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Title: Democratic Women Boycott House Contraception Hearing After Republicans Prevent Women From Testifying
Source:
http://thinkprogress.org
URL Source: http://thinkprogress.org/health/201 ... venting-women-from-testifying/
Published: Feb 16, 2012
Author: Igor Volsky
Post Date: 2012-02-16 15:42:35 by Ferret Mike
Keywords: None
Views: 38047
Comments: 90
This morning, Democrats tore into House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) for preventing women 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: ky 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 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: 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.
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#1. To: Ferret Mike (#0)
Does freedom of religion mean the Church has the right to dictate to women who are not Catholic regarding their health care choices?
The Catholics are particularly inconsiderate about how they do the health care business. They should respect the reproductive rights of women and offer contraceptives to those wanting them if they are providing health care for the community at large. Contraceptives give coupes and women the control of when and how many children they have. And good family planning reduces abortion as four out of ten women who have unwanted pregnancies get abortions to end the pregnancy. Some me like women in general to lack reproductive control as this translates to more control of women in general. It can keep them from a career and out of the job market, and gives men more leverage over them in other aspects of life. They did allow me to cover the crucifix on the wall of my hospital room when I was a patient at Sacred Heart hospital in Eugene after I nearly dided in a fall doing activism. They were not happy I did that, but they could not argue about that point of order. I have never been happy with Sacred Wallet anyway, and they remembered me from the protest concerning the third parking garage they built near the Eugene Oregon hospital campus. Peace health still has that property, but they have replaced the hospital with a larger one in next door Springfield Oregon which was more agreeable to their zoning and size requirements than Eugene was.
There are no replies to Comment # 3. End Trace Mode for Comment # 3.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest“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.”
#3. To: lucysmom (#1)
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