Where Are the Women

NARAL and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi tweeted this photo of the House Republicans set to negotiate with Senate Democrats. The lack of women in a leadership position in the GOP makes it easier to understand why Republicans are willing to shut down the government to prevent women from getting birth control. Elizabeth Warren gave a powerful speech, on the Senate floor, about the GOP war on women.

Republicans are shutting the government over preventing birth control access, abolishing taxes on medical devices, and denying people with pre-existing conditions getting health care insurance. Republicans are tanking the economy to appease corporate and social conservatives. That is why we are having a shut down.

AFL-CIO Supports Reproductive Rights

Great news. The AFL-CIO comes out in support of the reproductive rights of women.

The denial of contraceptive coverage is seen as discrimination against women and an attack on workers’ right to basic health coverage. The right to quality health care has deteriorated into an attack on the character of women who want nothing more than to have a personal decision in the matter. [...]

As the AFL-CIO, we commit to ensuring that women have the right to quality health care, including equal access to contraception, and have the ability to exercise that right regardless of where they work.

The AFL-CIO cite a National Business Group on how contraception saves the private sector in costs.

In terms of costs and savings for the private sector, multiple studies over the past two decades have compared the cost-effectiveness of the various methods of contraception, finding that all of them are cost-effective when taking into account the costs of unintended pregnancies averted. The federal government, the nation’s largest employer, reported that it experienced no increase in costs at all after Congress mandated coverage of contraceptives for federal employees. Moreover, a 2000 study by the National Business Group on Health, a membership group for large employers to address their health policy concerns, estimated that it costs employers 15–17% more to not provide contraceptive coverage in their health plans than to provide such coverage, after accounting for both the direct medical costs of pregnancy and indirect costs such as employee absence and reduced productivity. Mercer, the employee benefits consulting firm, reached a similar conclusion. And a more recent National Business Group on Health report, drawing on actuarial estimates by PricewaterhouseCoopers, concluded that even if contraception were exempted from cost-sharing, the savings from its coverage would exceed the costs.

The Republican Party's contraception policy is anti-business and pro-government intrusion. The very things the GOP claims to be against.

Disturbing Sterilization Story

Tessa Savicki, a 35 year-old woman, is suing the Baystate Medical Center. Savicki claims the hosital sterilized her without her consent. The doctors were suppose to plant a implant an intrauterine device as a form of birth control.

Instead, she said, a type of permanent sterilization known as a tubal ligation was performed, leaving her mentally distraught and incapable of bearing more children.

“There was no medical reason for them to do this,” Savicki told the Herald. “That’s my choice. This is my body. I wanted the IUD so later if I felt I wanted more children, I could have more.”

The comments at Reddit has been unfairly harsh against Savicki.

cycophuk 10 points11 points12 points 21 hours ago* [-]

No matter how many times I read the article, I can't see how what happened was a bad thing. I wish I could give the doctors involved a medal for bravery.

muhnooer 0 points1 point2 points 13 hours ago[-]

If thats how it goes down, we should all go protest it and complain that some fat unemployed bitch shouldn't have the right to overload our welfare system with her suckling worthless piglets.

Real classy. Morons like this are far too common on the internet. Savicki has had 9 children. I knew a woman that had several children that were taken away by the state of Florida. She refused birth control and kept getting pregnant. The woman was irresponsible. However, I draw the line at doctors and the state sterilizing people against their will. That is a slippery slope I don't want to cross.

I wouldn't be surprised if many of the Reddit commenters were anti-abortion. Women should not have abortions and not receive welfare to feed their children. The pro-life attitude of many conservatives seems to end at birth.

Hat tip Womanist Musings.

Know Your Reproductive Rights

Kirsten Suhr of NARAL hit the streets and gave people a quiz on reproductive rights. I got all the questions right. Try the quiz without watching the video. I