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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFluke Hits Back At Issa: ‘I’m A Woman Who Uses Contraception, That Makes Me Qualified’ To Testify
Democrats on the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee held a special hearing Thursday morning in response to the GOPs decision to prevent women from testifying in support of an Obama administration rule requiring employers to provide birth control without additional cost sharing. The committee invited just one witness, Sandra Fluke, the third year Georgetown Law student, who House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) dismissed as an energized college student who was not appropriate and qualified to testify before his committee.
Democrats received over 300,000 requests for women to testify on the issue, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said during todays hearing, and the GOPs male-only contraception hearing was widely spoofed in the press and on late-night comedy shows. Fluke herself responded to Issas snub in jest, noting, Well, I will confirm that I was energized, yes she said to laughter from the committee, as you can see from the reaction behind me, many women in this country are energized about this issue. Im an American woman who uses contraception, so lets start right there. That makes me qualified to talk to my elected officials about my health care needs, she added.
In her testimony, Fluke reiterated the story of her friend who was denied contraception coverage from Georgetown, despite technically qualifying for an exception that provided students who use birth control for health reasons with the benefit, and had to undergo invasive surgery. She also highlighted the confusion such policies cause, noting that while Catholic employers may claim that their insurance plans include loopholes for women who use birth control for non-reproductive purposes, beneficiaries still interpret the policy as a blanket exclusion of reproductive health benefits. One woman, for instance, did not seek medical treatment after being raped because she believed Georgetown did not provide coverage for womens sexual health care:
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Pelosi criticized Republicans for denying her request to have Flukes testimony covered by House-operated TV cameras and argued that the GOP was seeking to silence women on the issue in order to frame the discussion as a matter of religious liberty. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) pointed out, however, if this was a hearing on prostate cancer and there was a lot of women and no men, I guarantee you men would not have stuck around.
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/02/23/431293/female-witness-hits-back-at-issa-im-a-woman-who-uses-contraception-that-makes-me-qualified-to-testify/
Thank you Democrats for holding this hearing.
BumRushDaShow
(126,626 posts)gratuitous
(82,849 posts)He's vitally interested in the "Freedom of Religion" aspect of victimizing women, and whether he can find and recruit "theologians" who will cover his rank misogyny with a patina of "religion." Given that this is Issa's purpose, it's not surprising that women who use contraception aren't qualified to testify at his little hearing designed to deny contraception to women.
For some reason, this reason escapes the ability of our highly-paid popular media commentators to detect it.
rbixby
(1,140 posts)The pool of money that goes into the insurance company is used to provide contraception for women in other companies, so in a sense, some of their money is going towards contraception anyway already. I'm not sure where this part of the bill requires women to use birth control.
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)Basically, the idea is that if an entity spends any of its money on a forbidden project, then all of its dollars are tainted by the project. That is, the federal grant money that Planned Parenthood receives to provide a program of free or low-cost mammograms means that Planned Parenthood doesn't have to use its own money to support that program. And since some of Planned Parenthood's money goes to pay people who provide other health services that include abortion (as well as buy equipment, provide operating room space, etc.), the federal grant dollars directly support the provision of abortions in this line of "thinking."
These are often the very same people who are wholly unable to discern a potential conflict of interest when, say, Dick Cheney goes duck hunting with Antonin Scalia just before the Supreme Court considers a case to which Cheney is a party.
tblue
(16,350 posts)The GOP is looking so old and stodgy and STUPID.
They're turning off women and young people en masse.