Englishbulldog

What is wrong with some Montana legislators?

Why do they think that comparing women to animals is acceptable?

First it was Rep. Keith Regier comparing women to cattle while debating abortion on the House floor during the 2011 Legislative Session.

Now it's Laurel legislator Krayton Kerns, who, in a logically impaired online essay, compared Georgetown college student Sandra Fluke to an English bulldog. He even went so far as to say that not only should contraception not be paid for by insurance, but to imply that Fluke could actually make money having sex like that stud bulldog.

"I remember John earning $1000 per month for sex at Colorado State University, so contraceptive costs were meaningless to him," Kerns wrote of the bulldog.

Enough.

Planned Parenthood of Montana rightly brought this insulting nonsense to light. Said spokeswoman Stacey Anderson, "Rep. Kerns' comments are degrading, sexist and inexcusable for an elected leader of this state," Anderson said. "In Montana, we respect the right to publicly debate an issue, but we draw the line at debasing or insulting an individual with whom we disagree."

Well said.

I'll go further. For those Rip Van Winkle men still living (or yearning to live) in the 19th century, let me remind you: Women are not your property. Women are not property, period. Their bodies do not belong to you and you do not have the right to control them.

Because that's really what this whole contraception ruckus is about. It's about men who want to control when women have sex. We women have that under control ourselves, thank you very much.

And to those of you male legislators out there who shout out in protest of this assertion, let me ask you this: Have you proposed legislation to ban or decried insurance covering Viagra? Isn't that covering the cost of having sex?

Oh, sorry. I forgot. That's helping men have sex.