Birth-Control Hearing Was ‘Like Stepping Into a Time Machine’
Feb 17, 2012 3:43pm
Birth-Control Hearing Was Like Stepping Into a Time Machine
Showing an enlarged photograph of the all-male panel at Rep. Darrell Issas committee hearing Thursday, a group of Democratic women senators took to the Senate floor today to protest the assault on women, for excluding a womens perspective during the session on contraceptives.
Reading the news this morning was like stepping into a time machine and going back 50 years, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said. Its a picture that says a thousand words, and its one that most women thought was left behind when pictures only came in black and white.
~snip~
Democratic women senators today came to back them up in protest of the hearing.
Im disappointed. I know its a disappointment thats shared by millions of women across this country, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., said. Im saddened that here we are in 2012 and a House committee would hold a hearing on womens health and deny women the ability to share their perspective.
More:
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/02/birth-control-hearing-was-like-stepping-into-a-time-machine/
duhneece
(4,104 posts)Another moment of wtf.
Gore1FL
(21,027 posts)eyewall
(674 posts)if there were still hearts.
Faygo Kid
(21,477 posts)I can't even come up with an analogy for what they are doing now. What are they thinking? (I know, they're not.) I'm "severely" appalled by their now-open war on women. If you surf the right-wing websites (as I have been known to do), you will realize that, yes, they DO want to ban contraceptives. Geez, even the whole Komen thing seems like a long time ago, given the onslaught they are unleashing in recent weeks in this election year.
All this at once can't be coincidence. I guess we have gotten a window into just how much the GOP values women's health issues, platitudes notwithstanding.
yurbud
(39,405 posts)Why Patriarchal Men Are Utterly Petrified of Birth Control -- And Why We'll Still Be Fighting About it 100 Years From Now
http://www.alternet.org/visions/154144/why_patriarchal_men_are_utterly_petrified_of_birth_control_--_and_why_we%27ll_still_be_fighting_about_it_100_years_from_now/
truth2power
(8,219 posts)Some DUers have said women all over the country will reject Santorum and his ilk. Sure they will...
left coaster
(1,093 posts)I don't know.. but, clearly it's some kind of mental issue.
saras
(6,670 posts)It's that simple, really. Stop hating, and stop seeking to take your hatred out on some group of "others", and you can't be a Republican any more. There's no place for you, no policy, no political positions.
And, of course, if you DO that - if you actually take that step to grow a little - you immediately recognize what a fraud the two-party system is. Without the hatred, there's dozens of ways to go. There are all kinds of workable ways to arrange a society, all kinds of acceptable compromises between different value systems, but there's only one other party, and they offer really similar economic policy, only with less hatred.
The worst thing about the right-wing extremists is that they have successfully, over some thirty years, moved the American "norm" FAR to the right, both of its previous trajectory and of the rest of the first world. If we could all stop pretending that this isn't the case, and that 'barely-to-the-left-of-witch-burning' isn't leftist enough to settle for.
on this crude spectrum
utopian
thoughtful adult planning <--- I think we should be here
scandinavian
thoughtful sixties radical
off-the-grid
communalist
unitarian
60's liberal
modern leftist
DU
republicrat/DLC
old-fashioned conservative
old-fashioned republican
neophobe rightwing
bircher
sixties crazy - left meets right in the back
modern republican
imperialist
robber baron
Napoleon XIV
tea party
global corporatist
Pol Pot
dominionist
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)That deserves a post unto itself!!!
Mojorabbit
(16,020 posts)lolly
(3,248 posts)I dunno if there's a name for it, but I recall the character in "Handmaid's Tale" who pushed theocracy and subjugation of women, then fell into shock and despair when she realized that SHE would also be subjugated.
Thought she was the exceptional woman who would be included in the good ol' boys club, thought other women weren't deserving.
Nihil
(13,508 posts)spooky3
(34,300 posts)It's outrageous regardless of gender.
left coaster
(1,093 posts)lunatica
(53,410 posts)No one with any brains wants to get in the way of angry women. I'm certain most Democratic men love and respect women and understand the need for contraceptives, even as it pertains to them.
spooky3
(34,300 posts)I want them to speak up.
lunatica
(53,410 posts)It's really up to us to fight this. They will support us. One of the things women made men understand during the Feminist movement was that we could do our own fighting. We weren't weak minded pretty little things who needed a man to do our fighting.
