Opinion Pieces Examine Sen. McCain's Positions On Contraception Coverage, Other Women's Health Issues

Main Category: Women's Health / Gynecology
Also Included In: Sexual Health / STDs
Article Date: 22 Jul 2008 - 9:00 PDT

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Two recent opinion pieces commented on presidential candidate Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) position on insurance coverage for birth control and other women's health-related issues. Summaries appear below.

~ Katha Pollitt, Chicago Tribune: McCain's vote against a bill that would have required insurance companies to cover birth control "like other drugs" and his "evasiv[e]" response when asked about the issue recently is "not a trivial issue," Pollitt, a columnist for the Nation, writes in a Tribune opinion piece. Even though McCain's response shows that he either is "indifferent to women's health and rights" or "just so out of it he doesn't even remember how he voted," the media has so far "refused to present McCain's anti-contraception record as a big, coherent story that tells us a great deal about who he is and what policies he would pursue in the White House," according to Pollitt. She writes, "Women -- and men -- need to know where he stands on this issue so basic to health and human flourishing if they are going to make informed decisions in the polling booth" (Pollitt, Chicago Tribune, 7/18).

~ Judith Warner, New York Times: Although McCain has said he is committed to women's equality, in "real life, it's another story," Warner -- author of "Perfect Madness: Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety" -- writes in a Times opinion piece. According to Warner, McCain has voted to restrict women's access to abortion, contraception and affordable prenatal care. "In other words, he has time after time put up roadblocks to any legislative measures that could help make women's abstract equality a reality," Warner writes, adding, "While that's standard Republican politics, it's not really the stuff of a maverick -- particularly not one who's now trying his darndest" to "woo" Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-N.Y.) most "die-hard female supporters" (Warner, "Domestic Disturbance," New York Times, 7/17).

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