Condoms Provide Inadequate Stimulation for the Economy

After prodding from President Obama, House Democrats have reversed their earlier position that condoms should be part of a stimulating economic package.

This afternoon, House Dems announced that they’d cut a provision from their version of the stimulus bill that would have made it easier for states to cover family planning services for low-income women, Elana Schor of TPMDC reports:

House Democrats have removed a provision from their stimulus bill that would exempt states from the need to get waivers for covering family planning under Medicaid. The family-planning aid has been the subject of repeated Republican attacks over the past few days, and health care advocates were dismayed by the Democrats’ decision to give in on its removal.

“We are disappointed that the Medicaid Family Planning State Option, a common-sense provision to expand basic health care to millions of women, including many who have lost their jobs in the current economic downturn, was a victim of misleading attacks and partisan politics, and dropped from the economic stimulus bill,” Planned Parenthood for America President Cecile Richards said in a statement today.

Obama wanted the birth control provision cut because he saw it as an obstacle to the bipartisan support he is seeking for the economic stimulus package. This decision is sure to upset his supporters in the women’s health movement, whose leaders lobbied forcefully for the birth control provision.