Well, well, well. Turns out Republicans do believe in spending taxpayer dollars on reproductive health care after all:
A Republican representative has introduced a spending bill amendment aimed at promoting the use of contraception – by horses.
Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) introduced the amendment, which would control the population of wild horses and burros as an alternative to the costly practice of capturing the animals and holding them in pens, which the Bureau of Land Management currently employs.
The text of the amendment is innocuous enough:
Text of amendment: H.R. 1 OFFERED BY: MR. BURTON AMENDMENT NO. 485: At the end of the bill (before the short title), insert the following: SEC. ll. None of the funds made available by this Act may be used for the gathers and removals of free-roaming wild horses and burros, except for the purpose of fertility control.
Its purpose, a less costly and more humane way of controlling the wild horse population, is certainly worthwhile. But as Jodi Jacobson at RH Reality Check notes, the push for contraception for horses came on the very same day that Burton and his fellow House Republicans are voting to to cut funding for programs that provide reproductive health care services -- including contraception -- to low-income women.
Burton has a long history of voting against health care for, you know, humans. And this amendment is coming from the same party that brought us the "Let Women Die" bill, because taxpayers should never, ever, under any circumstances -- not even life-and-death circumstances -- have to pay for women's reproductive health care because some taxpayers believe contraception equals abortion, and abortion is murder, and murder is wrong (if the "victim" is a fetus; if the victim is, say, a doctor, well, then it's debatable).
Sure would be nice if Republicans were as concerned with the humane treatment of women as they apparently are with horses.