Who said this: “[W]e shouldn’t have a bunch of politicians . . . making health care decisions . . . .”

August 20th, 2012

President Obama of course. Please pardon my use of elipses and selective quoting. Here is the full quotation:

The views expressed were offensive,” said Obama. “Rape is rape. And the idea that we should be parsing and qualifying and slicing what types of rape we are talking about doesn’t make sense to the American people and certainly doesn’t make sense to me. So what I think these comments do underscore is why we shouldn’t have a bunch of politicians, a majority of whom are men, making health care decisions on behalf of women.”

I don’t think he meant what he said. I think he meant that politicians should not be enacting laws that limit women’s health. But what his words convey is that male politicians are particularly incompetent with respect passing any laws respecting women’s health.

Though, as my selective quote alludes, the President has no problem with politicians  (of both genders) making health care decisions for all Americans in other contexts–including the reproductive rights context (see the HHS contraception mandate).