THE ONLY SCANDAL THAT MATTERS TO ME: 8 MAN panel to decide the WOMEN’S health.
If you need further proof that Congressional Republicans are waging a War on Women, you need look no further than Thursday’s congressional committee hearing on H.R. 1797: District of Columbia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, a bill sponsored by notoriously anti-choice Representative Trent Franks (R-AZ8) that would criminalize abortions after the 20th week. There are currently 98 women serving in the House of Representatives. Not one of them was present on this panel. Not one female representative sat on the committee that will determine whether to make abortion illegal after the 20th week. The committee was comprised entirely of men, overwhelmingly white men. How telling.
This is a decision that reifies patriarchal control of women’s bodies, so it makes sense that white men of privilege sit atop their mighty throne, dictating what women can and cannot do with their own bodies. In a patriarchal society, women are expected to cede to men’s opinions and mandates, especially around maters of reproduction. H.R. 1797 cloaks itself in the guise protecting the “unborn” by using shoddy science and manipulative rhetoric in order to undermine women’s reproductive autonomy and reify patriarchal control of women’s bodies. If this weren’t the case, why would the panel be comprised solely of men?
More: Why Women Everywhere Should Thank This Republican White Male Anti-Choicer
House Panel Debating Whether to Legislate Women’s Lady Parts is Made Up of 8 Men
Republican members of the House are trying to push nationwide abortion legislation that would ban women’s access to the procedure after 20 weeks without any exceptions for victims of rape, incest or the health of the mother. The bill was (obviously) struck down by the Circuit Court of Appeals in Arizona for being unconstitutional on Tuesday, but Representative Trent Franks isn’t giving up his dream to legislate your lady parts. He organized a House Judiciary Subcomittee on Thursday morning to discuss the bill, but I guess everyone who has a uterus was busy that day? The picture above is what the Huffington Post’s Laura Bassett encountered when she sat down to hear a panel set-up to debate the bill.
Remind you of anything?