Videos Feature S.C. Gov. Talking About Contraception, Response to 'War on Women'

April 5, 2012 — The following summarizes select women's health-related videos.

Contraception coverage: South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) stepped into the contraceptive coverage debate this week while appearing on the "The View." In response to a question from host Elizabeth Hasselbeck about how Republicans can spread the message that they, like Democrats, support women's rights, Haley says, "Women don't care about contraception. They care about jobs and the economy and raising their families." Host Joy Behar interrupts to say that women "should care about contraception, too." Behar added that "when someone like Rick Santorum says he wants to take it away, we care." Haley responds, "While we care about contraception, let's be clear, all we're saying is we don't want government to mandate when we have to have it and when we don't. We want to be able to make that decision. We don't want government making that decision for us" ("The View," ABC, 4/3).

War on Women: "Women are not an interest group," and "they're perfectly capable of making their own choices about their health," President Obama says in a new video in support of women and the health care services Planned Parenthood offers (Granholm, "The War Room," Current TV, 3/30). Ruth Conniff, political editor of The Progressive Magazine, says, "I think [Planned Parenthood as an election issue is] absolutely crucial to so many women voters and what women really understand this is just not about driving a wedge over the issue of late-term abortion. This is about telling women whether they should have access to birth control and, really, fundamentally, whether we're going back to 'Little House on the Prairie,' or whether we're living in a modern society. And that's why you see these huge number gaps" (Schultz, "The Ed Show," MSNBC, 4/2). The "outrage" in response to recent attacks on women "is deafening," Tracy Clark-Flory, staff writer for Salon, says (Granholm, "The War Room," Current TV, 3/30).