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It was bad enough when Obama involved Rick Warren, one of the most vicious and fanatical misogynists in US history, in the inauguration. Now, Obama's sexism is affecting policy. From ABC News 1/27/09:
House Democrats have agreed to drop family planning funds for the low-income from an $825 billion economic stimulus bill.
The contraceptive provision was dropped after President Barack Obama placed a call to Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., on Monday. Waxman is the chairman of the committee that inserted the contraception provision into the stimulus package last week.
Obama asked him to remove the measure from the bill, according to a Democratic congressional aide familiar with the call, and the decision was made by House Democrats on Tuesday to do so.
Under the scuttled contraceptive provision, states would have been able to offer family planning services -- including contraceptives -- under Medicaid, the government health program for the poor, without having to obtain federal permission.
Contraception is just as legitimate as any other kind of healthcare. Keeping contraceptive funding out of Medicaid is pure sex discrimination against women. There is no legitimate reason for anyone to object to such funding.
Misogynists have tried to claim that the funding has nothing to do with stimulating the economy. This is a flat out lie. Keeping family planning clinics open and fully staffed protects jobs, stimulating the economy.
President Obama has shown that women's rights and women's lives are less important than pandering to far right Republicans who will resist his agenda no matter what he does. This leaves one question.
Why doesn't Barack Obama respect women?
I think it is likely you'll see that funding appear in the normal budget rather than in this package.
Take a look at this from Democracy Now! "This is what a feminist looks like..." on the cover of Ms. magazine.
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/1/27/ms_magazine_on_barack_obama_this
He's learning the hard way that it is impossible to suck up to the radical, rightwing and hope it results in something positive.
Jimmy: That's the dodge that Obama has been using, but be careful. If you have been involved in a civil rights or other social movement, you find out really quick that "later" really means "never."
JayV: LOL, I bet the folks at Ms. Magazine are kicking themselves for this cover
Christopher: Yup, Obama needs to realize that he may be able to reach out to individual Republicans, but the leadership is determined to destroy him.
I agree with you on most things GLH, but I gotta call bullshit on this one. Medicaid is to be used for treatment of health conditions, not for prevention of health conditions. The Waxman provision
a) has nothing to do with stimulus, and should not be inserted into stimulus legislation.
b) will most likely be rewritten and passed as a separate measure. Democrats (including Obama) support this sort of legislation. Check Waxman's website.
Your emotional headline and alarmist text is misleading, at least, possibly blatantly untrue. We liberals often get angry at the right for that, don't we?
That is very peculiar. I hope Jimmy is right.
Frozen Inaugural Balls: Your facts are incredibly wrong. Medicaid is routinely used for vaccinations, which are preventative care. As for your other two claims:
a) I pointed out the fact that providing birth control services also provides jobs, stimulating the economy. The claim that birth control services have nothing to do with economic stimulus is a lie being originating from woman-hating Christian extremists. You really should think for yourself rather than blindly going along with a claim which is so obviously silly.
b) As I pointed out in the comments before, when politicians say "later," they almost always mean never. Even in the best case scenario, many women will be discriminated against in the interim.
The title of my blog posting was 100% fair and accurate. Facts don't stop being facts because they upset your political agendas and allegiances. Barack Obama has some serious problems with women and lgbt people. These are issues our country must face head on, rather than living in denial.
Defending Obama no matter what he does is no better than when GOP bloggers defended Bush no matter what he did.
Per Talking Points Memo:
"A source who was at the White House signing ceremony today says Obama offered assurances that the family planning dollars stripped from the stimulus package will be back in an upcoming spending bill."
Actually, family planning help is quite relevant to a stimulus package.
Or, aren't tough economic times an excellent time to provide additional help to families who can't afford another mouth to feed?
(John Boner has no idea what he's talking about.)
I don't agree that scuttling this provision was "sexist." It was a mere bow to political pressure. Which was unfortunate, considering how the House vote went regardless.
I really do not think that sexism had anything to do with it, politics at the end of the day dictated that it be dropped from the bill.
Not always does later mean never.
Brady and travelingman: Just because politics were involved does not mean that Obama was not being blatantly sexist. The Republicans Obama was sucking up to ranted and raved about all sorts of aspects of the stimulus plan. Yet, the only concessions offered were womens' rights and sod for the Mall in Washington. Treating women's rights as the first thing to be jettisoned is completely sexist.
Also, remember that the dishonest discourse of politicians is not the same as everyday speech. If you have been involved in lgbt and AIDS issues like I have or you have followed what the Democrats have done to the anti Iraq War movement, you will see that later indeed does mean never when spoken by politicians. The wisdom of 50s and 60s African American civil rights activists is still correct today.