Olympia Snowe: Birth Control Debate Is 'Retro' 1950s

NEW YORK -- Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe received an enthusiastic response at a gala on Monday meant to spur more women to run for elective office. The retiring senator, one a handful of nationally prominent Republicans who support abortion rights, was in the 1970s one of the first recipients of support from the Women's Campaign Fund, the political action committee that sponsored the event.

But Snowe acknowledged that the moment was "bittersweet." Her departure from the Senate will mean one less woman in a body that only has 17. And the equally enthusiastic applause of the crowd at Christie's auction house for Sandra Fluke and Lily Ledbetter, whose very names now double as Democratic talking points, highlighted just how dramatically the Republican Party has ceded the terrain of women's issues.

"We need more women, and we need more bipartisanship," Snowe said. Snowe, 65, cited the lack of bipartisanship in February, when she announced she would leave the Senate when her term expires in January 2013.

Just a few years ago, Snowe recalled, she stood with President Barack Obama as he signed the Fair Pay Act named after Ledbetter. The political debate today "comes to contraceptive coverage," Snowe said.

"You know, it really is surprising, because I feel like it's a retro-debate that took place in the 1950s," Snowe said. "It's sort of back to the future, isn't it? And it is surprising in the 21st century we would be revisiting this issue. And Sandra Fluke should have been commended, not condemned, for her courage in expressing her own views and beliefs before members of Congress."

Snowe is known for her occasional attempts to compromise across the aisle as she did with the Ledbetter Act, which only two fellow Senate Republicans supported. Sam Bennett, president of the Women's Campaign Fund, said it was critical to get more women in office, not just because they were more likely to be concerned with women's rights, but "because it is women and not men that reach across the aisle, women like our best senator, Olympia Snowe."

That theme was repeated by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who added that "if Congress spent more time following her example and less time in attacks on women's health, it would have a lot more respect and our nation would be a lot better off."

For now, however, the prospect of a Congress that looks more like Olympia Snowe -- woman, pro-abortion rights and Republican -- is faint. The senator said she could think of only two women running for the Senate she supports this year, Linda Lingle and Heather Wilson. Lingle, the Republican governor of Hawaii, considers herself pro-choice -- but she was dinged by the pro-choice Democratic PAC Emily's List before taking a position against the Blunt Amendment, the contraception measure that initiated the "retro" congressional contraception debate. Wilson supports access to abortion in some cases -- but has also said that it is "morally wrong almost all of the time."

Comments

[mcmutter]

06:50 PM on 04/17/2012

Snowe .... you were a gutless wimp .....

[GSJ]

03:51 PM on 04/17/2012

Olympia has it all wrong. I just love all these "entitlement" women telling those who actually lived back then and fought for the choices so readily available for all women now have such skewed attitudes. You see, back in the 1950's, women WANTED birth control but were also willing to go to work to be able to afford that luxury and pay for it themselves. In essence, most women WANTED the responsibility of the choices they made. Too bad character has lost its meaning and everything blows in the wind in today's woman's culture.

[wilsoncombatgrl]

01:32 PM on 04/03/2012

The entire GOP POTUS wannabes act like lame actors from Fathers Know Best. They should have actually spent more time paying attention to Leave it to Beaver.

[pynecastle]

12:50 PM on 04/03/2012

Too little, too late.

[Trisha11]

10:39 AM on 04/03/2012

Ms Snowe should have resigned from the republican party - then she would be believable.

[Eye2amAmerican]

10:24 AM on 04/03/2012

well Senator....you should have thought all of this before you betrayed President Obama...POTUS kissed your fanny for 14 months....and you kept moving the goal post....and once POTUS is done with you....america is done with you....you can try the independent bid thingy.....but at this point....who cares.......how much do you want to bet....that FOX hasn't and will not be calling you......for anything....

[Tom58]

09:59 AM on 04/03/2012

A truthful Tpublican. A rare any dying breed.

[nothingchanges]

09:57 AM on 04/03/2012

"We need more women, and we need more bipartisanship,"

I can actually agree with that statement, whole heartedly in fact.

Which begs a question.

WHY has politics gotten so partisan? So downright ugly in the last few years?

"We are trying to change the tones in the state capitals -- and turn them toward bitter nastiness and partisanship."

The words of a man by the name of Grover Norquist, the same man over 95% of REPUBLICANS in congress have signed a pledge to.

Seems to me, they got exactly what they wanted, and now question why nothing works.

"The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it." -P. J. O'Rourke

Sounds about right to me.

[MaleMatters]

09:42 AM on 04/03/2012

Re: "...to spur more women to run for elective office."

Will more women in office mean more of this: ending men's dominance in the productive world (the world of work), and perpetuating women's dominance in the reproductive world (the world of children).

Do you seriously think only women need contraceptives? Do you seriously think men should have no rights in the reproductive world, the world of children? Have you even thought about it?

