Patriarchs looking out for us
by digby
The House held hearings on banning federal funding of abortions yesterday, even though there is no federal funding of abortions. They decided they didn't want any federal funding of abortions. And, as usual, it was a sausage fest:
As Laura Clawson at Daily Kos points out, a couple of women eventually were heard but the process on this bill has been very revealing:
The lack of women involved in the decision-making process on this bill has been notable. The House subcommittee that held an initial hearing on the bill last week is made up entirely of men, and the full, 40-member Judiciary Committee has only five women on it -- all Democrats. [Eleanor] Holmes-Norton was denied the opportunity to testify at Thursday's hearing, even though the bill contains a provision that specifically targets her constituents.
At one point during the markup on Wednesday, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) submitted an amendment that would essentially strike the entire bill and replace it with the "Pregnant Workers Fairness Act," which would require employers to make certain accommodations to their pregnant employees in the workplace.
Republicans voted the amendment down after Franks said it was "outside of the subject matter of the bill at hand."
And it must be emphasized that there are men on the committee like Representative Nadler who are stalwart defenders of women's rights and who made the case. But the overall picture of this hearing was of the lugubrious Trent Franks and his boys droning on and on about their devotion to life and wishing to spare the deluded little wimmin folks the need to make decisions for themselves.
Obviously, this bill will not make it through the Senate and president Obama will not sign it so the whole thing is an exercise in GOP posturing --- and they seem to really believe the posture of patriarchal neanderthal is a good one.
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