Quarterly Report - Women's Reproductive Civil Rights

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Good Friday
April 6, 2012

The race for the Republican presidential nomination has been nothing less than comical. The early frontrunner, Mitt Romney, has been besieged by his opponents in the last six months as the presumptive nominee. His strategy for winning the delegate race was obvious: Appeal to the likely voters in the Republican primaries and causes -- the more conservative and often religious right. To convince these voters that he was "conservative enough" required that he disassociate himself with his statements and positions on a number of issues of importance to the voters, the most significant being his support for a health care law that was enacted in Massachusetts during his stead as governor.

The Obama Administration has indicated that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also know as Obamacare, and the act amending portions of Obamacare, The Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 were modeled on the Massachusetts law that was enacted during Romney's single term as governor.

Because diehard conservative Republicans are utterly opposed to Obamacare, Romney is in a box. To gain the Republican nomination, he had no choice but to condemn his Massachusetts health care law as well as Obamacare. His current position is that he would have Congress repeal Obamacare if he wins the presidency. Romney's flip-flop on the health care issue as well as his virtual limitless changes in positions have left him as the "he will have to do" candidate by the majority of Republican voters.^1/

In the mid-term elections of 2010, the Republican party gained significant control of the legislatures and governorships in a number of potential "battleground" states, for example, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Florida.^1/ It was clear from polling that Americans were dissatisfied with Obama and his policies that did not appear to address the economy, particularly (1) the collapse of the housing market, whereby about 7 trillion dollars in homeowner equity had been wiped out, and (2) the high unemployment rate. These issues, coupled with Obamacare, allowed the Republicans to ride a wave of discontent and displace Democrats at the state and federal level.^2/

Republicans saw their 2010 victories as a mandate to undue, among other things, collective bargaining by state employees and abortion availability. Democrats saw what Republicans were trying to do for exactly what it was: reverse sixty years of progress on civil rights. Democrats seemed powerless to fight back.

However, Democrats were not ready to give up. First, set the trap.

On January 20, 2012, in accordance with the enabling legislation for Obamacare, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced the mandate requiring that all health plans provide coverage at no cost (including deductibles and co-payments) for all contraceptives approved by the Food and Drug Administration as part of preventive health services for women.

What must have been known inside the Obama Administration was that Sebelius' announcement would provoke a firestorm of discontent. Indeed, it did.

The outcry by Christian institutions, principally the Catholic Church, was nothing less than hysterical. A direct affront was claimed to religious freedom as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution since Catholics are prohibited by their religion from using contraceptives for birth control.

The Obama Administration modified the regulations. According to Wikipedia:

Regulations were issued on March 16, 2012 which ensure coverage for employees of enterprises controlled by religious institutions which self insure. Regulations were also issued on March 16, 2012 which require coverage for students at institutions controlled by religious organizations which purchase insurance. It is believed by the federal government that it is not possible under current law to require contraceptive coverage for students at institutions controlled by religious organizations which self insure.

Nevertheless, Republicans were not satisfied with the walking back of the contraceptive mandate. Charging -- HOW STUPID CAN YOU BE! -- headlong into the snake pit of a woman's right to determine her reproductive health care, Republican-controlled state legislatures across the country have proposed utterly outrageous limitations to contraceptive coverage as well as further limitations to abortion availability, e.g., a required ultrasound prior to an abortion.

The list of states embarking on foolhardy and illegal legislation is long. One state is particularly notorious. The idiot governor of Arizona, Janice K. Brewer, is unopposed to a legislative bill that would require that an employee receiving contraceptive benefits from her employer's insurance plan, inform her boss why she is talking the medicine! Brewer claims that "I certainly probably agree with the majority of people that that would be a little bit uncomfortable for a woman to have to go to her employer and tell him or her their health private issues."

From www.blogforarizona.com:

Brewer said she understands that the bill is Republican legislation and doesn’t know if the bill was introduced to be a wedge issue. But despite her reservations about the bill, which was sponsored by Republican Rep. Debbie Lesko, Brewer insisted that the controversy over birth control was being driven by the left.

