During a recent speech at the Women in the World Summit, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton implied that Americans who do not want to pay for another woman's birth control are "extremists."
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton waded into the debate over women's rights, warning a global audience that "extremists" are out to control women.
Why extremists always focus on women remains a mystery to me. But they all seem to. It doesn't matter what country they're in or what religion they claim. They want to control women. They want to control how we dress, they want to control how we act, they even want to control the decisions we make about our own health and bodies.
Yes, it is hard to believe but even here at home we have to stand up for women's rights and reject efforts to marginalize any one of us because America needs to set an example for the entire world.
Although Clinton didn't mention specifically the raging debate about who should pay for birth control in the United States or the "War on Women," it's obvious what she was getting at, especially in an election year. She also said America needs to set an example for the entire world, but what is that example? Paying for other people's birth control? Stay away from the decisions about my body, but give me your wallet to pay for those decisions?
Clinton is correct when she speaks about the focus to oppress women in the world. It happens in countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran, Syria, many different countries in Africa, in China, Pakistan, Afghanistan etc. etc. every day, but not in the United States. Unfortunately, Clinton chose not to single those countries out for their atrocities against women in her comment above. When was the last time you heard of a woman in the United States being executed after she was raped? When was the last time you heard of a woman being stoned to death while pregnant after being accused of adultery?
You've heard of it happening, but not here. Making the implication that the United States is even close to the low level of other countries when it comes to women's rights is astounding and disgraceful. The United States not only supports women's rights in America, but we have liberated women and given them freedom all over the world. Afghanistan is a perfect example. Women who once couldn't go to school or outside of their homes, now can. But still, Afghanistan is also an example of how ridiculous Clinton's comparison and slam of the U.S. is.
Afghan Woman Freed From Jail After Agreeing to Marry Rapist
An Afghan woman imprisoned for adultery after being raped by a relative is going free — but only because she agreed to marry the man who assaulted her.
The 19-year-old woman, named only as Gulnaz, became high-profile after an EU-funded documentary film on her case was censored by diplomats who feared for her welfare.
As attention to Gulnaz’s case rose, Afghan President Hamid Karzai was forced to intervene, announcing that she would be released if she agreed to mediation with her attacker. That mediation resulted in the current decision: that she be freed if she marries her rapist, a move her supporters say she feared.
Or how about ongoing genital mutilation of women in Egypt?
In 2008 Egypt outlawed the practice of female genital mutilation, but as Newsnight's Sue Lloyd-Roberts reports in an article which contains graphic detail and which some readers may find disturbing, the ban has had little effect and the practice is still rife.
Women in the U.S. are doing just fine. Women graduate college more than men, obtain more graduate degrees than men and in the Obama great recession are more likely to find a job according to Bloomberg.
Women in the United States can vote, have children in wedlock, have children out of wedlock, get married, choose to be single, commit adultery, work, choose not to work, go outside, drive a car, take the bus, show their ankles, go shopping without their husbands, get married when they choose to not when they are forced to, leave their husbands in abusive situations, obtain justice against a rapist, change religions, protest in the street, etc. Women are not oppressed and have rights as human beings in the United States. Having someone else pay for your birth control is not a right and if they refuse to pay for it, they aren't waging a "war on women."