Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) today justified what the Catholic bishops of the United States have unanimously called an “unjust and illegal mandate” that forces Catholic business owners to provide coverage for free sterilizations, contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs because, Harkin said, some women need birth control pills to deal with menstrual pain.
“There are many women who take birth control pills, for example, because they have terrible menstrual cramps once a month, some of them almost incapacitated, can’t work,” said Harkin. “I know of young women myself who, because of this, aren’t able to work and be productive, and it’s prescribed by their doctor.”
You poor dears. Just climb into the lap of Big Daddy Government, who will wrap you tightly with a warm, fluffy blanket and provide you with free soma birth control pills, and all will be unicorns and kittens.
War on Women. Indeed.
What about women who have breast cancer? Why isn’t chemo free? What about fibromyalgia? Why aren’t pain meds free? Tom Harkin hates women, that’s why.
What Tom Harkin fails to mention is that these women are suffering from menstrual pain because Harry Reid goes around kicking them in the ovaries.
(This video is auto-playing, btw.)
To show you what the administration’s priorities really are, an employer that does not offer health insurance under Obamacare will pay a $2000 annual penalty for each worker.
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/10/obamacare-will-price-less-skilled-workers-out-of-full-time-jobs
But the penalty for failing to offer the pill is $100 per day per employee.
http://blog.heritage.org/2012/07/29/judge-issues-preliminary-injunction-on-behalf-of-business-owner-in-hhs-mandate-fight/
So, it’s $36,500 per year if you don’t cover an employee’s IUD, but only $2000 if you don’t offer her anything *at all.*
Yeah, tell me how it’s all about taking care of the uninsured.
I’m one of those women, and I’ve managed to deal with it using a whole lot of Motrin and no Congressional assistance, thanks. Motrin (and other forms of ibuprofen) are readily available, and can’t women get birth control at their local Planned Parenthood?
Bloomberg’s breast feeding obsession & Harkins sudden interest in menstral cramps are really creepy. How about “my body, my choice” and “keep your laws off my body,” fellas. I can handle this without your expertise.
Hey, what’s with all the autoplay videos lately?
I’m not even seeing a video.
I’m not seeing it either, but the audio from the CNS video is autoplaying. Weird.
I’d really love to get a percentage of the women who are prescribed birth control pills for birth control vs. bitch control.
What happened to the meme that all these drugs were white male doctors trying to patriarchalize womyn’s bodies? How dare you prescribe hormone therapy to help me with womenopause after I’m 55. But we demand free access to this PP provided hormone therapy, and demand we be able to begin as teenagers (without parental consent).
I haven’t seen a video yet either, but I’ve only looked in using my phone and my Kindle since this was posted.
Motrin (and other forms of ibuprofen) are readily available, and can’t women get birth control at their local Planned Parenthood?
I think they quit offering the Pill, because it was cutting into their primary profit center.
Oh, Snap!
Could you please do something about the video, D? Maybe you could just put it below the fold?
I’ve heard the beginning of this clip a dozen times now.
I moved it below a fold.
Another solution for the autoplay problem: download NoScript, then tell it to distrust PW. Everything pw-ish about pw will remain and everything external to pw attempting to take over your browser will be excluded. Then in a day or two, when the autoplay vids disappear to the past pages, you can instruct NoScript to trust pw again.
Thanks for below-the-folding and the NoScript advice.
You’d be wrong. The Pill is a loss leader.
crap, I wasn’t even seeing the video and assumed it was being stripped out.
Bad me.
Sorry, boss, thanks for moving the code.
Generic is $9/month at Target, Walmart, etc…
I took BC pills when I was a teen because of my horrific menstrual cycles. The Pill actually made me feel worse, so I quit taking it and switched to Midol and hot water bottles on my mid section, just like my grandma had told me would work. And it did. Those Old Wives know what they’re talking about sometimes.
I found the autoplay switch in the tag and changed it to false. They go to a lot of trouble to hide it, but fortunately I can be a little OCD about things like this.
The reason it’s a loss leader is that the dosage of the pills PP offers is so low that if a woman doesn’t take them precisely and exactly (i.e. we’re not talking just about daily, but at the exact same time everyday), she might just find herself coming back for something other than birth control.
That and the whole contraceptive mentality thing, but that’s a debate for another day.
And guess what? Humanae Vitae allows for taking the pill to control bad cramping, horrific acne, endometriosis, etc.
Granted, most Catholic doctors will be (rightly) very cautious if you’re trying to claim you need it for medical reasons, but they’ll still offer it (and Catholic insurers offer coverage) for hormone supplements for those reasons.
Which is one of the big reasons why I want to punch these people through a wall.