The radical extremism of the GOP war on women

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

There was the threat to shut down the federal government over a Tea-Publican plan to defund Planned Parenthood. There was the Susan G. Komen Fund attempt to defund Planned Parenthood. There is a similar bill to defund Planned Parenthood in the Tea-Publican Arizona legislature.

There was the "Blunt Amendment" that by which Tea-Publicans sought to give employers preferential status to determine the health care coverage of individual employees, in particular contraception coverage for women. There is a similar bill in the Arizona Tea-Publican legislature that has passed the Senate.

Just how radically extreme is this GOP war on women? A Bloomberg poll out today holds the answer. Republicans Losing on Birth Control as 77% in Poll Spurn Debate – Bloomberg:

Americans overwhelmingly regard the debate over President Barack Obama’s policy on employer-provided contraceptive coverage as a matter of women’s health, not religious freedom, rejecting Republicans’ rationale for opposing the rule. More than three-quarters say the topic shouldn’t even be a part of the U.S. political debate.

More than six in 10 respondents to a Bloomberg National Poll — including almost 70 percent of women — say the issue involves health care and access to birth control, according to the survey taken March 8-11.

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The results suggest the Republican candidates’ focus on contraception is out of sync with the U.S. public. Seventy-seven percent of poll respondents say birth control shouldn’t be a topic of the political debate, while 20 percent say it should.

As for Rush Limbaugh’s misogynistic comments about Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke, "men are split over whether the radio host should be let go from his job — 49 percent say so, while 47 percent disagree. Fifty-six percent of women support the move compared with 39 percent who don’t. Almost one in three Republicans, 30 percent, say Limbaugh should be fired for the remarks."

In a press release from the Arizona Democratic Party today, Interim Chair Harriet Young had this to say:

Arizona, National GOP seek to restrict access to contraception, strip rights away from women in the workplace

NEWS RELEASE
Mar. 14, 2012

PHOENIX, AZ–Harriet Young, Interim Chair of the Arizona Democratic Party, issued the following statement on the horrifying Republican proposals to tell Arizonans when and how to raise their families:

"The Republican obsession with inserting government into women's healthcare continues unabated, both at the State Capitol and in Washington. At the Federal level, Mitt Romney has once again shown there are no limits to what he will say to pander to the extreme far right wing of the Republican Party – even offering to put the health care of millions of American women at risk if it means scoring a few cheap points with his party’s base. Since supporting the Blunt Amendment, Mississippi’s personhood bill and flip flopping on abortion rights aren’t helping Mitt Romney close the deal with his party’s base, Mitt Romney has now decided to try an even more extreme and desperate strategy by promising to get rid of a 95-year old organization that one in five American women has depended on for health care services."

"Unfortunately, Arizona's Tea Party Legislature has taken up the mantle of restricting women's healthcare by passing HB 2625, which would allow employers to indiscriminately strip contraception coverage from employee health plans, effectively taking the decision to use birth control away from women and placing it instead in the hands of their boss. Not only that, it goes so far as to require women who receive prescriptions for birth control to prove to their bosses that they aren't using their medication for contraceptive purposes."

"This unacceptable intrusion into the relationship between a woman and her doctor isn't even the end of it. Because of Arizona's at-will employment laws, an employer would be free to fire a female employee for using birth control. All of Arizona's citizens should be alarmed at the Tea Party Legislature's persistent desire to tell Arizonans when and how to raise their families. This historic attack on the rights of women in the workplace cannot go unanswered. I call on women of all parties to stand up to this misogynistic legislation by signing our petition here."