On Sunday, Fox News host Chris Wallace revealed to his panel that the conservative mouthpiece covers contraception for female employees. This revelation comes as Republicans across the country fight to limit women’s access to birth control and amid the firestorm that Rush Limbaugh is enduring after calling Sandra Fluke a “slut” and “prostitute” on his radio show last week.
“Before coming on today, I checked with the women here at Fox News and it turns out that Fox News health coverage does cover — there’s a co-pay — but it does cover contraception,” Wallace stated. “When it comes to contraception, you know the idea that — and we’re not talking about religious institutions. According to the Blunt amendment, any — U.S. Steel, as I said, Fox News, any company could simply decide, we are not going to offer that. An insurance company could decide, one that has no ties to any religious organization.”
Here’s the video:
Fox is absolutely doing the right thing by covering contraception, but it’s a hypocritical stance. Despite the war against contraception usage by women being waged by Republicans, the number one conservative news station in America covers contraception for its female employees. Although employees are required to make a co-pay, this pretty much means that Bill O’Reilly ridiculed his female co-workers when he criticized Sandra Fluke for wanting her own contraception covered. It also means that when Rush Limbaugh trashed Fluke, he was also trashing every woman on Fox News. I wonder how they feel about that.
For some reason, conservatives feel that it’s alright to attack liberal women who use contraception but they don’t do the same to fellow conservatives. They obsessively fight to deprive women of birth control and declare war against organizations like Planned Parenthood for providing contraception, but when conservative organizations like Fox News provide contraception coverage, they refuse to apply the same outrage and criticism.
Like the women of Fox News, all women across the country deserve to have their contraception covered by their health insurance, whether it’s an individual plan or an employer plan. This double standard that Republicans employ is truly ridiculous.
