The debate fight over Senator Ben Nelson’s amendment prohibiting federal funds from being used for abortions started off yesterday with a hard left jab. California lawmaker Barbara Boxer challenged her creaky male cohorts to "single out a procedure that’s used by a man or a drug that is used by a man that involves his reproductive health care and say they have to get a special rider" (as the addendum in Nelson's measure requires).
The knockout punch from Senator Boxer: "There is nothing in this amendment that says if a man some days wants to buy Viagra, for example, that his pharmaceutical coverage cannot cover it, that he has to buy a rider. I wouldn’t support that. And they shouldn’t support going after a woman using her own private funds for her reproductive health care. Is it fair to say to a man you’re going to have to buy a rider to buy Viagra and this will be public information that could be accessed? I don’t support that. I support a man’s privacy, just as I support a woman’s privacy."
Igor Volsky writes on Wonk Room: When Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) introduced a very similar amendment during the Senate Finance Committee’s mark-up of the health care bill, Sen. Debbie Stabenow called the measure “offensive.” “This is an unprecedented restriction on people who paid for their own health care insurance,” Stabenow said. “The assumption that somehow a woman or family would say, ‘you know some day we may have an unintended pregnancy, so we’ll get a separate rider or maybe my pregnancy is going to have a crisis, many, many crises, and so we’re going to find some other rider.’ In my judgment, I don’t even know how that would work.” Nelson’s amendment — which is expected to fail on the Senate floor — closely resembles the restrictive Stupak language in the House health care bill.
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You go, girl! As I've always said, if men could have babies an abortion would be something you could get at the hardware store.
Posted by: Aggie, Fair Haven, Vermont | December 09, 2009 at 03:52 AM
Hit em where it hurts, Barbara!
Posted by: Amanda | December 09, 2009 at 04:17 PM
Go Babs!
Posted by: Bee Girl | December 09, 2009 at 05:42 PM
No Viagra For Old Men? LOL Viagra created for old men too!
Posted by: generic | January 06, 2010 at 03:35 AM
For sure! I agree with the Senator 100%. Men should finally understand that abortion is a very personal and traumatic moment for any woman and the law (especially law written by men) should not interfere in it.
Posted by: Drugstore online | January 18, 2010 at 06:19 AM