The Bishops, the Republicans, and women
Recently I posted a video of Catholic Georgetown University law student Sandra (not Susan) Fluke saying what she would have said at a congressional hearing on contraception, had she been allowed ....
Since then, Rush Limbaugh has called her a slut and a prostitute and has asked her and other women who use contraception to post sex videos online. Here's a bit about all this from Amy Davidson's New Yorker blog ...
Has Limbaugh Identified the G.O.P.’s Woman Problem?
On Friday, President Obama called a law student at Georgetown to tell her not to take it to heart that Rush Limbaugh had called her a prostitute .... On Wednesday, Limbaugh called her “a slut” .... And here is Limbaugh’s response, on Thursday, to the anger those remarks caused, which he found “Absolutely hilarious… that has sent them into orbit!” He added, “Look, at least I didn’t call her ‘a woman driver,’ ” and mused on whether lesbians need contraception.
* "So, Ms. Fluke and the rest of you feminazis, here’s the deal: If we are going to pay for your contraceptives and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it. And I’ll tell you what it is. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch." *
And that, roughly, is where the Republican party has dragged the debate on women’s health in this country—a demand for sex videos. When the Blunt amendment, which would have given employers broad leeway to dispense with contraceptive coverage on religious or “moral” grounds, was debated in the Senate this week, its proponents argued that it was not about women, but about the freedom of religion—even though there are exemptions for churches, and the “moral” clause is wide enough to encompass an aversion to almost anything .....
And this bit about the US Bishops from U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt's amendment on contraception defeated ....
On the eve of the vote, the Catholic bishops' office issued a memorandum branding as "preposterous" Democrats' claims that millions of women could lose health care services.
I keep thinking that my opinion of the Republican party and the US Catholic Bishops can't sink any lower, but they keep proving me wrong.
Since then, Rush Limbaugh has called her a slut and a prostitute and has asked her and other women who use contraception to post sex videos online. Here's a bit about all this from Amy Davidson's New Yorker blog ...
Has Limbaugh Identified the G.O.P.’s Woman Problem?
On Friday, President Obama called a law student at Georgetown to tell her not to take it to heart that Rush Limbaugh had called her a prostitute .... On Wednesday, Limbaugh called her “a slut” .... And here is Limbaugh’s response, on Thursday, to the anger those remarks caused, which he found “Absolutely hilarious… that has sent them into orbit!” He added, “Look, at least I didn’t call her ‘a woman driver,’ ” and mused on whether lesbians need contraception.
* "So, Ms. Fluke and the rest of you feminazis, here’s the deal: If we are going to pay for your contraceptives and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it. And I’ll tell you what it is. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch." *
And that, roughly, is where the Republican party has dragged the debate on women’s health in this country—a demand for sex videos. When the Blunt amendment, which would have given employers broad leeway to dispense with contraceptive coverage on religious or “moral” grounds, was debated in the Senate this week, its proponents argued that it was not about women, but about the freedom of religion—even though there are exemptions for churches, and the “moral” clause is wide enough to encompass an aversion to almost anything .....
And this bit about the US Bishops from U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt's amendment on contraception defeated ....
On the eve of the vote, the Catholic bishops' office issued a memorandum branding as "preposterous" Democrats' claims that millions of women could lose health care services.
I keep thinking that my opinion of the Republican party and the US Catholic Bishops can't sink any lower, but they keep proving me wrong.
posted by crystal | 9:40 PM
2 Comments:
The original reaction by the US Bishops was sound...the original legislation overreached. Religious organizations WOULD have been required to pay for coverage that they had a moral objection to. I think there's a good argument that different sides could have on that one.
BUT... after the proposal was changed to remove the cost of coverage and shift it to the insurance companies, I think the best thing that the bishops could have done was to say "THANK YOU," and take the victory. Instead, they've jumped into the boat with... Rush.
Yeuchh. He makes me sick.
Yeah, he seems to pander to the lowest common denominator.
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