What We're Reading Afternoon Edition -- February 15

Good afternoon everyone! Another day and we still can’t believe it’s real — Republicans are actually fighting to take away no-cost birth control from millions of American women, despite its popularity and classification as basic health care by the medical community. We have to wonder if this is something the pollsters actually recommended, considering that 99 percent of sexually active women have used birth control at some point in their lives, including 98 percent of Catholic women. The statistics are staggering. Yet here we are in the year 2012, defending something as overwhelmingly popular as birth control. Can you guess what we’re reading about today?

Where have all the Goldwater conservatives gone? Ellen Chesler provides a brief history on the war on contraception that has infected the Republican party. Birth control used to be a bipartisan issue. The Huffington Post: “The Long History of the War Against Contraception” – “It's a long time ago, but it is worth remembering that conservative avatar Goldwater was, in his day, an outspoken supporter of women's reproductive freedom — a freethinker who voted his conscience over the protests of Catholic bishops and all others who tried to claim these matters as questions of conscientious liberty and not sensible social policy. With Goldwater on his side, Obama sees a clear opening for skeptics wary of the extremism that has captured Republican hopefuls in thrall to the fundamentalist base that controls the GOP presidential primary today.”

You can live free, but you’ll have to pay for birth control. In one of many examples of Republicans contradicting themselves, the leadership of the New Hampshire Republican party, which has already spent ample time attacking women’s health, is now attacking their own state-based coverage of contraception. Despite the fact that the Granite State already has a law requiring insurance companies to pay for contraception, state House Republicans are objecting to President Obama’s new rule. The Huffington Post reports: “New Hampshire Republicans Slam President Obama Birth Control Rule, Ignoring Their Own” – “New Hampshire illustrates the GOP problem. State House Speaker William O'Brien (R) introduced a resolution Friday urging the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to rescind the Obama rule requiring employers to cover contraception with no co-pay for their employees. O'Brien, joined by state House Republican Leader D.J. Bettencourt, Rep. Charles Bass (R), a spokesman for Rep. Frank Guinta (R) and Bishop Peter Libasci told reporters at a news conference that Obama's compromise, requiring insurers to cover birth control when the employer morally objects, doesn't go far enough to protect religious freedom.”

Is it 1912 or 2012? Emily Bazelon in Slate writes: “Republicans’ [sic] Not Smart War on Birth Control” – “Do Republicans really want to make contraception their big front in the war over national healthcare? That’s the thrust of new bills from Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida. I wonder if it’s a good strategy. Contraception isn’t abortion: It prevents unwanted pregnancies rather than ending them. And everyone uses it—after last week’s flap with the bishops, the stat about 98 percent of Catholic women using birth control at some point should be tattooed on our foreheads. Will the GOP really get people to rally around the idea that providing free access to birth control is a plot by the federal government to take over our lives?”