Sandra Fluke Testifys at Women's Health Hearing

Sandra Fluke

Today on Capital Hill, Georgetown Law Student Sandra Fluke was able to testify before the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee on women's health and contraception.

As most of us know, She was blocked from testifying at a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee the previous week on the 2010 health care law regulation requiring employers and insurers provide contraception coverage to their employees. The first panel of the hearing only had men as witnesses.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-California, turned down a request last week from Democrats to have Fluke testify at his hearing prompting the hearing today (2-23-12).

Sandra was able to provide testimony on how important birth control is, not just for pregnancy prevention, but for hormonal regulation. Sandra spoke about her friend, and her friends horror when she found out birth control was not covered under her healthcare plan when she needed it for medical reasons and not as pregnancy prevention.

Sadly, today's testimony was not approved to be televised...


Dems: GOP won’t let us televise contraception hearing
From: http://www.politico.com

Pelosi aides say the House recording studio has denied a request to broadcast the event, “apparently” at the behest of the Republican-controlled Committee on House Administration.

Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill pointed to a July 2008 decision in which the committee lifted restrictions on use of the studio.
“If Chairman [Dan] Lungren has reversed this policy, he has done so in secret and not consulted with CHA Democrats,” Hammill said in an email. “This leaves us only to think that the House Republican leadership is acting out yet again to silence women on the topic of women’s health.”

Salley Wood, a spokeswoman for Republicans on the Committee on House Administration, said the policy wasn’t updated in 2008. Instead, she said the recording studio is operating under policies set in 2005.

Wood said the committee did not play a role in the decision not to broadcast this week’s hearing.
Pelosi’s office said this event is the first in which the studio has not covered a hearing or told Democrats that it couldn’t because of other commitments.