They learned that lesson. I know my son did. He has no problem watching me fight the war of ideas and justice and seeing me win, but would definitely step in if some man tried to get physical with me or started calling me names. My son has no problem with strong women. He even thinks it's natural.
spooky3
(34,300 posts)The point is that reasonable and moral and courageous people ought to fight for what is right, regardless of gender. You wouldn't argue that it is black people's responsibility to fight racism alone, would you?
lunatica
(53,410 posts)I understand yours and I'm not disagreeing with you. There's more than just one point to most arguments.
I just don't see why anyone wants to attack Democratic men who are on our side when we've got real enemies in the GOP.
TorchTheWitch
(11,065 posts)Nothing at all to do with recognizing that women aren't weak little helpless creatures that need men to do their fighting for them.
IT. IS. INDIFFERENCE. It is indifference because birth control is not something high enough of their list of priorities to bother getting off the couch over for the simple biological fact that they themselves will never ever ever ever have to worry about getting pregnant. If it doesn't effect them personally then the male masses either simply can't be bothered or are already fighting on the wrong side.
And there is something somewhat logical about that. Which is why you aren't going to see straight people getting off the couch to protest marriage inequality and may even see some joining the fray on the wrong side. People only ever care enough about something when that something personally effects them. That's simply human nature.
Perhaps it makes you feel better to imagine that men remain silent on the issue of birth control because they were taught some time ago that women are strong enough to fight on their own without the help of men and are noblely allowing that to continue but it's wishful thinking. They simply do not care enough to be bothered or are embracing the wrong side.
The only reason we're even having to have women get into this fight is because of the indifference or outright objection to by men. If enough men were interested enough to join the fight or stop fighting on the wrong side there wouldn't BE any need for any fight.
You can never win ANYTHING without a loud majority and that is always going to mean men fighting along with us because without those men we will NEVER have a loud majority. Just as the GLBT community needs straights to loudly join them with their issue struggles, whites to loudly join racial minorities on theirs, etc.
I'm fucking PISSED that women are BACK having to fight this fight all over again because not enough women and men cared enough to fight to MAINTAIN what they already had just as I'm fucking PISSED that us worker drones are again having to fight for what we had already because too many worker drones couldn't be bothered enough to fight to MAINTAIN what they had finally won.
CrispyQ
(36,221 posts)Wow! Just wow.
What an endorsement of the misogynistic, status quo. ~gasp!
I would like to ask you this:
If democratic men aren't advocating for us (women), now, vocally, are they really on our side?
Below you responded that "They will support us."
Really? Will they?
Our party, the Democratic Party, has been known to back the NON-CHOICE candidate.
I am writing a letter to both of my dem senators. Both male, btw. One is mostly a DINO & the other is slightly better. They are better than the alternative, I suppose.
Neither is up for reelection in 2012, so I imagine my plea to them, to speak out in favor of women & against the Issa circus, will fall on deaf ears.
And yet I think - wouldn't this be an ideal time for them to speak out? During an election cycle when neither of them has something on the line? Americans have a notoriously short memory. This would be the perfect time.
Yet, silence.
As a collective, our dems are weak. They have capitulated to the right since Reagan started his diatribe on all things liberal. They fear the media. And now, thanks to Citizens United, they fear losing corporate support.
I'm tired of dem leadership who are afraid of getting blood spattered on them.
Why do the ranks have to take it all?
Why do the ranks pay with blood & leadership doesn't ?
lunatica
(53,410 posts)I've fought this fight for damn near 40 years. Using a little humor about splattering blood is a way of coping.
I'm not the fucking enemy.
CrispyQ
(36,221 posts)I want them to speak out on this issue. You stated, "...their silence doesn't mean indifference." To me it does.
chervilant
(8,267 posts).
Chorophyll
(5,179 posts)Men are affected by it! So are entire families! Not to mention women who use prescription birth control for health issues other than contraception.
Everybody in Washington with half a brain (heh) ought to be decrying this.
lunatica
(53,410 posts)At least most of the Democratic men are supportive. And we old Feminists taught them that we are quite capable of fighting our own fights. The last thing we want is to have to be protected or championed by men in order to get respect. No thanks. And most older Democratic men have learned this lesson. The younger Democratic men grew up with Feminist mothers and have complete confidence in our ability to win our cause. We already did it in the past 50+ years. The Church is simply the last blowhard Western organization trying to regain control which isn't going to happen. Not in the Western world.
