Poor Michael Steele is scrambling and backtracking yet again. Good thing he's got a crackerjack coach:

http://bit.ly/3ppyiu

(satire)

How's that big tent thing going anyways?

Honestly, though, I would have preferred this to remain a "dirty little secret." Even women working for the republican party should have reasonable access to abortions through their health care coverage. I suppose same-sex partner coverage is beyond their small-minded morality as well. Ooops, maybe that is also a hidden benefit. Sorry for bringing it up.

I'm sure Amy Siskind still thinks it's a great idea to sit down and discuss women's issues with Steele, though.

Wait till some of the more radical parts of his party find out that the insurance covers birth control for unmarried persons - OH NOES!

Well I think it is a powerful tool. Under GOP logic a single dollar taints the entire insurance plan. Meaning that every single organization associated with the Catholic Church, the Religious Right, or Movement Conservatism is fair game for this kind of harassment. Let us see that if push comes to shove the Republican Party and all its allies are really as willing to deny comprehensive insurance coverage to upper middle-class white women and their teen daughters as they are to working class women and children.

Dan Qualye fell into this trap at one point. When asked what he would do if his teen daughter got pregnant his answer started "Well we would get together as a family and---". Luckily for him his wife Marilyn was there and stepped in and said "She would have the baby". Because any other answer would have betrayed the deep hypocrisy that lies at the core of this issue.

So lets watch the insurance companies squeal when organization after organization, company after company are forced to find alternative insurance plans that don't offer abortion to services to ANYONE. There are some near term risks to this but I think it is worth driving home the message to moderate to conservative women who may vote Republican on economic or more broadly social issues that the Party does not believe that they have control of their own uterus.

Because in the end 'choice' is not the right word. Unfortunately English doesn't have a nice, short word for 'autonomy', the notion that in the end you have the right to control your own self, and particularly your own body. Let the Right educate women that in this one matter that they are not free, that they are slaves to other people's and particular to other mens' will. See how well that flies in affluent suburbs.

Ah, but did they REALLY "drop abortion coverage"? If the insurance company they use offers abortion coverage to ANY customers, isn't the whole pool of money tainted? Isn't that the same argument Stupak supporters are using against pooling money?

i guess they think only babies of liberals and nonwites should be aborted

Hypocrisy notwithstanding, this is a terrible decision for women. IIRC, for example, Catholic women have abortions at a rate slightly larger than the population in general. When push (pun not intended) comes to shove, lots of moral people decide that committing the one-time "sin" is better than living long term with the unwanted child. Even Republican staffers should have that right.

GOP foresight exemplified.

My guess is nothing will change with their policy. I hope someone follows this up relentlessly to make sure they either make the change or admit that they have not intention of doing so.