Pelosi aims to draw contrast with GOP on contraception policy

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http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/23/pelosi-aims-to-draw-contrast-with-gop-on-contraception-policy/

Aiming to draw a sharp contrast with a Republican-organized hearing a week ago that included an all-male panel of witnesses, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi convened her Policy Committee Thursday to talk about the president's new contraception rule and featured a single witness – the woman the GOP wouldn't allow to testify.

Pelosi mocked House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa's explanation for rejecting the Democrats' chosen witness for last week's hearing - Sandra Fluke, a law student. He argued she wasn't qualified to appear on the panel because the subject was meant to be about religious freedom, not birth control or health care policy.

"The question of who is qualified to be a witness raises the question of who is qualified to have a hearing, Pelosi said. "Does that person or that chairman or committee have any judgment on what it means to a family to personally and religiously make decisions about the size and timing of their family?"

Congress is in recess this week, but Pelosi scheduled a partisan meeting of just Democrats to give Fluke the chance to argue that women should have access to contraceptives, even if they work for religiously-affiliated organizations. In a cramped hearing room Pelosi and three other Democrats who are also on the Oversight committee piled on Issa and accused him of ignoring female voices on the topic a week ago.