The GOP's Misogyny Problem

What on earth is happening to the Republican Party? I go away for a month and come back to find they are firmly planted in the Dark Ages about women's rights. Here are just a few of the anachronistic, absurd and dangerous ideas they have been espousing of late.

Iconic photo of GOP's arrogance and misogyny- the men only- panel on birth control.

• Santorum says free, prenatal care (that saves women's and babies' lives) increases abortions and should not be provided. This comes on top of him saying that birth control "harms women and society" and that he would be for states being able to ban all contraception.
• Santorum's sugar daddy said "gals" should just put an aspirin between their legs- then they wouldn't need contraception.
• The Republican House Oversight Hearing Committee began with an all male, religious panel to make a case for denying access to birth control. Two women were added later- but not one of the witnesses was in favor of birth control.
• Not one Republican on the Senate Judiciary Com voted to reauthorize The Violence against Women Act. The reason? It protects too many women from domestic violence. They wanted to remove protections for lesbians, Native American women and immigrants. To those groups the GOP says, literally "Drop dead."
• Twenty Republicans Senators are co-sponsoring the Blunt/Rubio amendment that would allow any employer to come between you and your doctor. It would allow an employer to deny insurance for any medical treatment that conflicts with their "moral code".
• Virginia's Republican controlled Legislature is considering  a law mandating a medically unnecessary vaginal probe for any woman seeking an abortion.
• Rush Limbaugh, the voice of the right, asked what Democrat (not Democratic) women have against pregnancy.
• Just today, a Republican legislator from Indiana refused to sign on to a resolution honoring the 100th anniversary of the Girls Scouts- calling it a "radicalized agency" that supports abortion and a homosexual agenda. He added, having First Lady Michele Obama as its honorary president should give lawmakers "pause".
• Of course, this has been going on for awhile- Last February, Republicans tried to eliminate funding for Title X that provides contraception, HIV testing and cancer screenings. Title X has helped in the  early detection of over 55,000 cases of cervical cancer, but that did not stop the GOP from trying to abolish it.

Sadly, I could go on and on. Particularly disturbing are the pronouncements from Santorum World - that he thinks birth control "gives license to do things in the sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be." Really, there are things consenting adults are not supposed to do behind closed doors? I wonder how long it will take him to say that certain sex acts must be banned too.

There is no government as big, as intrusive, as threatening to everyday Americans as the so-called "small government" of the radical right.