"Love is in bloom. It’s election time," she said. "Arizona, of course, has been targeted as one of the five points by the Democrats to turn our state blue. We know that they’re trying to make an issue out of class warfare. They’re trying to make an issue out of women’s issues. And this is just possibly a wedge that now has escalated to this point. Do I know that for a fact? No. But I’m well-versed enough as a politician to suspect that."

blogforarizona.com comments:

"Yes, 'The Democrats made me do it' defense. Seriously? It wasn't Democrats who drafted a package of anti-abortion and anti-birth control bills; it was Cathi Herrod and her Christian Taliban at Center for Arizona Policy. It wasn't Democrats who sponsored these bills; it was God's Own Party (GOP) Tea-Publicans. And not one Democrat has voted for these bills; it has been a party-line vote with GOP Tea-Publicans voting in favor of these bills."

So, what is truly happening in Arizona? Dimwit Governor Brewer appears to see a trap laid by Democrats, then utterly contradicts herself by ignoring the fact that it was Republicans in the Arizona legislature that introduced the legislation! You have got to be kidding me!

The proposed Arizona statute is an outright violation of the "Privacy Rule" as summarized in The Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information, also known as "HIPAA" issued by HHS.^3/ The proposed Arizona statue has a zero chance to survive a HIPAA court challenge.

An unintended consequence of Arizona's proposed law would be that an employer, logically assuming that birth control is being used because an employee is sexual active, might sexual harass said employee; or, a person with intimate knowledge of a female employee's use of birth control, might rape said employee and claim in a criminal complaint filed against him that the sex was consenual.^{4/ 5/}

Today, in a move I foresaw many months ago, Mitt Romney, when asked if the Augusta National Golf Club should admit women members, he answered, "Yes." This was an out-of-character response given his position on various female biological issues, particularly his flip-flop on abortion -- he would now prohibit it -- and his promise to defund U.S. grants to Planned Parenthood. Romney's answer was an obvious attempt to curry favor with the female electorate and repair the serious damage caused by members of the Republican party. Clearly, he seeks to move toward the center of American political thought if he is to have any chance of beating Obama. What Romney's campaign manager said in March 2012 that a "reset" in Romney's positions would take place after the Republican convention has already started. Republican efforts to restrict a woman's reproductive rights have created an 18 percent margin between Romney and Obama among female voters in a November match-up. Romney has a snowball's chance in hell of overcoming the unconscionable and illegal acts of his fellow Republican nincompoops. That snowball is in fact the size of an iceberg, and it will take a squadron of bulldozers to push it out of hell.

Mitt Romney claims there is no Republican war on women. Yeah, right. At a minimum, there is a Republican war directed at any women who is less than Romney's claim of "seriously conservative." To believe Romney's lie is to believe that man did not land on the moon.

Footnotes

1/ Romney is a truly peculiar dude. In his campaign appearances, he speaks in a breathless manner such that he seemingly can not spit out words fast enough. His lack of speech-making skills leads one to conclude that he is "tuning" his message from campaign stop to campaign stop, depending on his perceived understanding of what issues are important to the instant audience. His speeches and demeanor give the impression of a man who is utterly desperate to win the presidency.

2/ According to rasmussenreports.com, Republicans now control the entire legislature in 25 states, 11 more than they had going in to the 2010 elections. Democrats control both houses of 16 legislatures. Eight states have divided control of the legislature. The last time Republicans controlled this many legislatures was after the 1952 election, when they had 26.

3/ The Privacy Rule was issued by HHS to implement provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).

4/ Presently, America grapples with the case of a horrendous, unintended consequence of a law affecting a person's civil rights. Claiming self-defense in accordance with the State of Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law, George Zimmerman shot and killed an unarmed teenager, Trayvon Martin, while the boy was walking down a street on the way to the home of his father's fiancée.

5/ This is not outside the realm of possibility. On his nationwide radio show, the misogynist, sexist, bigoted, and likely racist Rush Limbaugh called for a Georgetown University law student to post internet video of her having sex in exchange for receiving contraceptive medicines from the university! An extreme right wing bomb thrower, Limbaugh, motivated solely by a groundswell of advertiser revolt, apologized on his radio show for his comments. It is disgusting that Clear Channel Communications provides a forum for Limbaugh to air his vile and outrageous personal attacks.

Is there any coincidence that Clear Channel Communications was bought by Mitt Romney's firm, Bain Capital, in 2008?

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	Women's Reproductive Civil Rights
	Mitt Romney's Uphill Battle
	by James R. Audet