GOP congressman says free birth control will end the human race, said a headline that I was very reluctant to believe. Someone claims that? Seriously?
But I was pretty much wrong:
GOP Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) suggested that providing free birth control would lead to the end of the entire human race. “If you applied that preventative medicine universally what you end up with is you’ve prevented a generation. Preventing babies from being born is not medicine. That’s not — that’s not constructive to our culture and our civilization. If we let our birth rate get down below replacement rate we’re a dying civilization,” King said on the House floor on Monday night. Before King gets too concerned, it might behoove him to check some recent U.S. Census Bureau statistics. The United States population is expected to increase 44 percent from its current 305 million to 439 million in 2050. Addressing the fact that 50 percent of pregnancies in this country are unintended, therefore, might not bring about the apocalypse King foresees.
Lessons in totalitarian thinking: That which is not forbidden is compulsory. If birth control is not just legal but government funded, that means all women must use it, all of the time! No more babies, ever! We’re going to die out as a species! Aaaaaaaaah!
On Tuesday (as Think Progress noted) on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom,” Sandy Rios, the Family PAC Federal Vice President, compared the coverage of birth control, breast feeding aides and abuse counseling to covering beauty treatments: “We’re $14 trillion in debt and now we’re going to cover birth control, breast pumps, counseling for abuse? Are we going to do pedicures and manicures as well?” Rios also suggested that young women are better off just having babies than having safe sex: “Having a baby is not the worst thing. I think having multiple sex partners without any kind of restraint or responsibility is much more damning.”
Interesting choice of words….”damning.” Not less healthy, not less safe, not less happy. Damned.
Memo to Sandy Rios: Men and women who use birth control are not nymphomaniacs. We may be sinners, but that’s our business. And some of us believe that using birth control is being responsible, if you’re not interested in creating a pregnancy just now. Crazy concept, I know.
This complaint really conflicts with the right wing belief that big government creates more voters for the Democratic party. If the Democrats are handing out birth control, aren't they preventing the next generation of communist indoctrinees?
The natural conclusion for the right wing is to take away the right to vote from women. Just look at this Neal Boortz quote from three years ago:
"A Democrat vote is a big government vote. Women — and I KNOW there are exceptions — seek security. They want a safe and secure next in which to raise their children. It’s someone else’s job to provide that security. That someone else is government. Studies have shown that women react much more favorably to the word “security” than to “freedom.” Could it possibly be that the founding fathers had the right idea?"
What the GOP is really worried about is that everyone outside of UTAH will avail themselves of free birth control.