to steal our country and destroy our Constitution. I believe it’s time to consider rising up as concerned Americans all over the country and SHOWING THEM WHAT PERSECUTION REALLY MEANS. Please understand I am NOT advocating violence, there are so many ways we can show them what we think of their anti-American attitudes. Standing outside THEIR churches with picket signs every Sunday would be an excellent start, and a nationwide boycott of EVERY “Christian” business and product would hit them where it truly hurts the Dominionists, in their pockets–since they don’t have hearts to burden. Convincing church members to stop tithing to an organization that puts their own arrogant pride over God’s commands to care for your fellow man would be an excellent step as well, if we could do it, but I’m afraid most of the “religious” are so lost in the forest of lies they’ve been told that they have no access to the light of truth at all. Oh, and the most important step–immediately act to recall EVERY politician who supports or introduces ANY legislation that would respect any religion, or ANY legislation that is openly inhumane to living, BREATHING members of their constituency. That last was for the folks in Oklahoman and Virginia, where women now have no rights to abortion and shrinking rights to use contraception. Once that’s gone, ladies, care to guess what they’ll attack next?
It’s time we banded together and took the fight to them, folks, or they will most assuredly hang us all separately.