Democratic Women Boycott House Contraception Hearing-Rethugs Prevent Women From Testifying

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/02/16/426850/democratic-women-boycott-issas-contraception-hearing-for-preventing-women-from-testifying/

Democratic Women Boycott House Contraception Hearing After Republicans Prevent Women From Testifying

By Igor Volsky on Feb 16, 2012 at 10:52 am


This morning, Democrats tore into House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) for preventing women and minorities from testifying before a hearing examining the Obama administration’s new regulation requiring employers and insurers to provide contraception coverage to their employees. Republicans oppose the administration’s rule and have sponsored legislation that would allow employers to limit the availability of birth control to women.

Ranking committee member Elijah Cummings (D-MD) had asked Issa to include a female witness at the hearing, but the Chairman refused, arguing that “As the hearing is not about reproductive rights and contraception but instead about the Administration’s actions as they relate to freedom of religion and conscience, he believes that Ms. Fluke is not an appropriate witness.”

And so Cummings, along with the Democratic women on the panel, took their request to the hearing room, demanding that Issa consider the testimony of a female college student. But the California congressman insisted that the hearing should focus on the rules’ alleged infringement on “religious liberty,” not contraception coverage, and denied the request. Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) walked out of the hearing in protest of his decision, citing frustration over the fact that the first panel of witnesses consisted only of male religious leaders against the rule. Holmes Norton said she will not return, calling Issa’s chairmanship an “autocratic regime.”

Watch a compilation of the heated exchange @ link~

A picture of the witness table:


Issa also dismissed the Democrats’ woman witness as a “college student’ who does not “have the appropriate credentials” to testify before his committee.

[hifiguy]

1. There really are not words to express

how disgusting this is. The misogyny of the Repukes is no longer disguised even in the slightest anymore.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. Maybe in a way, it's good

that their true colors have been revealed. Doing this will be their downfall. They have reached the "scorched earth" phase where they know their demise is imminent and we will finally be able to watch them flame out of existence.

[Fawke Em]

3. Not only is this group compromised of men only,

but this group is mostly also made up of men who would never, ever, ever need birth control (if they are, indeed, "pious" priests). How the fuck are they experts? Are they doctors? Are they fathers (biological, not representational)? WOULD THEY EVER, EVER, EVER NEED TO TAKE BIRTH CONTROL?!

The answer, of course, is a big fat NO!

[Matariki]

4. Ha ha. That picture sums it up.

I'm actually GLAD there's not one women on this bullshit kangaroo panel - as it stands, that photo shows it for what it truly is.

[lumberjack_jeff]

5. This is really disgusting.

An additional way to look at those five assholes is to note that they are all employers who want the ability to exercise their "moral responsibility" to control their employees off the clock behavior and medical decisions.

And to the Republican guys who think that this is all okay; you haven't noticed that unplanned/unwanted pregnancy has a downside for you too?

Fuck theocracy.