Does Bush Oppose Birth Control and Contraception?

[Ruffhowse]

http://afterschoolsnack.blogspot.com/2005/06/is-bush-against-contraception.html

In an odd little hiccup at a press briefing last week, Press Secretary Scott McClellan was disturbingly mum on the topic of Dubya's views on contraception (via Feministing):


Q: There are news reports this morning that parents and children who were guests of the President, when they visited Congress, wore stickers with the wording, "I was an embryo." And my question is, since all of us were once embryos, and all of us were once part sperm and egg, is the President also opposed to contraception, which stops this union and kills both sperm and egg?

MR. McCLELLAN: I think the President has made his views known on these issues, and his views known --

Q: You know, but what I asked, is he opposed -- he's not opposed to contraception, is he?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, and you've made your views known, as well. The President --

Q: No, no, but is he opposed to contraception, Scott? Could you just tell us yes or no?

MR. McCLELLAN: Les, I think that this question is --

Q: Well, is he? Does he oppose contraception?

MR. McCLELLAN: Les, I think the President's views are very clear when it comes to building a culture of life --

Q: If they were clear, I wouldn't have asked.

MR. McCLELLAN: -- and if you want to ask those questions, that's fine. I'm just not going to dignify them with a response.


OK, a) I love McClellan's knee-jerk response that "the President's views are clear on " whenever an uncomfortable question is asked. Ballsy. But, b) WTF??!? My assumption is that this is one of those occasions when the Preznit fears that a definite response in either direction will cause too much hubbub. But my fear is that this is some kind of set up for more draconian restrictions on access to contraception, emergency and otherwise. Thoughts?

[Plausible]

1. He wanted to stop the federal government from paying for

birth control prescriptons for federal employees.
I recall reading that, don't have a link handy.

[Ruffhowse]

2. All part of the "cult" of life that he clings to in such a blatantly

political way.

[China_cat]

3. The dominionists have made very clear

that once they have recriminalized abortion, that birth control of all kinds is next on their list.

[Deep13]

14. bingo

Governmental control over reproduction is their aim and they will use different and logically inconsistent arguments for each step of the campaign. Abortion is killing babies, birth control will be promoting immorality or some other damn thing.

[Fridays Child]

4. This needs to be pushed. I wonder who this reporter, Les, is.

[izzie]

5. I think he will go with what ever the Far Right Nuts think.

Bush and drink and sex seem to be of what we all know it is. Hard to put it into words but it feel odd. Something is odd about Bush and this subject and his life.

[no_hypocrisy]

6. On record, not yet.

But it goes along with the program of no abortion, no premarital sex, and no individual autonomy.

The Handmaid's Tale is no longer fiction.

[onehandle]

7. Yes, but not Viagra and other "enhancers".

Women are breeders with a broom to the GOP.

[Kber]

8. Here's the thing that really gets my goat regarding the "former frozen

embryos" - For every frozen embryo that was successfully implanted and grew up to become a person, several more were discarded or aborted by the mothers body.

So why in hell is it OK to create, and subsequently destroy, those embryos to create a life, but not to do the same thing to save a life already in existence? Do you know how many embryos had to be created and destroyed when doing the research to perfect the process?

I mean, it's the hight of hypocrisy to block stem cell research on the grounds that it destroys an embryo WHEN THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED TO GIVE YOU YOUR LIFE.

The Culture of Life begins at conception and ends at birth.

edit cause i kant spel tooday

[tanyev]

9. For whom?

I'm sure he supports Ginna and Tonic using the most effective contraception money can buy until they marry the right kind of boy and need to produce progeny. For the rest of us peons, eh, not so much.

[CornField]

10. The battle has *never* been about abortion

And the Bush* Administration has been stacking an anti-woman deck for some time now:

James Leon Holmes = federal judge. Holmes wrote that "the wife is to subordinate herself to her husband" and "the woman is to place herself under the authority of the man," and "conceptions from rape occur with approximately the same frequency as snowfall in Miami." Other Bush-appointed, Republican approved judicial appointees are equally appalling.

Dr. W. David Hager formerly headed the FDA's Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee. Hager is a religious right activist and author of books asserting male dominance over women. He refuses to prescribe birth control to unmarried patients. His wife said he raped her repeatedly while she was under treatment for narcolepsy. He is responsible for the decision to revoke the FDA's approval of the emergency birth control pill - despite the FDA panel of scientists and the AMA overwhelmingly recommending approval. Other anti-contraception appointees to the panel include Dr. Joseph B. Stanford, who believes only in abstinence and the "rhythm method" and refuses to prescribe birth control.

