Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) walked out of a House committee hearing on Obama’s new contraception policies, , accusing chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) of blocking female witnesses from testifying.
Obama’s health care provision stipulates insurance companies must cover contraception directly for women without a co-pay, so that religious organizations do not directly have to offer it to employees. Religious leaders claim their freedom of religion is being infringed upon. “I look at this panel [of witnesses], and I don’t see one single individual representing the tens of millions of women across the country who want and need insurance coverage for basic preventive health care services, including family planning,” said Maloney before walking out. Norton attempted to force a vote on seating Sandra Fluke, a law student from Georgetown University, saying the chairman was breaking committee rules. According to Issa, Fluke was “not found to be appropriate or qualified” to testify about religious liberty, claiming liberty, not contraception, was the topic of the hearing. The only female Republican at the hearing, Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle (R-N.Y.), sided with Issa, claiming she finds it “so objectionable that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle would characterize this as something so narrow as being about contraception. This is a fundamental assault on one’s conscience.” Indeed, it is – but not for the reasons Buerkle claims.