Desperate to show that pro-abortion rights politics are alive and kicking, abortion industry giants are still trying to flog their “war on women” meme. The latest spin is that pro-life Republicans won by “moderating” their views on birth control and abortion.
Writing at Bloomberg Politics, David Weigel notes that industry heavyweights, including NARAL, Planned Parenthood, and Emily’s List are especially peeved that GOP Senators-elect Cory Gardner (CO) and Thom Tillis (NC) were able to turn the tables on Democrats by advocating that birth control be available over the counter without a prescription. Gardner and Tillis, in particular, argued that birth control pills could be even more accessible–and consequently less expensive–if women could purchase them without having to obtain a doctor’s prescription. Obamacare’s requirement of full coverage of birth control in health insurance plans still requires a doctor’s prescription and keeps costs rising.
As Weigel observes, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards said:
Politicians like Cory Gardner, Thom Tillis and Joni Ernst won by moderating their positions on access to birth control and abortion. This data clearly shows that voters didn’t elect them to restrict women’s access to health care, and voters will hold them accountable to what they promised.
Weigel states that the new goal of the wounded pro-abortion rights groups is to “call out Republicans when they failed to actually deliver on birth control.”
Of course, the “Republicans want to take away women’s birth control” meme has been phony from the get-go, having been invented by George Stephanopoulos during a 2012 presidential debate. From that point on, the institutional left’s whines that birth control was inaccessible were heard, even as millions of women were running into Walmart and CVS to buy it off the shelves.
The “war on women” crowd can thank themselves for making birth control an issue in the first place. No woman ever considered having a conversation with her boss about her own private birth control until former Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius administratively changed Obamacare to include the mandate of full coverage of birth control, sterilization procedures, and abortifacients in employee health insurance plans. But Republican candidates such as Gardner, Tillis, and Ernst were ready for the phony birth control issue and snatched it away from Democrats, who had no rebuttal.
Pro-abortion rights groups say they will hold Republicans accountable to their stance on making birth control available over the counter. Ironically, this is a stance with which they disagreed, though in a purposefully ambiguous manner, to protect Obamacare.
As the Huffington Post noted in September, “While Planned Parenthood and doctors’ groups agree that birth control pills should be available without a prescription, they do not see the plan as a worthy substitute for insurance coverage of contraception.”
The pro-abortion group is vastly deceptive, however, in its characterization of these newly elected senators as having “moderated” their positions on abortion. As candidates, these Republicans had 100 percent pro-life ratings with no indications of changing their course. Many Americans voted for them–and others–because they are pro-life, and will likely hold them accountable on that principle.
“Pro-abortion groups are disappointed they did not succeed in demonizing our candidates,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the national pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List, told Breitbart News. “So now they are presenting an inverted reality.”
“Our candidates stood firm and put pro-abortion candidates on the defense. They tried to hide their support for late-term abortion, even while opposing a bill to end them,” Dannenfelser added. “In fact, pro-abortion campaign strategists advised their candidates to button up on the issue, knowing that clarity on abortion for them was the enemy.”
“Kay Hagan, Michelle Nunn, and Alison Grimes, all devoted to unlimited abortion as a fundamental right, chose to focus upon other issues like education and pay equity,” she continued. “Meanwhile, in Louisiana, Mary Landrieu still claims the pro-life label while voting pro-abortion.”
Since accessibility to birth control is not a real issue, what the newly elected Republicans may be able to accomplish is a gutting of Obamacare, and perhaps an introduction of greater free-market principles into health care in general. This prospect could lead to lower costs and higher quality in the healthcare industry overall, which would certainly be a positive outcome for women, men, and children.
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