Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Bad bills are never really dead until sine die. Political chicanery through back room deals and "strike everything" amendments allows bad bills that are dead to return to life. That is what happened today. The Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required) reports Senate OKs bill to allow employers to deny contraception coverage; but … Read more
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The GOP war on women returns today in the Arizona Tea-Publican legislature.
First, the bad news. The Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required) reports Bill banning abortions after 20 weeks sent to Brewer – Arizona Capitol Times. It is actually less than 20 weeks, based on how the bill calculates time from the menstruation cycle, making Arizona one of the most restrictive states for a safe, legal abortion.
The House’s vote of 37-22 on Tuesday sends the bill to Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican who has signed previous anti-abortion legislation.
Besides the 20-week ban, the bill’s other requirements include mandating the state establish a web site with images of fetuses at various stages of development for women to view.
The 20-week abortion ban would affect only a tiny percentage of abortions performed in Arizona.
The state would join six other states that have similar bans.
Now the good news, at least for today. It appears bill sponsors cannot convince two Tea-Publicans to switch their votes following the defeat of the "baby Blunt" bill last week that would allow any employer to object to a health insurance plan providing coverage for female contraception based on religious or moral objections.
by Pamela Powers Hannley
No longer just a punchline from Blazing Saddles— "Where are all the women at?" became a rallying cry for feminists across the country when a male-dominated Congressional committee refused to allow women to testify about insurance coverage for birth control.
Two Congresswomen– Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Eleanor Holmes (D-DC)–walked out of the committee hearings because no women were included in the list of wittnesses dominated by male religious leaders. Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif) made the now-infamous decision to block Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke from testifying and labeled her an "inappropriate" wittness.
That fateful day in February, the Republican Party's latest barrage in the War on Women unfolded.
What began as political grandstanding on contraception coverage in the Affordable Care Act, snowballed into dozens of invasive, crackpot bills proposed by Republican Legislatures across the country. Requiring women to submit to (and pay for) vaginal ultrasound examinations prior to having an abortion, requiring women to watch an abortion before having one, giving employers the right to deny insurance coverage for contraception based upon any vague "moral" grounds, giving employers the right to question female employees about their contraception usage, defunding Planned Parenthood and other organizations that perform abortions… the list goes on.
Couple these bills with the Bible-thumping piety from all of the Republican Presidential candidates, most notably Rick Santorum, and you have a bare-knuckle fist fight over women's health, contraception, and choice.
Two months into this latest round in the War on Women, the Republican attack on the country's largest voting block has resulted in an 18-point lead by President Obama among women voters. Obama leads R2publican challenger Mitt Romney 2:1 with women under 50.
On the local level, Republican candidates for CD8 (former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords' district) have all jumped on the anti-woman bandwagon–ironically, even Martha McSally. In a recent Arizona Public Media televised debate, candidates Frank Antenori, Jesse Kelly, Dave Sitton, and McSally all agreed that contraception should not be covered by insurance, that a fetus' life sacred (unlike the lives of people they would bomb), and that women don't have the right to choose. Senatorial candidate, right-to-lifer, and current Arizona Congressman Jeff Flake–a hardened Teapublican–voted for the Blunt Ammendment which would have vastly expanded conscience exemptions to birth control coverage.
As for the Democrats, Senatorial candidate and former Surgeon General Dr. Richard Carmona has been the most outspoken critic of the Republcan's wrongheaded fight against women's health. In a commentary on the Huffington Post, Carmona wrote, "A recent push to block women from getting access to contraception shows the Arizona legislature is not operating from an evidence-based or reality-based point of view."
Congressman Raul Grijalva and Phoenix-area State Senator and Congressional candidate Kyrsten Sinema also have made strong statements, attacking the Republicans' War on Women.
In my opinion, the political upshot of the War on Women will be a rebirth of the feminist movement. You can see it on facebook and Twitter; social media has fueled the outrage. Prime examples are the backlash against Rush Limbaugh for his slutty comments about Fluke (and resultant loss of advertisers) and the flood of bad publicity targeting the Komen Foundation when it tried to defund Planned Parenthood (and the resultant fundraising loss to Koman and boon to PP).
You can also see it in the nationwide Unite Against the War on Women movement, which is organizing women and protest marches across the country on April 28– including a march in Phoenix. Although the Republicans wanted to frame the anti-abortion and anti-contraception debate as a fight for religious freedom, it is all too obvious a continuation of their long-standing War on Women. They can't put this genie back in the bottle.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: The job interview to which no woman should ever be subjected. Unite Against the War on Women March Saturday, April 28, 10:00 a.m.: The national "Unite Against the War on Women" March, sponsored by UniteWomen.org at the AZ State Capitol Building – House Lawn, 1700 W. Washington. Help defend women's rights and … Read more
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Transcript via Daily Kos:
For you, and for most Americans, protecting women's health is a mission that stands above politics. And yet, over the past year, you've had to stand up to politicians who want to deny millions of women the care they rely on, and inject themselves into decisions that are best made between a woman and her doctor.
Let's be clear here: Women are not an interest group.
They're mothers, and daughters, and sisters, and wives. They're half of this country. They're perfectly capable of making their own choices about their health.
So we're grateful that, through it all, you never forgot who you're fighting for: The woman with a new lease on life because a mammogram caught her cancer in time; the woman who can sleep easier at night because of a cervical cancer screening; the woman who is able to choose when to start a family, because she could afford contraception.
So when some professional politicians casually say that they'll "get rid of" Planned Parenthood, don't forget what they're really talking about: Eliminating the funding for preventive care that millions of women rely on, and leaving them to fend for themselves.
That's why, last year, when Republicans in Congress threatened to shut down the government unless we stopped funding Planned Parenthood, I had a simple answer: No.
But we know this debate is far from over. We must continue to send the message loud and clear: If you truly value families, you shouldn't play politics with a woman's health.
It's why I know that Planned Parenthood will continue providing care, no matter what. I know you'll never stop fighting to protect the healthcare and the choices that America's women deserve.
As long as I have the privilege of being your president, neither will I. Thanks.
Video below thwe fold.