The GOP Continues Their War on Women

Conservatives across the country seem to be spending most of their time crafting new ways to attack women's reproductive rights and access to health care.

While Mitt Romney likes to tour the country saying that only issue in this year’s election is the economy, no one seems to have told his fellow Republicans. Instead of working on bipartisan solutions to boost the economy, conservatives across the country seem to be spending most of their time crafting new ways to attack womens' reproductive rights and access to health care.

Last week the Huffington Post reported that Rep. Denny Rehberg released a "labor, heath, and education spending bill that would defund Planned Parenthood and Title X, block the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, allow any employer to deny women birth control coverage under the ACA for "moral reasons" and increase spending for abstinence-only education."

Under the provisions in this bill, Planned Parenthood would not be allowed to receive federal funding unless it stopped offering abortions to patients except in cases of rape, incest, or life-threatening danger to the mother (Planned Parenthood does not use federal funds for abortions. Federal funding goes to other services). Additionally, states would compete for a piece of twenty million dollars set aside for abstinence-only education.

According to the Huffington Post article GOP Spending Bill Aims to Defund Planned Parenthood, Up Abstinence-Only Funds:

The legislation also states that none of its funds can be used to carry out the Title X family planning program or be used to "implement, administer, enforce, or further the provisions" of the Affordable Care Act.

The bill scraps the provision in Obamacare that requires insurance plans to cover birth control and other preventative health services, allowing any issuer or sponsor of a group health insurance plan to refuse to cover any health care service "on the basis of religious beliefs or moral convictions."

This national assault on contraception comes on the heels of numerous efforts by conservatives here in Texas that have similar goals as Rep. Rehberg’s proposed legislation: taking away any money directed towards Planned Parenthood and restricting women's health care choices.

The conservative agenda is clear. As Texas Right to Life director Elizabeth Graham put it, “We're making sure that we've found all the money, and we'll take it away if there's any left.”