Believe me. Democratic men are definitely supportive.
If someone attacks men on such a level would we be jumping in to protect them or would we have enough respect to let them do their own fighting and just play a supportive role.
We women are quite capable of fighting and winning this issue. We've already done it before and that was the hard one. This is a piece of cake once we get all riled up, which I think we are right now.
I sure am. Again.
I'm not going to attack the men who aren't attacking us. It would be stupid and a waste of energy to turn on those who are on our side. Let's go after those men who are represented by the men in that hearing. they are the enemy
Alcibiades
(5,061 posts)old enough to remember "women's lib." My mom was a women's libber. I still like that term better, because the separatists argued that men cannot be feminists, but anyone can be a women's libber.
onehandle
(51,122 posts)Sorry. I was listening live to MSNBC when Rick's billionaire delivered his 'joke.'
Andrea was not the only one in shock. She recovered quicker than me.
wordpix
(18,652 posts)She is usually hard to read but she was almost speechless with that statement.
tooeyeten
(1,074 posts)Her response was more than you usually gives imo. I'm no fan.
zentrum
(9,865 posts).....in the Senate? They need to stand up now and back these women.
Reid needs to hold a hearing on women's health.
This behavior by the Republicans is surely of a piece with the latest Komen move. They truly want to defund women's reproductive health--and beyond this--they want progressive women to feel defeated and disempowered.
zentrum
(9,865 posts).....in the Senate? They need to stand up now and back these women.
Reid needs to hold a hearing on women's health.
This behavior by the Republicans is surely of a piece with the latest Komen move. They truly want to defund women's reproductive health--and beyond this--they want progressive women to feel defeated and disempowered.
Beartracks
(12,761 posts)That would be an awesome opportunity to highlight the significant differences between the parties.
==================
lunatica
(53,410 posts)But they know, since that is what we old Feminists taught them, that we are more than capable of fighting this fight without them trying to rescue us. We aren't weak minded pretty little things who need a man to protect us. It's not an easy spot to be in, but I guarantee that almost all the Democratic men fully support us.
spooky3
(34,300 posts)Portraying these issues. And strategically, it is far less effective to limit the voices speaking out to one group. Just as many spoke out to support the labor movement in Wisconsin, everyone who is supportive should act here. No one denigrates labor leaders as "pretty and weak" because others have joined their cause.
lunatica
(53,410 posts)You don't know me. You should be attacking the real enemy instead of making new ones with your asinine accusations.
dogknob
(2,431 posts)While I am not personally offended, your comments strike me as divisive.
No ERA?
Now forced to fight a new fight to keep freedoms you gained 40+ years ago?
Sure sister, go it alone...
lunatica
(53,410 posts)I'm not the fucking enemy. And guess what? This fight has gone on for a very long time. It didn't just happen on your shift.
chervilant
(8,267 posts)lunatica
(53,410 posts)Why do you think he 'apologized'? It certainly wasn't because he thought he was out of line on his own.
chervilant
(8,267 posts)first of all, I was indulging in a bit of sarcasm, given this pathetic man's actions.
Second, I think he apologized because of the media firestorm, not because of the "millions of women" telling him that wasn't a real apology. I think his misogyny runs deep, and I think he's too arrogant to realize it.
intheflow
(28,402 posts)Many Protestant denominations ordain women now, and 1/3rd of all current seminarians are women. There's even an interfaith clergy organization that works in support of reproductive freedom. This nonsense about only religious males having a voice here if frickin' ridiculous.
csziggy
(34,119 posts)I do not believe in religion making my choices. I have not been a member of a church in over forty years and do not want religious believers making choices for me or any women who does not follow religious precepts.
The religious fanatics in the GOP have tried to frame this as an assault on religious freedoms. Does that not include the right of those of us who do not follow a religion to make our own choices? Isn't is just as much an assault on the personal religious (or non-religious) choices if religious organizations can control the options even for those who don't believe as they do?
