Sandra Fluke: Slurs Won’t Silence Women
Read the whole excellent thing. I’m having a terribly hard time choosing which parts to excerpt, but here goes:
Thanks to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, preventive care services, including contraception, will be covered by private insurance plans without co-pays or deductibles. If appropriately implemented, this important law will finally guarantee women access to contraception, regardless of the religious affiliation of their workplace or school.
Note to wingnuts whining about “taxpayer” funds: private insurance plans, private insurance plans, private insurance plans. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying.
Because we spoke so loudly, opponents of reproductive health access demonized and smeared me and others on the public airwaves. These smears are obvious attempts to distract from meaningful policy discussions and to silence women’s voices regarding their own health care.
That’s the GOP playbook for you. So glad it’s turning into such an epic, epic fail.
Many women cannot medically use the least expensive types of contraception. As a result, many women, especially those 18 to 34 who have the most trouble affording contraception, simply go without. They face any number of medical risks as well as unintended pregnancy — all of which damage their productivity and the health of their families.
Hint, hint, “durr hurr they should go to Walmart” types.
But, despite the misinformation being spread, the regulation under discussion has absolutely nothing to do with government funding: It is all about the insurance policies provided by private employers and universities that are financed by individual workers, students and their families — not taxpayers.
I am talking about women who, despite paying their own premiums, cannot obtain coverage of contraception on their private insurance, even when their employer or university contributes nothing to that insurance.
So pray tell why should the employers get the right to deny any coverage? They’re not exercising their own freedom; just trampling on everyone else’s.
Restricting access to such a basic health care service, which 99% of sexually experienced American women have used and 62% of American women are using right now, is out of touch with public sentiment. In fact, more than 60% of Americans support this regulation and affordable access to contraception, according to the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.
Attacking me and women who use contraception by calling us prostitutes and worse cannot silence us.
I am proud to stand with the millions of women and men who recognize that our government should legislate according to the reality of our lives — not for ideology.
Only one political party appreciates this, and it’s the one who has the White House now. Please keep it that way in November, and vote out as many Congressional GOPers as possible.