Losing Credibility With One Partisan Snipe

Posted by in Blog on August 1, 2012 5:40 pm / 11 comments

I had no idea who Amy Phillips Bursch was before today. She works for some population control outfit called, Population Connection. She wrote a piece called ‘Contraception Without Co-Pays: Good for Women and the Planet’ expressing her view of the benefits of the contraception mandate buried in Obamacare, aka The Affordable Care act.

The bulk of the piece is devoted largely to offering up facts and figures about population control and how this mandate will help. For example:

First up: Women. It’s not just the childless by choice who benefit from contraception. Birth control allows women to wait to have babies until they’re ready. When women can plan and appropriately space their pregnancies, they and their babies are healthier. According to the reproductive health gurus at the Guttmacher Institute, “Women whose pregnancies are planned are more likely to receive timely prenatal care. They are less likely to smoke or drink during pregnancy, and more likely to breast-feed once their baby is born.” That’s good stuff.

The typical American woman only wants two children. Contraception allows families to have the number of children they’re comfortable raising–and give those children the best possible shot at success. A child who’s received good health care and a great education is more likely to grow up to be a productive member of society. That helps entire nations succeed–and in our complex, interconnected global economy, we need as much success as we can get.

Again, I don’t agree with the mandate, but all she is doing here is making the case based on an issue that is obviously passionate about. I can respect that even if I don’t agree with it.

But then we get to this:

Sounds great, right? Not to everyone, unfortunately. The tentacles of sexism are long and tightly wrapped around societies – including ours. The collective right-wing freakout over the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate is only the latest example. While many of us see women’s equality as an inalienable right, powerful interests see it as a threat. That’s why we can’t rest. We have to keep fighting the forces that would be happy to see all women barefoot and pregnant and confined to making sandwiches in the world’s kitchens.

Emphasis mine. That is where she lost credibility on anything she had written previously. In one fell swoop she declares that opposition to the mandate is driven not by any free market concerns or concerns over the strong arm of government forcing companies and organizations to provide and pay for services in their health care plans they do no agree with but rather by us knuckle dragging, cave dwelling troglodytes along with our subversive barefoot and pregnant wives (who better be in the kitchen making me a turkey sandwich as I write this. Bitch.) who are too meek and helpless to oppose what we believe.

I called her out on this claiming this assertion of hers was “horseshit” and she responded to me this way:

Notice she backs of her initial assertion and now says, “in part.” Well why not write that to begin with? Why not say, “Some of the opposition to this mandate is in part, driven by sexism.” No, she had to use the blanket accusation, throwing out the sexism charge and then applying it to the “collective right wing freakout over the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate.”

If you believe something is good public policy, then make your case and be done with it. If you don’t want to invite accusations of writing horseshit, then stop writing horseshit.

 
 

11 Comments

  1. Richard Easbey says:
    August 1, 2012 at 11:50 pm

    If you don’t want to invite accusations of writing horseshit, then stop writing horseshit.

    Is that even possible for a leftist? Not to write horseshit, I mean.

  2. Amy Phillips Bursch says:
    August 2, 2012 at 9:33 am

    Nice column, and your point is well made. My column probably would have benefited from an “in part.” I would like to point out, however, that you’re also making a “blanket accusation.” Population Connection does NOT support “population control.” We support access to VOLUNTARY family planning programs and population education. So before you call the kettle black, next time you might want to glance in the mirror.

    Amy Phillips Bursch
    amy@popconnect.org

  3. Jay says:
    August 2, 2012 at 9:43 am

    I appreciate your comment, but you’re kind of engaging in semantics here. “Population control” has long been used to describe artificial efforts to slow the rate of growth of the human population. Whether those efforts are government mandated as they are in China, for example or part of voluntary efforts that you support is all in the details. Since I excerpted your piece and provided a direct link to what you wrote, I hardly “accused” you of anything. That being said, I can also see where the word “control” doesn’t fit within your advocacy.

  4. Amy Phillips Bursch says:
    August 2, 2012 at 9:48 am

    I would like to sincerely thank you for writing this post, however. I think most of us (me included!) get caught up in our own viewpoints and often fail to see how our words are interpreted by the other side. It’s good to get a reminder.

