Daily French Roast

Anne is reading …

Despite the efforts of Susan G. Komen to begin to repair its reputation, some people are still angry at the foundation. Here, a small group of women recently protested outside of Komen’s office in Dallas. (Rex C. Curry / Associated Press)Eve Ellis, who served on the Susan G. Komen board of directors for six years and works now as a financial advisor at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in New York issued a private letter that wound up being published by the Guardian UK.

The letter is devastating, writes the LA Times, calling for the founder of the Susan J. Komen breast cancer philanthropy Nancy Brinker to resign. Writing that there is no doubt that Komen’s decision to defund Planned Parenthood was political, she then “dings Brinker for her links to the George W. Bush administration and for recently hiring Ari Fleischer, Bush’s former White House press secretary, for help on crisis communication. Then the big guns come out as she calls for Brinker to resign, the board to be replaced, and vice president Karen Handel to be fired.” (Note, Handel resigned on Tuesday.)

White House Contraception Battle

Why White House sees political opportunity in the contraception battle Washington Post

Senate Democrats Split Over Obama’s Contraception Rule Business Week

Catholic TV network sues to block US contraception rule Reuters

Contraception controversy consumers DC campaign CNN

Santorum: Obama leading Christians to the ‘guillotine’ The Raw Story

“They are taking faith and crushing it. Why? When you marginalize faith in America, when you remove the pillar of God-given rights then what’s left is the French Revolution. What’s left is a government that gives you rights. What’s left are no unalienable rights. What’s left is a government that will tell you who you are, what you’ll do and when you’ll do it. What’s left in France became the the guillotine.”

More DFR

Skin cancer drug reverses Alzheimer’s in mice CNN

Baby Knows Best: Baby-Led Weaning Promotes Healthy Food Preferences Science Daily

New TED Book envisions the ‘living cities of the future TED

More DFR

Believing in Birth Control Doesn’t Make Me Un-American | 2Ps in a Pod AOC Body

(Excerpt) America is much more like the Arab world in our thinking about women.

Do you know that in Utah, both houses moved in 2010 to make miscarriage a felony in the state? If a woman slipped on ice in winter, her husband could have her imprisoned for not wearing proper shoes and causing the miscarriage with her negligence. Only the governor’s veto kept this legislation from passing.

In South Dakota last year, legislators worked on a law to make it justifiable homicide for a man to shoot his wife if she assisted her daughter in ending a pregnancy. Insanity has taken over the demand of American men that they control women’s bodies. And there is no end to the new legislation in sight.

Under the weight of your controversy over me, Bro. Dennis, I’ve had to return to my own inner psychological roots, locking down the essence of my own identity and principles. This fight for me as a good woman of honor comes at a time when the Susan G. Komen/Planned Parenthood problem is the topic of every Republican candidate for president, along with the new argument that birth control shouldn’t exist for women in America, says Santorum. It’s too dangerous for our health. Romney will reverse himself on birth control, like he’s reversed every other position in his career. I am terrified of Republicans, because they will hunt down women all over America.

Talking Points Memo weighs in on the new Republican war on contraception, writing that pro-choice Republicans are begging the party to pull back from the building fight over contraception before it’s too late.

“I think this week’s outrage over the Komen decision should be a warning to the Republican party about how quickly there was a mass outrage over further and further attacks on general women’s health,” Kellie Ferguson, executive director of Republican Majority for choice, told me Wednesday. “You could see the same backlash on attacks on contraception.”

Pandering to the extreme wing of social conservatives will take the party down a path to disaster warns Ferguson. A majority of Americans and a majority of Catholics support the White House decision on offering contraception in the insurance package for Catholic institutions like hospitals and universities. 28 states already mandate exactly what is contained in the new federal plan.