In the US Congress today a hearing on birth control and religion, chaired by a Republican, included on the panel a Catholic bishop, a rabbi, a minister, and two male academics, but no women.
No women.
No women on a Congressional panel discussing birth control.
No women.
No women on a panel discussing birth control. For the government.
Three clerics, and no women.
They have more in common with the Taliban than they have with me.
The clerics’ testimony boils down to “I think that God thinks that birth control is icky!”
QFFT
True. They have nothing in common with me and want the worst for me.
I just added up all their pet hates.
Nonwhites 36% of the population
women 51% of the population
No Religions 22% of the population
Gays 4% of the population
Theoretically, they hate and want to enslave or discriminate against 113% of the US population. It comes to more than 100% because a lot of people are in two or more categories. It’s still a lot.
If you are a woman, nonwhite, No Religion, and/or gay, you are an idiot for voting for the Theothuglicans.
Women elected Bill Clinton twice. There was as much as an 11% disparity in gender voting.
They should have an all female panel on condom use.
According to a recent survey by the US CDC, 99% of US women in relevant cohorts use birth control. It’s 98% for the Catholic women.
If the Theothuglicans want to restrict or outlaw birth control, good luck. I don’t see that too many people are going to vote for that.
For one thing, it hits poor women mostly. The rich and middle classes can always buy what they want. So there go the welfare rolls.
If they don’t want to pay for forced births, they will pay anyway. Hordes of poor, unsocialized kids will roam the streets until they get caught for some crime or another and sent to prison. Prisons aren’t cheap nor is law enforcement.
PS I wish Obama would grow a spine. All he has to do is point out that these creeps want to go back to the Dark Ages. And the Dark Ages weren’t all that fun. And where are these small government Tea Partiers? Now they are going to tell people how many kids they have to have. Right, shrinking government down small enough to crawl up people’s vaginas and camp out in their uteruses.
If you look and the fundie xian and Theothuglican leaders, almost all of them have small families.
Bush had two, Cheney two, Robertson 4, and so on.
They don’t want to breed like rabbits. They have better things to do with their time and money. They want YOU to breed like rabbits.
It’s hypocrisy, the third major sacrament of the fundies.
Why aren’t women rising up in protest? A general strike? A march on Washington (perhaps via Virginia)? It just seems strange that there’s not more activism going on.
This should become a meme. I will quote you, raven.
I have a Catholic aunt who’s been sending out emails on this issue, which she categorizes as an “attack on faith.” Even after I explained how Obama’s compromise means that Catholic organizations don’t have to pay for women’s birth control, she objected to the fact that insurance companies themselves aren’t allowed to deny women access to contraceptives. “Private” insurance companies shouldn’t be coerced by the government into providing services they don’t want to, you see.
That is simultaneously beyond parody and beneath contempt.
I am just starting to realise exactly how privileged I am growing up in a secular state.
And how the f*** can you have a congress hearing on birth-control and not include one single woman?
They wanted to include some women. Really, they did. But they couldn’t find any who want contraception banned with such short notice.
Why is is that misogynistic stuff always focuses so hard on the vagina/reproductive systems? This, and all the various arguments on the interwebs about bitch and cunt all seem to hone in on the vagina. I’d call it vagina-envy if all these blocks weren’t so proud of their willies.
As a man, I often think of that line from Friends – “No uterus: no opinion.” – I don’t think any general opinion I can offer on reproductive rights can be valid unless it specifically makes reference to the opinions of actual women.
How they expect to present a valid debate without involving women is beyond me.
A better question is why in the hell is congress even holding hearings on birth control.
1. It’s none of their damn business how many children I have. This is a democracy, last I heard. Some reptilian wacko congresscreature in Washington DC has no right telling me that.
2. Birth control has been legal and available for a century. It’s basically embedded in our society. The US average family size is 2+.
3. AFAIK, BC is available in just about every civilized country in the world.
4. And oh yeah, doesn’t the USA have some serious problems right now. Our economy is barely moving, there is a war in Afghanistan, and poverty rates are rising rapidly. The median household income in the USA has dropped for 4 years in a row by a lot, 10% or so. We are getting poorer.
Next up from these clowns. A hearing on outlawing witchcraft and witches. In their new Dark Age, it will fit right in.
Her testimony is on youtube.
Contrary to the assertions of the committee chair who denied her the opportunity to speak, her testimony was on topic.
I’m cynical enough that I didn’t expect her to be on topic. I figured she’d be there more to shame than to advance a legally relevant objection. But I was wrong: she spoke on the non contraceptive use of birth control.
I listened to the first half hour of the hearing online last night, and it was surreal. Issa insisted that the hearing was about religious freedom rather than reproductive policy, but several other members of the committee (rightly) lambasted him. Maloney was particularly eloquent and spot-on.
Bishop Lori’s compared the Obama administration’s contraception coverage mandate to a hypothetical policy requiring Jewish delis and grocers to carry pork products (!) I’m sorry, but having access to ham sandwiches IS NOT comparable having access to a means of preventing unwanted pregnancy!
Finally, I agree that the lack of female witnesses was VERY revealing. This, combined with the all-male Hannity panel a few days ago, left me speechless.
It’s all part of the Tea Party/Theothuglican War on Women.
BTW, women aren’t a “minority”. They make up the majority of the US population.
Hopefully, they will do what they have been doing for decades. Voting against these misogynistic guys. There has been a marked difference in gender voting patterns for a long time.
Women elected Bill Clinton twice.
See, they just didn’t want to include women for the sake of including women. Maybe next year they’ll increase their committee pool but this year there just was not a single woman who met the necessary qualifications.
/tokenism
/as many misogynist stereotypes we shoehorn in
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCPU0Qsv9wM&feature=youtu.be
There you go. I should have included the link when I posted earlier.
‘Tis Himself, OM:
That’s their testimony, but the clerics’ thoughts are “I think that women are icky!”
It’s time to start submitting Ballot initiatives in all 50 States.