COMMENTARY | No, Rep. Issa (R-Calif.). No. We will not have it.
Your treatment of women as irrelevant in a discussion about women is unconscionable and outrageous. If your “hearing” were an investigation into whether the health care law puts a “burden” on religious institutions, your panel would include people – note I did not say “men” – from a range of religious traditions discussing the impact of the law. You did not invite a range; in fact, you did not even invite the Catholic groups (one headed by a woman) siding with President Barack Obama on this issue.
No, you asked men – note I did say “men” – from groups, reports ABC News, that claim contraception is “unconscionable.” And yet you say this hearing isn’t about contraception.
In other words, it’s a complete farce.
Here’s news for you: we can see that. Here’s some more news for you, Rep. Issa. These hearings sure look like a subversion of the Constitution. Under the First Amendment, the government cannot choose one religion over another, and cannot attempt to codify the beliefs of a religion. If these hearings were, in fact, as you allege, about the supposed encroachment of government into religious affairs, then it would only stand to reason that such hearings would require a wide range of viewpoints.
Government is in no way obligated to bend law to the whims of religious groups. The First Amendment actually prohibits such government action. The claim that the health care law grazes religion, let alone attacks it, is laughable. For anyone who does not understand the real issue and somehow thinks that tax dollars are involved, here is the scenario, as explained by CNN. Health insurers are required to provide contraceptives without a co-pay to employees who pay health insurance premiums. Some church-affiliated employers (not actual churches; affiliated hospitals and universities) objected. Obama offered a compromise where the employees deal directly with the insurers, cutting out the employers completely.
That’s not good enough for Issa.
Which brings us back to the farce. There is no religious right in this country to force your employees to follow your affiliate’s religious leanings, and there is certainly no right in this country to use the might of the government to do so. That a government official is using our money to “investigate” such a thing is beyond improper.
Maybe Issa is right that this discussion isn’t about contraception. It’s about the constitutional rights of women to a representational government, the lack of which caused three Representatives (including my own — Mike Quigley (D-Ill.)) to walk out on the “hearing.” It’s about the right of women to have their constitutionally guaranteed access to birth control (yes, constitutionally). It’s about the audacity of treating women as silent chattel in the 21st century and convening a panel devoid of a single uterus or ovary to discuss the proper use of uteruses and ovaries. Adding two afterthought women to the panel doesn’t make it better; it underscores the farce.
No, Rep. Issa. No.