I read this article, Fox ‘Expert’ Blasts Expanding Access To Birth Control: ‘Are We Going To Do Pedicures And Manicures As Well?’ on ThinkProgress today and I thought my head was going to explode.
The Fox talking head started out on the video talking about the "firestorm" of controversy that surrounds the recent decision by the Department of Health & Human Services to mandate that preventative services be provided to women at no extra cost to them. This includes things like:
* well-woman visits;
* screening for gestational diabetes;
* human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA testing for women 30 years and older;
* sexually-transmitted infection counseling;
* human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) screening and counseling;
* FDA-approved contraception methods and contraceptive counseling;
* breastfeeding support, supplies, and counseling; and
* domestic violence screening and counseling.
Oh my word! A victory for women and women's health in the midst of a huge national pushback against all that women have gained in the last 150+ years.
Most sane people look at this issue and can't understand why this is an issue at all. What you have to understand is that most of those against this measure are privileged, white, and religious. They think their answers are the answers for all of us. They also have a "let them eat cake" mentality in which everyone must have the same advantages that they have.
The Fox "Expert", Sandy Rios, tries to compare basic women's healthcare to "manicures and pedicures". Wow. Just wow. The woman pulls out the "women are idiots" card... really, did she have to go there? Basic healthcare vs. cosmetic procedures? It really illustrates how much she values herself and the members of her own sex. The commentator in the pro-DHSS decision slot, Jehmu Greene, uses facts & figures to illustrate the positive public health and individual aspects of the ruling. At the end of the interview, Greene accuses Rios of putting her ideology above public health and Rios agrees and then accuses Greene of making science look bad...?!
Rios really lays her cards on the table, however, when she worries about women having unrestrained sex or misusing the morning after pill (Supposedly men in Britain were taking underage girls to get the contraception after nights of sex.) It's all about women having autonomy, especially sexual autonomy. Heaven forbid that women define themselves in their own terms and not in relation to men!
The war against contraception is not new, it has been the next logical step for the Religious Right all along once they felt they had abortion in the bag. They just didn't show their hand until the first patch of abortion ground was mostly won. But it started years ago with the small, but noticeable, push to allow pharmacists and other healthcare providers the freedom to use a "conscientious objector" status as an excuse to not dispense birth control pills, morning after pills, RU-486, etc. They also have tried for years to peddle the lie that birth control is a form of abortion.
"Those stupid women have to pay for their mistakes" is an underlying theme that often falls under "Personal Responsibility". (Mind you, I think there is a lot more personal responsibility that people can take in a lot of areas, but birth control is all about taking personal responsibility.) Just a few weeks ago, the renowned misogynist Bill O'Reilly stated, "Many women who get pregnant are blasted out of their minds when they have sex. They’re not going to use birth control anyway." More questioning the judgement and intelligence of women... and it would follow that women shouldn't be allowed to be responsible for themselves... another unspoken meme of the Right. Even Michelle Bachmann was "told" by her husband to run for Congress... well alrighty then.
Women need to wake up and see that the war against abortion and birth control is only where these people are starting. Women also need to understand that the rights we enjoy, save for ONE, are only laws, not writ into the Constitution. Our rights can be easily overturned by the right group of "well-meaning" lawmakers, as we have seen with the huge anti-abortion push of 2011. In state after state, South Dakota, Kansas, Ohio, Louisiana, Georgia, Missouri, Nebraska, etc. anti-abortion legislation has taken the lead over jobs, education, or anything that might substantively help people. Now in several states, women can be investigated if they have a miscarriage and jailed if there is even the slightest whiff of suspicion of her having caused it or even said something about being at all unhappy about the pregnancy.
The so-called conservatives seem to have this idyllic view of pregnant women as all soft-focused, contemplative, gently happy beings for whom motherhood is the greatest joy and ultimate womanly destiny. Anything that detracts from this view is aberrant and must be done away with, or at least strong-armed back into line, even if it takes jailing her to prevent her attempts at getting an abortion. Two novels of a dystopian future come to my mind at this time, one being the famous Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood and the other Gibbon's Decline and Fall by Sheri S. Tepper. In the former, fertile women are forced to bear the children of the leaders of a right wing religious regime, after having had their own children removed from them and their names being stripped from them, being known only as Ofglen or Offred. In the latter, pregnant women are held against their will to be impregnated and give birth.
But back to the law vs. the Constitution, the Right to Vote is the only one women have that is enshrined in the Constitution. If you want to see what it took to get women just that one right, I recommend watching Not For Ourselves Alone. It wasn't a walk in the park, it took SEVENTY-TWO years to win the right to vote. And during the time that struggle was going on, some legislative gains were being made to give women the right to own property and not be the property of their husbands. But during the Civil War, those right began to be eroded while the country was distracted and constant vigilance wasn't applied.
All the laws that pertain to women's rights can be dialed back or repealed. Slowly but surely the legislative and judicial tide is being turned back to erode the gains women have made over time. There is no real pay equity despite things like the Lilly Ledbetter act being signed into law in 2009. And women were stripped of their right to file class action lawsuits regarding pay and advancement with the Supreme Court's Wal-Mart ruling.
Here is where we need the Equal Right Amendment. Women's rights need to be a part of the constitution just as rights for blacks and other minorities. The ERA is a very simple statement that women are equal and will be treated as such...
Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.
Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.
The right wing fought it like mad in the 1970s, effectively killing it just 3 states shy of ratification. They used the same fear tactics we see them using today, bringing in unrelated concerns about women in combat and potty parity... just like with the debt ceiling debacle which should have never been tied to anything but raising the debt ceiling... but I really won't go there.
Wake up, be aware, fight for your rights.
8/4/11: Had to add this humorous post script from the incomparable Stephen Colbert:http://www.colbertnation.com/...