  5. Neysa says:
    August 2, 2012 at 2:01 pm

    Unfortunately, there are A LOT of sexist people out there who believe that women should not have as many rights as men do. And all of that stuff about the health of women and children being strengthened with birth control is also correct. Not to mention that the reason the article doesn’t start with the sexism bit is because it is not the focus of the information she is trying to say, it is only PART of it. I think that fact that you call it “horseshit” belittles your own judgement. You were doing a good job with the “I can respect that even if I don’t agree with it” bit. But when you start calling her article petty names and adding ridiculous photos, you make YOUR article horseshit. It’s your article that’s got the stupid picture now.

  6. Jay says:
    August 2, 2012 at 2:13 pm

    Neysa, you’re arguing a strawman. First of all, I didn’t call the entire article “horseshit.” I reserved that specifically for her comments about sexism. I am not sure what the photo has to do with anything. If you want, I’ll replace it with a smiley face. It’s not like that’s going to change the content of what I wrote.

    Once again, the problem I had with her piece was the blanket accusation she made about conservatives. It is a problem I have not just with her piece, but many others like that do the same thing. Rather than just saying conservatives disagree, there always has to be an underlying sinister motive. Oppose Obama’s failed stimulus package and continued bailouts? Oh well, it must be because Obama is black and you’re a racist! Oppose the contraception mandate? Oh it’s because you’re a sexist! Stand up for Chick Fil A because several Democratic politicians decided it would be a good idea to use the power of their office to threaten the CEO with government action because he doesn’t believe what they do? Oh well thats just because you’re a right wing bible thumping homophobe!

    I could go on all day.

    There are no doubt a lot of people boycotting against Chick Fil A because they hate Christians and religion overall. But if I had said, “There is hatred towards Christians in our society. The reaction by liberals and progressives to Dan Cathy’s comments on gay marriage is evidence of that” how quickly would people say it had nothing to do with their “hatred” of Christianity?

  7. Nadia Aronson says:
    August 2, 2012 at 3:27 pm

    come on guys, get over it (hate to use the word gals for some reason-we all have our little hang ups). Sounds like you basically agree on most of the stuff. BTW, nice horshit pic. Never seen one before.

  8. Todd says:
    August 2, 2012 at 8:26 pm

    I have to agree with the general message of Amy Phillips Bursch’s post. I do think the war on contraception is mostly about sexism. And sexism fueled by religion, I would add. How many of the people who claim that they’re opposed to contraception without co-pays because of free market concerns or concerns about government overreach happen to be female atheists? Mighty mighty few, I’d wager.

  9. Lorraine Sumner says:
    August 3, 2012 at 1:26 am

    Amy states ‘Population Connection does NOT support “population control.” We support access to VOLUNTARY family planning programs and population education’…..good for you Amy at least you’re trying to educate people and do something about this overpopulation problem…the majority of people are turning a blind eye to the problem or don’t even think there is a problem and think nothing of saying ‘I want 4 or 5 kids’……’control vs ‘voluntary’ is going to be irrelevant quite soon if humankind doesn’t get a grip on the problem and address the overpopulation crisis in a timely manner (i.e. 1 billion more people in the last 10 years and rising…yes that’s a crisis)….because nature is going to make the ‘choice’ for us and natures methods of population control won’t be pretty.

  10. Gary says:
    August 3, 2012 at 3:59 pm

    A related thought: since the pro-choice mantra of “every child a wanted child” began, how many *more* unwanted children have been born in the United States than there were before various forms of birth control (including abortion) were cheap and readily available?

  11. Neysa says:
    August 3, 2012 at 7:45 pm

    People don’t HATE Christianity, they don’t think it’s right that many Christians hate others for what they do with their lives when their religion is supposed to be about loving everyone. The biggest issue is that Christians are trying to make people conform to their view of what is right when it doesn’t even effect them. People should be able to marry whoever they want, no matter what. Why can’t they just leave people alone. They don’t want gay people to have the same rights as them and that is ridiculous. Meanwhile children are being sexually abused by Priests and Bishops. What does that say about religion overall? I grew up with Christianity. I stopped going when the sexual abuse starting coming out and I was told I have to make my gay friends change who they are. It’s wrong. I can’t believe you can even say “hatred towards Christians” when they are showing blatant hatred towards others for so many things. Hate brings more hate.

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