The Republican Party’s Odd Quarrel With Reality - KansasCity.com
Mitt Romney has declared war on Planned Parenthood, vowing to strip the nation’s largest family planning service of federal funding. Opposition to abortion is the subtext, but the organization plays an even greater role in American society by helping to prevent unwanted pregnancies. His vow to yank funding (which subsidizes Planned Parenthood’s reproductive health services, not abortions) is Romney’s way of showing the GOP base that he is hostile to everything Planned Parenthood stands for — including sex without the dangers of disease and accidental procreation.
Romney’s comments followed the ugly debate about a federal policy requiring employer health insurance plans to cover contraception without copays from employees. The proceedings in Congress were noteworthy for a certain, shall we say, gender imbalance, in which male politicians (and clerics) pontificated about women’s reproduction as if it was their issue alone to decide. There was an air of “Sit in the corner, honey, the men have things to discuss.”
In this climate, even the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act is stirring GOP pots. The bill passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee without a single Republican vote. It seems Republicans have a problem with new provisions on Native American jurisdiction and extending protections for immigrant women and same sex couples.