On Birth Control, GOP Male Leaders Woefully Out of Touch, Except With Other GOP Men

Republican male leaders have become sneeringly, cartoonishly out of touch with women, even those in their own party.

Today a Congressional hearing ignited when House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (CA) refused to seat a female witness after hearing an all-male panel of birth control coverage opponents, calling the witness unqualified.

Not to be outdone, Foster Friess, the financial backer of Republican Presidential candidate (and known contraception-hater) Rick Santorum, wistfully recalled the days when "gals" held "Bayer Aspirin between their knees" as a method of contraception.

You would be right to wonder, "What are they thinking?" Well, they do not seem to be thinking with an eye to the general election, as only Republican men oppose full coverage of birth control. In yesterday's CBS/NYT poll, two-thirds of voters support this coverage. The kind folks at the New York Times provided us with breakouts by gender and party, which appear in the chart below. Note that Republican women support full birth control coverage, and independents feel more like Democrats. [UPDATE: a chart error was corrected.]

Yesterday I wrote about the consistent support for birth control coverage and basically all (99 percent) women who have had sex have also used birth control. If Republicans think it is politically advantageous to mock women, shut them out of the political process, and deny access to care that 99 percent of them use, then they are in even worse shape headed into November than we thought.

 

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Comments

[Professor Wagstaff]

04:05 PM on 02/28/2012

Men have always been out of touch with birth control - news this ain't.

[vicla1942]

07:11 PM on 02/24/2012

The car thief really blew it this time.He should go back to cal
and boost cars , he never was convicted, good old Darryl.

[charlesrfd2003]

10:21 PM on 02/20/2012

http://ncronline.org/blogs/grace-margins/what-abortifacient-and-what-it-isnt
If the above article gets read by some Catholics who are in lock step with their bishops, these Catholics may change their mind. The misinformation was to label three drugs as abortion agents when they are not.

If I ran the Democratic Party, I would aim at 435 seats in the House. Republican men cannot be the majority in any of them.

I have not had so much fun in an election year since Pat Paulsen died.

[Lucillle MacPherson]

02:20 PM on 02/20/2012

Not to worry, the church will support all the unwanted children like those street kids in Brazil

[wvtpm]

06:10 PM on 02/19/2012

i'm opposed to paying for viagra

[john rajah]

06:17 PM on 02/20/2012

I'm opposed to paying for war

[tin soldier]

11:45 AM on 02/19/2012

Let me just ask this question regarding conception and abortion-- If it only takes 2 taxpayers to conceive, why is it that some people think all taxpayers are responsible?? Conception and birth or in some cases abortion are the personal responsibility of the taxpayers involved not the rsponsibility of all taxpayers..

[sanmaz]

05:00 PM on 02/22/2012

What about those that don't pay taxes that we the taxpayer do have to support.
If you are responsible enough to get pregnant than be responsible to raise that child.. I have an adopted daughter. That was 29 yrs ago. Before if was fashionably. Luckily the family did not believe in abortion because of their religion. To look at our Ashley and think that she could never have been, if aborted, makes me sick.

[Teacher Trish]

02:48 AM on 02/18/2012

More women vote than men. I would think the Republicans would be giving away free birth control, neck massages and mango margaritas to get us on their good side.

But nope, hehehhehhe, they'll be sleeping in the dog house come November!

[uniquindividual]

07:41 PM on 02/18/2012

Their working on repealing the 19th amendment.

[Teacher Trish]

10:10 PM on 02/18/2012

That would be an amusing debacle to watch. The Republican party going from 60 mph to 0 in a few weeks.

[TheKurgan]

02:27 PM on 02/20/2012

Better they repeal the second.

[Leopold O]

08:47 PM on 02/18/2012

And it won't be long before you spend the night at a dog house and then expect the government to pay you for your curiosity.

[Anders Tronsen]

09:27 PM on 02/17/2012

this has been a mess-ed up Week and a messed-up Campaign for Republicans.
The Winner of ALL the Repub debates has been a gentleman from Illinois.

