Do you think men are qualified to make decisions regarding women's health concerns? Birth control remains at the height of concern in the government. A congressional committee made the positive step forward of holding a panel on contraception, but they made the seemingly unfortunate mistake of forgetting to include anyone who actually has a female reproductive system on the panel.
That's right. A panel dedicated to talking about contraception with zero women weighing in. As you can imagine, women and men everywhere are expressing their dissatisfaction with the panel and its members.
According to an article on Politico.com, Democrat Representatives Carolyn Maloney and Eleanor Holmes Norton walked out in protest of the panel. Maloney summed it up when she said, "What I want to know is, where are the women?" Both Maloney and Norton felt that Chairman Darrell Issa was manipulating committee rules by blocking women from being on the panel.
Maloney said, "I look at this panel [of witnesses], and I don't see one single individual representing the tens of millions of women across the country who want and need insurance coverage for basic preventive health care services, including family planning."
To bring a little background to the piece, a debate of whether or not employers should be required to cover their female employees' birth control is a hot topic. Many feel this should be a simple matter of a health debate and whether or not it should fall under the financial responsibility of the company to provide birth control for their female employees.
Naturally, however, the debate has spun into a religious debate between Democrats and Republicans. An argument that is coming forward surrounds the Catholic Church. Many Catholics do not support birth control. Some do not feel like they should be forced to provide contraception to their employees. However, take the instance of a Roman Catholic hospital. If a woman who does not identify with the Catholic faith happens to gain employment at a Roman Catholic Church, should she be allowed to get birth control through her employer's insurance? This is a frequent argument presented by those who feel contraception should be offered in coverage. GOP hopefuls Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich all voiced their opinions at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Romney is a well-known Mormon, although he has toned down his religious impact in the 2012 election after it halted his progress in 2008. Romney has been accused of flipping opinions when it comes to these issues. His latest goal is that he will allow religious freedom to reign again by overturning rulings that came through in the Obama administration.
Santorum has been labeled as a "religious fanatic" and has called President Barack Obama's plan for contraception a "coercion," according to an article in The Hill. In that article, Santorum is quoted as saying, "We've seen the president of the United States not only tell you what insurance coverage you should have, how much you're going to pay, how much you're going to be fined if you don't, but now he's telling the Catholic Church that they are forced to pay for things that are against their basic tenets and teachings, against their First Amendment right." Gingrich sounded the same argument Romney and Santorum vocalized. He too feels like Obama is attacking and will continue to attack the Catholic Church. All three have grabbed this idea and are trying to wedge it into support for the GOP side.
According to an article in The Grind Stone, a law student by the name of Sandra Fluke was to sit on the panel. Her approach was to look at birth control as a health care issue. Republicans did not agree with that request, arguing they wanted to discuss religious liberty. Fluke, according to Issa, was not qualified to testify about religious liberty.
This is not a completely man versus women argument. Representative Ann Marie Buerkle is also cited in the Politico.com article as agreeing with Issa. She stated, "I really find it so objectionable that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle would characterize this as something so narrow as being about contraception. This is a fundamental assault on one's conscience." Ranking Democrat Elijah Cummings echoed the voices of Maloney and Norton, feeling as though the Republican Party had committed a massive injustice by ignoring the viewpoints of millions of women across the country. Norton made a motion to force a vote to seat Fluke due to the fact that he was breaking committee rules (according to Norton). Fluke ignored the motion, prompting Maloney and Norton to vacate the room.
The argument right now is the argument that a panel dealing with elements of women's health should have at least one woman to represent women's voices on a congressional panel. According to the government census in 2010, 50.8 percent of the U.S. population was women. With half the population being of the female sex, it makes sense that many would be angered by a 100 percent male panel making rules over contraception. What do you think about this debate? Should a woman have been present for the panel? Or do you believe the panel should have merely remained at religious liberty conversations and the all male panel did not pose an issue? Email rotundaeditor@gmail.com with your opinion.
