The outrage is so thick you can cut it with a knife. Even a liberal icon like Mark Shields was almost apoplectic yesterday on The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell as he predicted a cataclismic uprising from Catholics all over the country in response to Obama's decree that all insured employees, even those working for Catholic and other religion based organizations, get free coverage for contraceptions. O'Donnell, while assuring us he agreed that contraception should be available to all who want it, was forced to second Shields' dire predictions for Obama's political future because as O'Donnell kept repeating ad nauseum, Mark Shields is a liberal icon.
And the indisputably liberal Mr. Shields was joined in his condemnation by such conservative stalwarts as John Boehner, Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and a wide variety of Catholic Bishops and church spokesmen. Not only are they decrying Obama's insensitivity to Catholic tenets and beliefs, they are deploring his war on religion and vowing to drive his faith hating personhood from office.
There's only one problem with these guys and the whole contraception Kabuki theater they are playing out on TV and in newspapers across the country. They are guys. Look closely, and see if you can find any women who are not right-wing conservatives weighing in on the subject. You remember women, don't you? They're the ones who will be saving $600-$1200 dollars a year if insurance companies are made to cover the cost of contraception. They're the ones who actually will be affected by and benefit from President Obama's policy if it goes into effect. Since they also represent a majority of the electorate, the predicted doom and gloom blowback to Obama from Catholics across the country seems highly unlikely.
Particularly when you consider that 99% of all women, and 98% of Catholic women use contraception regardless of their church's strictures. In fact, in poll after poll women of all religions have overwhelmingly indicated that they believe contraception should be made cheap and available to anyone who wants it. So it hardly seems that the all-male church hierarchy, its pundit defenders or the male politicians eager to turn this into an election year issue have their fingers on the pulse of the nation when it comes to contraception.
Let's hope that President Obama realizes this and sticks to his guns. Women don't give a fig what family-values politicians or Catholic men like Mark Shields and Lawrence O'Donnell think on this very personal issue, even if they are liberals. We'd actually prefer it if they would just butt out.