THINK
PROGRESS
Republicans Just Can’t Help Themselves
While of course the war on women never really went away, Republicans
have been slightly quieter in recent weeks about their attacks on women,
women’s health care, and equal rights in the workplace. Well, House
Republicans just launched another big offensive in their war on women’s
health.
Here’s the rundown.
House Republicans are currently working on annual spending bills and
the one for the Labor Department, Department of Health and Human
Services, and Education Department is a parade of horribles. With regard
to the war on women specifically, it:
- Defunds Planned Parenthood
- Completely eliminates the Title X family planning program
- Puts your boss in your bedroom, allowing your employer to deny you
insurance coverage for contraception or any other service your boss
objects to for any reason at all
- Slashes funding for evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention
- Wastes $20 MILLION on abstinence-only education
- Permanently expands so-called conscience protections that allow
health care providers to refuse to perform, participate in, provide
coverage of, pay for, refer for, and train in the performance
of abortions
- Prohibits the implementation of Obamacare for one year, which includes numerous benefits for women
- Blocks a proposed rule limiting the number of home health care
workers — 90 percent of whom are women — who can be exempted from the
minimum wage
The bill is also
chock full of attacks on workers, students, and others.
Republicans have tried almost all of these unpopular attacks on women
before — and they failed. But it appears that they just can’t help
themselves when it comes to going after women, their health care, and
their rights. Remember last year when they almost shut down the entire
federal government just to defund Planned Parenthood?
In addition to these latest attacks, Senate Republicans also recently
blocked the Paycheck Fairness Act. Meanwhile, House Republicans
continue to refuse to take up the bipartisan Violence Against Women Act
that passed the Senate on an overwhelming basis. Instead, they are
insisting on a watered-down version that would leave immigrants, LGBT
people, Native Americans, and others without protection.
IN ONE SENTENCE: If Republicans don’t want to be accused of waging a war on women, then it’s time for them to stop their attacks on women.
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