Women gathered outside the Capitol building Wednesday afternoon to help tell what Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R., Wash.) called “one of the untold stories of Obamacare”: “American women . . . oppose it.”
Republican women of the House took the opportunity on the third day of Supreme Court’s oral arguments to strike back against the “war on women” scare tactics of the Democratic party.
“Women make 85 percent of the health-care decisions in this country. They also represent the vast majority of health-care professionals. And they don’t like the idea of the federal government coming in and making the decisions they typically make — for themselves, for their families, and for their patients,” McMorris Rodgers said, opening the press conference.
McMorris Rodgers, vice chair of the House Republican Conference, asserted that the reason polls show that “Democrats haven’t gained any traction” pushing their “’war on women” rhetoric is that “it only reminds women about what they don’t like about Obamacare.”
Women are smarter, in other words, than the administration and its allies are counting on. “As women look at this entire controversy more closely,” McMorris Rodgers said, “what they see isn’t Republicans trying to undermine women’s health, it’s Democrats are trying to scare American women.”#more#
Adams said she hopes the Supreme Court calls the legislation “what it is, unconstitutional,” stressing that the real war afoot is “on the very fabric of our Constitution.”
Tennessee’s Marsha Blackburn added that the legislation is “too expensive to go forward” and said that her new nephew, born last night, “Preston Jones Hunter cannot afford it.” And “the women of America know it,” Blackburn said. “85 percent of women make the health-care decisions in their families and they don’t want the government taking their place.”
North Carolina’s Renee Ellmers and New York freshman Ann Marie Buerkle — both registered nurses — also spoke, among other female members of Congress.
South Dakota’s freshman Kristi Noem called the continuing debate over Obamacare one “about the kind of country we want to live in,” with the president’s law representing a “fundamental shift.” Addressing the “war on women” storyline she added: “We know when someone is trying to pull the wool over our heads, and we won’t stand for it.”
While NARAL Pro-Choice America stood in front of the Supreme Court with birth-control signs, and other Obamcare supporters tried to relaunch a dated sexual revolution (complete with bras on placards), these women tried to hit more reasonable notes, with a message, that actually happens to do with freedom of choice.
All members in attendance Wednesday afternoon are co-sponsors of Jeff Fortenberry’s much-needed Respect for Rights of Conscience Act.
“What women want,” Wyoming’s Cynthia Lummis, said, is “freedom for themselves and for their kids and for their families.”