Conservatives Attack Public Funding for Birth Control

[Austin]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/09 ... th-control

emphasis mine

"They've called it preventative medicine. Preventative medicine," said Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, on the House floor last month, shortly after the Obama administration adopted the recommendations of an expert panel and agreed to add contraceptives to a list of services insurance plans will be required to provide without a deductible or copayment. "Well, if you apply that preventative medicine universally, what you end up with is you've prevented a generation. Preventing babies from being born is not medicine."

Some opponents, like conservative commentator Sandy Rios, say subsidizing birth control is simply too expensive in an era of tight budgets. "We have $14 trillion in debt, and now we're going to cover birth control?" she said on Fox News, adding, "Are we going to do pedicures and manicures as well? I think that would be a good idea."

Others, such as Jeffrey Kuhner, president of the conservative Edmund Burke Institute, say birth control is no less than an affront to God. "In short, liberals want to create a world without God and sexual permissiveness is their battering ram. Promoting widespread contraception is essential to forging a pagan society based on consequence-free sex," he wrote in an opinion piece for the Washington Times.

If you listen to the report on NPR (an option once you click on the page with the article), you will hear Sean Hannity defend paying for Viagra because it is for a "medical problem" while birth control is just about women making the choice to have sex.

He's a real peach, isn't he?

[mirele]

They're all real peaches. Real ROTTEN peaches. Time to toss 'em all out. We shouldn't be accepting of these views in political discourse.

[gardenvarietycitizen]

Yeah, heard this this morning and almost choked on my breakfast. Then I yelled at the radio, not going to deny...

[libmomj]

Let them whip themselves up into a lather and make it a campaign issue. Hopefully it will turn millions of mainstream Republican women and young men (who don't want a bunch of kids just yet) away from the party that has sold out to the religious right. We can hope anyway.

[slickcat79]

So...they don't want to pay for women to prevent pregnancy in the first place. But they don't want to pay for the support of children born to poor women either. Something doesn't compute :doh:

This, along with the "Women Deserve Better" video, reminded me of a local news article that I read yesterday:

http://www.wral.com/news/state/nccapito ... /10094015/

According to the GOP, cutting funding from a preK program for low-income families is a GREAT way to save the state money. Too bad that pesky state constitution requires us to provide a quality education for every child. Plus the fact that starting education on a level footing is a really great way for kids to succeed in school and hopefully avoid the poverty trap that is becoming increasingly difficult to climb out of. Damn those activist judges! :roll:

[Joykins]

1. There are plenty of people in the world, including the next generation.

2. The government is not PAYING for this birth control; it's requiring insurance companies to cover it with no direct cost to the patient covered.

3. Jeffrey Kuhner is a horse's ass.

[Lainey]

I always wonder what these people would have someone like me do--I have to take the pill, or my period never stops, and it also becomes extremely heavy (abnormally so). So what would happen to women like me if these crazy bastards got their way?

[starfish]

Laney, I doubt the whacknuts have ever considered the medical reasons besides the function of birth control that necessitates the pill. That would involve not seeing things in black and white, and actually paying attention to details. And what's the fun in that? It's easier to scream about "the babies" at the top of your lungs.

If government programs or insurance stopped paying for Viagra, there would be an outbreak of rioting here the likes of which have never been seen before, including London and Egypt. The men must have their Viagra!!!! It's a "medical problem". I guess the medical problem is the need for a 24 hour erection. Seriously. Remember when Rush Limbaugh was arrested for possession of thousands of Viagra pills when he went on vacation.....by himself!!!

[Joykins]

I've reconsidered any objection I had to covering Viagra after my husband had to try a bunch of medication for a neurological problem. Some of them had a side effect that Viagra could help, sadly (luckily the one that helps the most doesn't). I don't have a lot of patience with people using it for giggles, but if it helps a person lead a normal married life I'm all for it. Why can't we treat both men's and women's bodies with respect, knowing that healthy people should be able to control their family size and function sexually?

[ADoyle90815]

I also yelled at the radio, especially since I was on my way to a gyn appointment so I could get a refill on my birth control pills. :twisted: George Carlin was right in saying that people like that are anti-woman, as they don't care that there are other reasons women use birth control pills that have nothing to do with preventing pregnancy. They don't want to prevent pregnancies, yet they don't want to provide funding for healthcare and even education for the unplanned babies that would be born. I only hope that this leads women and men who don't want a lot of kids they couldn't afford to care for on their own to leave the Republican party as it's been hijacked by the religious fanatics.

[Austin]

I've reconsidered any objection I had to covering Viagra after my husband had to try a bunch of medication for a neurological problem. Some of them had a side effect that Viagra could help, sadly (luckily the one that helps the most doesn't). I don't have a lot of patience with people using it for giggles, but if it helps a person lead a normal married life I'm all for it. Why can't we treat both men's and women's bodies with respect, knowing that healthy people should be able to control their family size and function sexually?

I don't think most women who care about this issue are saying that men should not be able to get Viagra. But it is intellectually dishonest to cry "medical problem" to justify Viagra coverage and consider contraception just a choice-to-have-sex-issue. Let's face it, they are both about having sex (except when the pill is used for medical reasons, which is fairly common).

edited for clarity

[Rosa]

Lainey, a friend of mine with similar problems was told by various idiots she should have a baby and see if that solved it. For real.

[Austin]

Lainey, a friend of mine with similar problems was told by various idiots she should have a baby and see if that solved it. For real.

:shock:

Because that's a fantastic "reason" to have a child, right?

[fundiefan]

1. There are plenty of people in the world, including the next generation.

2. The government is not PAYING for this birth control; it's requiring insurance companies to cover it with no direct cost to the patient covered.

3. Jeffrey Kuhner is a horse's ass.

This.

[Rosa]

I know, Austin. Crazy, right?

People seem to think what you need is a reason NOT to have another baby ,not a good reason to have one.

[darareaksmey]

Ye gods. People like these just make me want to check out of the human race. There is no reasoning with them. I'm just sorry there was no government-funded birth control available to Jeffrey Kuhner's and Steve King's mothers. It sure could have saved the rest of us a lot of annoyance.

[Lainey]

Starfish, you're probably right. Still, I would like to ask one of them this sometime.

Rosa, a doctor told that to my mother, who had similar problems when she was a teenager. I think it straightened out eventually, but I don't know if having my brother or me helped. :think:

[starfish]

I actually have no problem with Viagra being covered, but I do sort of resent men thinking its a "given' that it will be, when women have to fight tooth and nail to get b.c. covered. I recall that when George W. Bush was first elected, he toyed with the idea of stripping coverage for b.c. from federal employee insurance.

I have a relative who's an M.D. and works at various small emergency rooms around the state. He said you'd be surprised how many older men come in, wanting Viagra. They say they have no trouble achieving an erection with their younger male lovers, but need the Viagra when they have sex with their wife. :oops: I mean, each to their own, but I had no idea...

[Stickers]

Oh, that's such BS that Viagra is always used for a "medical problem", it's use as a recreational drug is very popular and it's used by people whose issue are psychological (not to say that's not an valid issue).

I hate these people, if they could they would make birth control insanely expensive (not ban it, because you know they'd still need it for when they cheat on their wives) so it's out of reach for people or spending the money to get it will keep them in their place. And you just know some of these are the same people freaked out by the fact minorty populations have higher birth rates then whites :doh: