Democratic Congresswoman on Maddow: GOP’s New Women’s Caucus Can’t Mask Anti-Women Policies
Want evidence that Republicans are not waging a “war on women”? How about the new caucus launched by House Republicans? The “Women’s Policy Committee” is made up of all 24 female Republicans in the House (out of 242 total Republicans), who touted their conservative – and female – credentials in a video released on Monday.
Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) isn’t buying it. “In this day and age, do we really need a lady’s auxiliary in Congress, because that’s what it feels like to me,” she says in the clip below, on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show. “What it feels like to me is the Republican leadership is saying, ‘O.K., we’ve got these gals in here, look, here they are, and they’re going to vote for the same anti-women policies that we’re putting forward.”
DeGette, who co-chairs the House Pro-Choice Caucus, also discussed the lawsuit by 43 Catholic groups against the Obama administration’s mandate that employers cover contraception costs. The lawsuit argues that mandating coverage violates the First Amendment’s protection of religious freedom, echoing the argument made by Senate Republicans who supported the Blunt Amendment, which was voted down in March.
“This lawsuit just shows that the Catholic Church is tone-deaf to the fact that 98 percent of their female members have used birth c0ntrol at some point in their lives,” DeGette said, “and really that the president’s policy does nothing to infringe on religion.” Watch:
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