The Republican War on Women suffered a crushing defeat when Democrats defeated the Blunt Amendment to deprive women of contraception. In spite of John Boehner’s promises to continue the battle in the House, Republicans are showing they lack the spine to own their stated position on a federal level. Instead they are using a back door approach at the state level with legislation so draconian that even the Blunt amendment pales by comparison.
Over the last few weeks, Republicans have quietly backed away from the controversial Blunt Amendment and other legislative efforts to allow employers to deny contraception coverage to women. “I think Republicans know that it hasn’t served them well,” Sen. Chuck Schumer told TPM at the time. Apparently, state-level Republicans didn’t get the memo.
Several state legislatures were inspired rather than dissuaded by the contraception debate in Washington, and are considering their own versions of the Blunt Amendment — keeping alive an issue national Republicans thought they were putting to bed. Arizona, New Hampshire, Idaho and Georgia have taken up bills to expand exemptions for contraception coverage. Ohio, Missouri, New Hampshire, Idaho and Wyoming lawmakers are moving symbolic resolutions condemning the administration’s contraception coverage rule.
Lawmakers working on the state bills, like their counterparts in Congress, insist that the measures are about protecting religious liberty, not women’s access to health care. But a new poll from Bloomberg shows that a majority of voters don’t see it that way. The poll, released Wednesday, found 62 percent of Americans believe the debate over religious institutions’ obligations to provide birth control coverage is a matter of women’s health, not religious freedom. Worse, 77 percent do not think birth control to be part of the political debate in the first place.
But thanks to these states, and Arizona in particular, the contraception debate is still raging in the national press, even now that national Republicans have quietly abandoned their effort… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <TPM>
I’m not at all surprised that the worst of the worst is coming from the Totalitarian Corporate Plutocracy of Brewerstan, formerly Arizona. That’s where Death Angel, Jan Brewer, is infamous for killing her own citizens by cutting the Medicaid funding for patients, whose life-saving transplants had already been scheduled. She did this to give bigger tax breaks to millionaires. The bill being fast-tracked through the Brewerstan legislature will require women to tell their employers why they need contraception, so the employers can decide whether or not they consider the reason morally objectionable.
Rachel Maddow reviews in detail what Republicans are doing against women in the states. Jan Schakowsky joins her.
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There can be no doubt that the Republican Party will not rest until and unless they control every bedroom and doctor’s office in the US. This makes them a 19th century party that has no justification to exist in the 21st century. Any woman who votes Republican is voting to make herself property, not a person. Any man who votes Republican is voting for the loss of freedom for all the women in his life.
18 Responses to “The War on Women Shifts to States”
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” Worse, 77 percent do not think birth control to be part of the political debate in the first place.”
Keep up your efforts Republicans and Tea-Baggies, practicing medicine without a license…
Rixar13, “…practicing medicine without a license…” — love it!!! Now maybe that could be grounds for throwing the bunch of Republican/Teabaggers in jail!
What Lynn said!
AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks Judi!
Hopefully the Republicans will move so far right they will fall off the Earth.
AMEN!!! They are so bereft of scientific thought that probably still believe the earth is flat! They fit right in with the fifteenth century thinking!
What a wonderful picture!
It’s important to remember that this struggle is on many fronts, and that we need to pay attention to federal and state policies. We all have a horse in this race, because a society in which women can control their reproductive lives benefits everyone.
Ahab, I think so too.
“I am woman. Hear me ROAR!!!”
This GOP bear scat is absolutely ridiculous! This isn’t about freedom of religion as the GOP (including women) would have the American people believe. It is about the personal freedoms of women. And those freedoms are being stripped away and sold off as political gain. It proves that the GOP is incapable of intelligent, independent thought and action that will move the country forward. The GOP is only capable of thinking and acting in a locked-step shameful fashion. And shame on ALL WOMEN that support this travesty of human justice.
When I applied for my first credit card about 40 years ago at Sears, I was told it had to go in my husband’s name. I was single. So then they said it had to go in my father’s name. I told Sears to put it where the sun doesn’t shine and walked out of the store as they tried to call me back. That was BS then, and this war on women is BS today. With the GOP nothing changes! I wonder who pissed in their corn flakes!
Lynn, I agree, except that you were unkind to bear scat.
Any woman who votes Republican is voting to make herself property, not a person.
This gets to the crux of why I don’t understand how anyone in their right mind would vote GOP. The GOP doesn’t exist for working Americans. A vote for them is a vote against your own best interests.
Angie, that’s exactly right!
WAR ON WOMEN IS WHITE CORPORATE EUGENICS.
Age old idea”What is wrong with you men,can`t you control your women” is still the prevailing attitude.
READ Nazi Nexus learn how women are controlled or killed- sterilized- experimented- mostly raped on all for population control of non-white women. Military perfect example Sec.Panetta said “34,000 military women raped by USA military MEN=2010, is down from 2006 42,000 women raped in one year. SHAME, women abuse starts here.
Eugenic laws Virginia Racial Integrity act, California forced sterilization 60,000 women 1915 to 1933.
Hitler got most of his eugenic ideas from USA. Know your history war on women ageless war.
Peter, I think your conspiracy theory is a bit off the deep end. Historically, you are mistaken. The UK was the source of Eugenics for both Germany and the US.
On the one hand, while I’m discouraged that only the Virginia Medical Society and Pennsylvania Medical Society have taken an active stand against these misogynistic attempts at legislation – I also have to say that modern medicine is amazing. Not only is it ceaselessly working to find new treatments, but they’ve even found new diseases.
I can honestly say that THIS was NEVER an illness I encountered when I was in medical school:
Nameless, I hear you, and that graphic is classic. Even I have said that Republicans are trying to insert themselves between women’s legs, and that expresses it perfectly!