John Ashcroft was Bush's first term Attorney General of the United States, a man who tried to criminalize abortion even in cases of rape and incest. As a senator, Ashcroft supported a bill allowing someone to "legally commit acts of violence, including a lethal act against a physician, nurse or patient" to prevent an abortion. Ashcroft has abused his position to subpoena the private medical records of women in his quest to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Dr. Alma Golden is Deputy Assistant Secretary of Population Affairs; she believes abstinence is the only acceptable means of birth control for everyone, including adults.

Tom Coburn is co-chair of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV and AIDS; he tried to force condom manufacturers to label condoms as "ineffective" against the spread of sexually transmitted infections. Dr. Joseph McIlhaney, Jr., who has similar anti-condom views, is also on the council.

George W. Bush and Republicans have also:

• eliminated birth control coverage for federal employees in the proposed federal budget (Democrats fought to restore coverage)

• pushed through legislation allowing pharmacists to refuse to fill birth control prescriptions (and in some cases confiscate the woman's prescription)

• dropped emergency birth control from medical guidelines for treating rape victims

• spent $1 billion on "abstinence only" education (the U.S. has the highest teen pregnancy rate among developed nations, with the hightest rates in the conservative states)

• scrubbed accepted scientific data from government web sites including references to birth control and condoms

• denied poor rape and incest victims and women whose life was endangered an abortion

• enacted policies that have led to an increase in abortions during the Bush administration (there was a decrease during the Clinton administration)

• pledged to appoint Supreme Court justices to overturn Roe v. Wade outlawing abortion

• disrupted international conferences insisting the ineffective "rhythm method" is the only acceptable means of contraception

• cut off funding for reproductive health, while women who are raped and mutilated in the third world are exposed to AIDS in record numbers

It's never been about abortion. It's always been about controlling women.

[Inland]

12. Good stuff. I would add the contradiction

of the stem cell research, where embryos are only protected life as long as they are inside a woman who can be forced to bring it to term. Orrin Hatch made the convenient distinction expressly. If there's no woman to control, they don't care what happens to the embryo.

If there is a woman involved, then the embryo is so precious that the woman has to be strapped down, imprisoned or, if she actually controls her own body by having an abortion, we make up for her moment of freedom by giving her a prison term.

[Inland]

11. Judicial nominees have criticized cases striking down contraceptive bans

So it seems pretty damn relevant to me.

If Bush is going to nominate people who will remove the constitutional right of privacy with regard to contraception use by married couples, we should know if he is going to support or oppose the bans.

Why a law can ban contraception but the issue is too private a concern for Bush's mouthpiece to comment on pretty much proves the right of privacy, by the way.

[tyedyeto]

13. Why won't just one reporter ask...

If the 'culture of life' is so important, why are American servicemen and women and innocent Iraqis and Afghanis being killed every day? Does the 'culture of life' end after birth? Why is life no longer valued in your illegal war? Why do you support the death penalty if you so highly value life?

[Fridays Child]

15. Kick

:kick:

[Javaman]

16. The typical none answer answer from scotty tissue.

[warrens]

17. Was that Les Kinsolving?

Nice to see that nut giving Smirky a hard time. And it was a legitimate questions. Smirk is for things that will get him votes. Period. He has no core values; he does what the big money guys want, while babbling whatever he thinks the fundies and very stupid people want to hear.

[CornField]

23. What news service?

[elehhhhna]

18. He's only got 2 (supposedly) kids, from one pregnancy.

Tell me Laura never used BC.

HA!

[Johonny]

20. Well

Would you want to sleep with him? Have you seen those facial sores...

[elehhhhna]

21. Good one. Plus it takes a real man do do the "hard work".

[LeftyMom]

22. longtime It's an old rumor that they needed infertility treatment

to create Jenna and Tonic. Depending on the fertility issue, BC may have been used in the procedd of trying to conceive.

[elehhhhna]

24. The they have snowflake babies out there, somewhere?

[Inland]

25. Can you imagine inheriting the genes and not the money and privilege?

How unfair is that?

[ArkDem]

19. Wouldn't your question be redundant?