Republican Congressman Darrell Issa's hearing last week had a lengthy name that served to underscore its absurdity: "Lines Crossed: Separation of Church and State. Has the Obama Administration Trampled on Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Conscience?" That title had 20 more words than Congressman Issa allowed any woman to speak during the first panel of the hearing.
He staged a sound-and-fury fest over a contraceptive coverage rule in the Affordable Care Act, one which the Right suddenly found to be blasphemous. The picture of an all-male panel testifying on women's reproductive rights invited its own ridicule. But the silencing of Sandra Fluke was no laughing matter. Fluke, a third-year law student at Georgetown and past president of that university's Law Students for Reproductive Justice group, had been invited by Democrats to speak -- but Congressman Issa kept her from testifying over a disputed technicality.
One week later, Fluke testified before an informal hearing in front of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats. Republicans kept off live teevee (but thanks to the power of the Internets, can now be seen above in full, and read here). She called attention not only to the affordability issue confronting those at Georgetown, a Jesuit institution, but to the medical necessity confronting some who use birth control. Judging by the Republican legislation seeking to revoke the birth-control rule, these were necessary points to make.
Before Fluke's testimony, Salon's Irin Carmon sought to debunk conservative untruths about contraception, including the ones uttered in Wednesday's Republican debate. Feminist author Jessica Valenti wrote in The Nation that this is all part of a larger, longer war on women:
...we need to ensure that Republicans are held accountable and don’t get to brush these comments and actions off as mistakes or misunderstandings. Because they’re not simple gaffes, they’re a crystal clear window into the future that the GOP wants for women.
Religion Dispatches senior editor Sarah Posner also writes in Salon that the Right is winning this:
The opponents of birth control coverage are playing a long game. As they ransack family planning funding and prop up religious organizations, they are transforming the way information — and misinformation — about abortion and birth control is passed on to the public. Their efforts are enabled by narratives about religious persecution, demanding, in effect, to create a religious alternative to public health policy based in medicine and science. The Constitution doesn’t require or even envision that. Democrats and their pro-choice allies need to stake out their own long game.
Considering the dire news on women's health coming out of Virginia and Texas this week, I see no reason to counter those assessments.
Leave a Comment:
Well said Ms. fluke, you hit all the points. And yes, it is preposterous for an all-men panel to decide what is right or not for a woman.
First!!!! HORAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYY for your blog spot!!
Word on the G+ stream was the hearing had not been televised... does that mean only MSNBC was there?
What a marvelous testimony from Ms. Fluke-
Again- this legislation/argument specifically impacts the poor women, because women of means have access whether covered by their health plans or not. Only the poor or 'working poor' are denied access-- and therefore, further handicapped financially with unwanted or unintended pregnancy that continues to stretch the family income.
This an end-run against the needs of women, against the health of women, against women.
What will Republicans pay attention to? The silent protest in front of the Virginia legislature seems to have been very effective. Will women of all ages and men who support them be willing to replicate this powerful, non-violent approach? We must ask those organizations whose petitions we sign, pledges for money we answer if they will organize these throughout the country.
Please tell the Republicans - "Stay Out Of My Uterus"!!
As a American women and a registered Republican ... I am furious!!
I am the American woman you don't want to offend - I have a very long memory !
(I remember Newt ... NOT Good!! ... any man who treats women the way he does (Santorum also) is scum!!
They keep saying "I am not a polititian ... but I want to be one!!!
Oppression is putting it mildly. Medical procedures must be based on E.B.M. Evidence Based Medicine. We as practitioners can't do something punitive to you and any state that is mandating any ultrasound (external or internal transvaginal ) must be based on evidence. None of this is. I cannot believe Medicine and Nursing will permit this. We have a lot to say about it. Example: I am a CRNA, a man who has shot and killed a cop becomes my patient. I must treat him. I cannot "teach" him a lesson. I cannot "punish" him. My feelings are not at issue. My ethics as an RN prevents me from murdering him on the table. I am human. I am not justice. I'm not judge, I'm Dale, your CRNA that's going to keep you alive, deliver intact to a recovery room, who will despite their feelings, will deliver him intact to the next unit that will care for him. No one will sabotage his care. We are more. I will not do what is none of my affair. Administering an ultrasound is between a person and a professional. If you want a ultrasound you do not need, please ask. We will be happy to do that. The state is criminalizing a procedure. Not to mention the cost. Ladies, if you'd like an ultraound, ask. NO LAW REQUIRED.
V.O.M.I.T. in November.
Vote
Out
Men (& Women)
Instituting
Tyranny
This is a 30 YEAR OLD woman who is asserting that she only wants to have sex with contraception. Ok fine. However, since she CANNOT AFFORD it she now asserts she has a RIGHT to make SOMEONE ELSE pay for the device she needs to engage in sex in the way she feels is appropriate.
Huh?
So you have the right to make someone else pay for a tool you need to engage is sex? Find that in the Constitution for me?
This is a woman smart enough to get admitted to Georgetown law but she cannot conceive (no pun) of a way to have sex (or not have it--there's a thought) without someone else helping her?
When Ken Blackwell was Sec. of state ,he was the #1 voter suppressor!
Segregated schools with all black teachers turned out some of our most educated...(in every sense of the word) people in our society. What's up with that?