John McCain hates birth control

Katha Pollitt wonders¹ why John McCain’s strong anti-contraceptive views are not fodder for the 24 hour news to chew endlessly on.

But can’t the commentariat take a break from itself and let the world know how much John McCain opposes birth control? Vastly more people rely on contraception than read The New Yorker or know who Bernie Mac is from mac ‘n’ cheese.

In fact, vastly more people use birth control than believe Obama is a secret Muslim. They might like to know that when it comes to contraception, McCain is no maverick.

Here’s the story. Last week, Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard who has been helping McCain look bright-eyed and estrogen-friendly, told reporters that women wanted more choice in their health-care plans. For example, it bothered women when plans covered Viagra but not contraception.

Big mistake! McCain had voted against a bill that would have required plans to cover birth control if they covered prescription meds at all, like, um, Viagra. McCain’s non-response when queried about this by a reporter was astonishing. As you can still see on YouTube, he squirms and grins and smirks (Viagra! embarrassing!) and fumfers about evasively.

“I don’t know enough about it to give you an informed answer,” he manages to splutter, “because I don’t recall the vote. I’ve cast thousands of votes. . . . It’s something I’ve not thought much about.”

So, John McCain is so opposed to contraception he voted against requiring insurance plans to cover it like other drugs, and either so indifferent to women’s health and rights or just so out of it he doesn’t even remember how he voted. That’s the way to show American women you really care.

[From McCain’s take on birth control — chicagotribune.com]

The YouTubery of the question:

Pollitt searched Nexis for discussion of this McCain position and found only 61 mentions in print and on TV, and most of those were indirect references, at best. I guess the fact that John McCain has a 20 year record of voting against contraception yet voting for insurance coverage of Viagra isn’t as important as fist bumping or magazine-cover satire.

1. rhetorically, for sure, since McCain’s gaffes are off the record by media dictate [↩]