[bigtimechillerm]

10:26 AM on 02/17/2012

Ah the twisted nature of American politics. On the one hand, we have a President praising the OWS movement, people protesting against crony-capitalism, and then on the other hand we have the same President trying to expand the pharmacuetical market into the Catholic church, against their 1st amendment rights whomever pays for it. In 2010, the contraceptive market brought in an estimated $15.5 Billion dollars, a very lucrative commodity. In fact, not only do we now have the political promotion of a single aspect of healthcare, we are giving over control of EVERY aspect of our healthcare system to the politicians who are the other half of the crony-capitalist system. This isn't a matter of which party cares more about the American people, this healthcare law is about MONOPOLIZING our healthcare except it is not a company, its the government. What is their track record in containing costs, limiting debt, etc.? Anyway, when you have $15.5 B industry against a group who makes $0 for preaching against it, the $15.5 B industry is probably going to win out especially backed by the full strength of the Federal Government.

[Teacher Trish]

02:55 AM on 02/18/2012

The hospitals already use medicine and thus are consumers of pharmaceuticals so your point there is moot about the pres forcing that market into the church.The policy does not force women to choose only one pharma company for BC. The affordable health care act is a related but still seperate issue from that of an employer providing equal access medical care to its employees. Hospitals use medicine and BC is a very small percentage of the medicine they use.

[bigtimechillerm]

04:26 PM on 02/18/2012

While some medical conditions do require contraceptives, the large majority of their use is by choice of the woman or man who decides to use them in whatever form to avoid the probable consequences of sexual pleasure, pregnancy. It was a great issue for the President though. He didn't go into that political storm blindly. It was a great tactical move to solidify the female vote. The AHCA is also a tactical move, both for the politicians who promoted it and the crony capitalists that will benefit by government limiting competition. Mandating everyone purchase healthcare will CERTAINLY expand their markets, enforced by the power of the US government.

[uniquindividual]

07:44 PM on 02/18/2012

cost information you really need...

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/08/us-health-spending-breaks-from-the-pack/

Health outcome information you could use..

http://visualeconomics.creditloan.com/healthcare-costs-around-the-world_2010-03-01/

The reason you might want to ponder...

http://bp1.blogger.com/_pnpnK28g9K4/R_mJg5GnGKI/AAAAAAAAALk/9uuo-eq7x8U/s1600-h/helathcare+money.gif

[efell]

07:17 AM on 02/17/2012

I don't think 'woefully out of touch' is nearly strong enough language.

[no dash american]

11:00 PM on 02/16/2012

Ya think Friess might have been joking?

[Ningmao]

05:22 AM on 02/17/2012

No

[efell]

07:18 AM on 02/17/2012

No X 2

[theocrat]

10:42 PM on 02/16/2012

The Republican Party should get a time machine and go back to the year 1012 where their views would fit in better.

[infinitivesplit]

09:14 PM on 02/16/2012

As a D who fully supports the HCR bill and the BC deal - I hope this analysis is right - but fear it may be wrong.
1) the figures change when the question is asked about Catholic Hospitals and Universities (they shouldn't change but they do)
2) for people who support the issue it's probably not a deal breaker.
3) For those opposed to the issue it may well be a deal breaker & you may end up losing some D votes & indy votes
4) There are probably some age demographics involved & the population doesn't turn out to vote in the same numbers by age.

So we'll see - I hope you're right. I think it will mainly be about whether the GOP can paint this about religious 'freedom' - which it's not, or the Ds can paint it as an economic issue and a woman's health issue.

[Mitchell Horton]

10:56 PM on 02/16/2012

It's not that this a deal breaker for people, but it's another thing that just makes people dislike them more.

[infinitivesplit]

11:34 PM on 02/16/2012

I certainly hope so. They deserve to be disliked for this. They are on the wrong side of history every time. The thing is that they have been for at least the last 60 or 70 years & have gotten worse in the last 30 years or so - it's hard to understand why people still vote for them. I keep asking republicans what policies of republicans they support & they never have an answer. It's so strange.

[Artu Di-tu]

08:48 PM on 02/16/2012

I just love it when the Republicans "double-down" on something soooo obviously wrong.

Liberals support rights for ALL people...non gender specific!

OBAMA 2012

[TheKurgan]

02:29 PM on 02/20/2012

The trouble is, Obama is not a Liberal...:) But, I'll take a slightly right leaning Centrist over the despotic Plutocrats any day!

[Lynette]

08:11 PM on 02/16/2012

...But always wanting to touch.