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C'mon, America: 51% Say Birth Control Should Be Optional For Employers To Provide
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Mar 13, 2012
Modified Mar 13, 2012
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By
Christopher Robbins
Published Mar 13, 2012
Modified Mar 13, 2012
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Remember The Komen! A recent CBS/New York Times poll [pdf] shows that 51% of voters support letting any employer "opt out" of covering the cost of birth control for religious or moral objections, with 40% saying that employers should pick up the tab. Will
President JohnsonCampaign Obama tack to the right,
or will people realize that family planning is one of the top ten public health achievements of the last century?
The question is based on the Blunt Amendment, a GOP-sponsored bill that would have allowed (if it weren't defeated) any employer to force "round-heeled sluts" to pay for their own baby-killing pills. Aspirin is still available at your local bodega.
In other "are we living in the fucking 50s?" news, Texas is attempting to one-up Virginia (apparently the death penalty trophy isn't enough) with HB-15, a bill that would require women seeking abortion to be subjected to a sonogram, be shown live images of the fetus and play audio of the heartbeat, if there is one. This would happen 24 hours before the abortion is scheduled.
In response, Doonesbury has featured a storyline of what it would be like for women under HB-15: One panel has a Texas legislator posing as a doctor telling the woman, "On behalf of Governor Perry, may I welcome you to your compulsory transvaginal exam" and another comparing the exam to rape—and here are today's and yesterday's, featuring "a shaming room."
"The bill says that in order for a woman to obtain a perfectly legal medical procedure, she is first compelled by law to endure a vaginal probe with a hard, plastic 10-inch wand," the strip's author Gary Trudeau told the Washington Post. "The World Health Organization defines rape as 'physically forced or otherwise coerced penetration—even if slight—of the vulva or anus, using a penis, other body parts or an object.' You tell me the difference."
Forty percent of women earn more than their husbands. Women also make up more than half of college and university students, and 61% of graduate programs. 99% of all women have used contraception at some point in their lives. But yet, men just know what the right thing to do is. Trust us.
Tagged
abortion
birth control
contraception
gop
komen
living in the 1950s
pro choice
pro-life
republicans
texas
Christopher Robbins
Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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