For a balance on gender issues -- the balance that the "objective, truth-seeking" journalists sternly refuse even to condiser -- see "The Doctrinaire Institute for Women's Policy Research" at http://malemattersusa.wordpress.com/2012/02/16/the-doctrinaire-institute-for-womens-policy-research/

[Al Henneberry]

08:27 AM on 04/03/2012

Laydies and Genitalmen:

Contraceptives have made women virtual sex slaves without dignity, integrity and self possession. Because they aren't used properly, contraceptives lead to more abortions which lead to more marijuana and alcohol use, depression and suicide attempts. Try self control and see women as interesting, kind good people.

[Tom58]

10:02 AM on 04/03/2012

WOW I knew there were people with such odd views in the world but I have never encountered one. Thanks, your ignorance and sexism displayed so publicly is refreshing (and disgusting) in an odd kind of way.

Nice to know you think only women should have self control.

[deebastet]

10:53 AM on 04/03/2012

I was thinking the same thing. Men are entitled to not having self control? Too many pale, stale, males in congress, off with their heads.

[Al Henneberry]

09:06 AM on 04/04/2012

I am asking the genitalmen to have self control as they date women mainly for sex which is enabled by contraception.

[deadman449]

10:07 AM on 04/03/2012

Are these comments result of women you know personally? or from a study?
If I was a woman, I would be soooo insulted. You are saying, women are too stupid to know how to use contraception properly. As for leading to more abortion.. I guess you are regurgitating Fox news talking points. FYI, just because they say it on FOX does not make it true. If anything it probably means its false.

[GSJ]

03:56 PM on 04/17/2012

When I hear that 14 yr olds are talking about contraceptives then, yes, I think women behave stupidly. Too bad that women have, in fact, reverted back to using sex for love instead of being more responsible for the bad choices they fall into.

[klinker1]

08:18 AM on 04/03/2012

She continues with her whining about partisanship. She did almost nothing about it. Mostly she went along with the Republican party line vote every time the occasion arose. Even when Obama was giving them mostly everything they wanted(and then some) she was in lock step with her Republican friends in voting against the American people. Now she has the gall to go away crying about the lack of bi-partisanship. Please spare us all.

[Skeetshooter]

04:02 AM on 04/03/2012

Snow was part of the problem too. Guess she finally got tired of talking out of both sides of her mouth like a ventriloquist.

[Ladyrantsalot]

03:07 AM on 04/03/2012

Olympia Snowe was such a disappointment. She did so little to temper the right wing of her party. And when the far right drove her out of Congress, she blamed the democrats.

[janmB]

04:32 AM on 04/03/2012

Abortion is between a woman and her doctor and BEST left that way and not a decision for the GOVT ....CLERGY or people on the outside
At five months, they told her part of her baby’s brain was outside the skull and the heart was inverted,” Ron Stephens (R) (GA) he said. “They said it would take only one or two breaths. She would have watched it die.” After huddling with her family, she opted for an abortion.
When the bill initially came to a vote in the House, there was no opportunity to amend it to provide exceptions for such situations. Stephens said he was so upset he felt sick and walked off the floor during the roll call.
“For something this cruel to happen to my daughter, or anyone’s daughter,” he said, “is just plain inhumane. I consider myself pro-life, but this provision was a distortion of pro-life values.”.

[peg2584]

08:32 AM on 04/03/2012

"Also I don;t think that "we the public" or the companies insurance should have to pay for your contraceptives. You want to play the game then pay the price or wear protection don't make an innocent being suffer for your mistakes."

Why shouldn't my contraceptives be covered by the insurance coverage I pay for? All other medications are and certainly Viagra and other ED medications are. And as for "we the people." I would rather pay for a contraceptive then a bunch of children they would have or abortions if contraception isn't provided. It is sooooo much cheaper in the long run. People aren't going to stop having sex, it just isn't going to happen. So why not prevent the unwanted pregnancies up front.

[Fantasiawave1]

02:33 AM on 04/03/2012

Birth control is the sensible way and thus a little human being does not have to suffer at it is sucked out, torn out and stabbed in the top of its head or just obliterated in the womb which then aborts it and rejects it with miscarriage. How a person can do an abortion is beyond me. Yes I get the part of "oh I forgot to take my pill" so the child suffers??? " Oh I got raped and don't want this child" -- well there are many people who are not so particular and would love this child for who it is, not to punish the child for something it had no control over. OR "Oh made a mistake and didn't use a contraceptive now I'm pregnant and don't want it" --soooooo the child suffers and dies and you go on your merry way? This is what I don't understand, this is a little human who has no say whether it lives or dies, gets a future and grows up, sees the world and has a chance to be loved and be happy all because of one selfish woman. Abortion is murder to me no matter what stage the baby is in. Once conceived it is a living human being.

[Sherry Walton]

08:19 PM on 04/03/2012

Abortion is a right between a woman and her doctor. Limiting birth control access would only increase abortion rates.

By the way, aborted fetuses do not feel pain nor suffer. Or is God just that evil?

[GSJ]

03:59 PM on 04/17/2012

Well the, if abortion doesn't affect the baby, exactly how does it affect the woman? I haven't yet seen ribbons, badges, or pins, or bumper stickers shouting to the world "I HAD AN ABORTION AND I"M PROUD OF IT." Perhaps if you'd be willing to do that, then I might have a little sympathy. I'm sure, however, that many religious priests, ministers, and rabbis have heard about it in counseling tho.