A New Hampshire Republican Tea Party (GOTP) lawmaker has suggested that married couples who should practice abstinence instead of using birth control pills.
State Representative Lynne Blankenbeker made the proposal saying abstinence is available “over the counter” along with condoms. She made her outlandish statement during a legislative committee hearing on a resolution urging the Obama administration to drop the birth control requirement for non-profit organizations providing health care insurance to their employees.
“People with or without insurance have two affordable choices, one being abstinence and the other being condoms, both of which you can get over the counter,” she said.
The comments came at the same hearing where another GOTP Rep. Jeanine Notter, sounding remarkably like a Michele Bachmann knock off, claimed that birth control pills lead to prostate cancer. She does understand that it’s the women who take the pills?
According to the Huffington Post, “Blankenbeker was engaged in a dialogue with Sylvia Kennedy, a New Hampshire doctor, who was testifying in support of Obama’s plan. Kennedy urged the coverage of birth control and responded to Blankenbeker that condoms are not a foolproof means of contraception, and also suggested that abstinence does not work all the time, a notion Blankenbeker disagreed with”.
“Abstinence works 100 percent of the time,” she said.
How many married couples under the age of 100 practice abstinence?
Blankenbeker also asserted that condoms and abstinence offer married couples a wider range of family planning options than oral contraceptives.
And it offers wider range how Ms. Blankenbeker?
“If you decide you want to get pregnant you can refrain from abstinence,” she said.
I understand things are a little provincial in New Hampshire, but asserting married couples practice abstinence is one of the more obtuse things I’ve ever heard, second only to suggesting birth control pills cause prostate cancer; yep, they sure know how to pick em’ in New Hampshire.
The Liberty Tree 