Last week, Colorado Congressman Mike Coffman couldn’t for the life of him remember the phrase “birth control,” while his colleague Congressman Cory Gardner unflinchingly pledged to a constituent that, if elected Senator, he would once again vote to restrict women’s access to health care services. Indeed, Colorado Congressmen Forgetful and Affirmative are two peas in a pod when it comes to limiting women’s health care rights.
In his bumbling attempt to appear sensitive to women’s issues, Coffman did manage to verbalize that he supports the Supreme Court’s recent Hobby Lobby decision, which allows certain employers to limit women’s access to birth control, as previously required by the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate. Setting aside, of course, the fact that forgetting birth control is not a luxury millions of women who rely on contraceptives for family planning and health reasons can afford, consider also that Coffman’s debate blank out is coming from a candidate who has previously supported the restrictive, anti-abortion ‘personhood’ measure that could ban common forms of birth control like the pill.
Unlike Mike Coffman, when Cory Gardner is asked about his stance on another anti-women’s health measure, he doesn’t need two hands and a flashlight to find his answer: “yes.” But Gardner, too, is a “former” personhood supporter, who continues to co-sponsor a federal personhood bill and who has consistently voted in the House to limit women’s rights.
To paraphrase Congressman Coffman, he and Cory Gardner are um, uh, against women’s rights, and, uh certainly, certainly, too extreme for Colorado.
Published: Aug 19, 2014