If as a non-believer I get a job for an business that happens to have an affiliation with a religious organization, why should the religious organization that I do not work for be allowed to dictate my health care choices?
intheflow
(28,402 posts)But they wouldn't allow a woman's testimony because she wasn't a pastor. As if there were no such thing as female clergy, and the Democrats seem to agree by not putting forward any women clergy. It's bullshit patriarchy no matter how you slice it, though.
csziggy
(34,119 posts)But only once the optics of the all male panel got a lot of press.
The Democrats handled this badly and still are. The Democrats are allowing this to be framed by the Republicans as a religious freedom issue when it is a women's health care issue.
But if the Republicans want to hash it out as a religious issue, then I think the point that not everyone believes this narrow, medieval view of contraceptive use. That a religious organization should not be able to dictate to employees working in a secular organization peripherally associated with that religion what they can get for healthcare. That not all "contraceptives" are used for the purpose of contraception - many times they are necessary for other reasons - such as the case the young law student was prepared to testify about.
Of course, since the Republicans control the House, those arguments will not be made there, but the Democrats are not doing a good job of making them to the media. Or the media is not allowing them to make it - they'd rather do all day coverage of the death of a diva instead of an issue that could cause the deaths of thousands of women.
I really wish the Democrats would stop letting the Republicans blindside them this way. We all know what the game is but the Democrats are like Charlie Brown with the football.
We should have had liberal female clergy ready to testify to how this was not against THEIR religion and how it would affect women's healthcare if the views of a very few are allowed to dictate the lives of all. I'm sure the Democratic members of the House could have found some women qualified and eager to make that case. But the men who are supposed to be on our side sat there mute while the women could only walk out and boycott the hearings.
Pathetic!
CTyankee
(63,768 posts)won't allow her to become a rabbi. But in one more year she will be.
I'm sure she has plenty to say to Issa and the other men...
waddirum
(976 posts)and have been since 1985.
CTyankee
(63,768 posts)My experience is with Reform Jews in my family. So my experience is limited.
I am glad to hear this and stand corrected.
Cherchez la Femme
(2,488 posts)Silver nitrate photography would be the most cutting edge,
but I wouldn't be surprised to see their images displayed in chewed charcoal and burnt umber (with proudly displayed phalli/penes 'a la Cerne Abbas Giant) upon a cave wall...
24601
(3,940 posts)following be addressed.
1. Does the Constutition grant Congress (throough Article I) or the President (through Article II) the authority to make this decision.
If it rests with Article II (and that's unlikely), the debate is over because Congress would lack the authority to to limit inherent Presidential authority without a Constitutional amendment.
2. If it's extended to Congress via Article I (more likely), has there been a Constitutional delegation of powers to the Executive Branch. Plenty of Presidential actions have been struck down because Congress lacked the authority to delegate certain powers, or had the authority but failed to do so Constitutionally.
These are probably going to be decided when the USSC rules on HCR this spring. It's uncertain what Justice Kennedy will decide, but likely that he will be the dispositive vote.
Finally, if it passes the above, the other Constitutional question will be if the decision runs up against, or is supported by, Constitutional powers of the states, or rights of the people. If so, how must they be balanced to pass Constitutional muster.
I said "Finally" because it's highly unlikely that the USSC (any USSC actually) would look at everything and jump to a decree a fundamental right to uncompensated reproductive care - quite a leap from Griswald v. Connecticut (381 U.S. 479 (1965), the case that established that birth control decisions between married couples was none of the governments' business (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griswold_v._Connecticut). If it's ultimately legal, then the question of course shifts from "can you" to "should you" and that falls to a political question that the courts avoid as the lane in the road for elected branches of government. In that case, it falls back to what provisions are put in various statutes and can bounce back & forth with the political seasons.
Occulus
(20,599 posts)"It's called FUD, dear. Eat your peas."
24601
(3,940 posts)Rosa Luxemburg
(28,627 posts)I wonder
Alcibiades
(5,061 posts)Not trivia, not what postmodern academics would have us believe, but this. The GOP persues this at its peril: most people have forgotten or are not old enough to have experienced pre Griswold, pre Roe America. It is pretty decent of these old white men to remind everyone.
It also goes to show that these are the only folks the core of the GOP has left: older white people, past their reproductive years, mainly rich. Have a fun time winning national elections with that coalition, GOP.
unionworks
(3,574 posts)They should have been protested noisily
Boudica the Lyoness
(2,899 posts)for women to use the best form of birth control......no sex!
They are the American Taliban!