Philly Now - Now, Rep. Allyson Schwartz Hits Corbett on Ultrasound Comments

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By Randy LoBasso

Providing further fodder to accusations of either his own out-of-touchness or Demonomania, Gov. Corbett went all the way to Seattle, Washington to once again tell the women of Pennsylvania and the United States as a whole, there's no reason to be afraid of forced ultrasound legislation.

"You can't make someone watch it," he told the Seattle Times. "You can put the monitor in front of them, but you can't make someone watch it."

Those comments eerily echoed (as they were meant to) ones he made in March, telling the Capitol press corps of the ultrasound bill, "I'm not making anybody watch, OK…Because you just have to close your eyes. As long as it's on the exterior and not the interior."

The March comments were stupid. Repeating them? Is there a word for that sort of thick-headedness? Especially as the so-called War on Women shows no signs of slowing down in the media discourse and Tom Corbett has already endorsed presumptive Republican candidate Mitt Romney for president.

The Obama campaign slammed Gov. Corbett for his first and second remarks through the media already. Now, Northeast Philadelphia/suburban Philadelphia Rep. Allyson Schwartz (who easily won her primary against write-in Occupy candidate Nathan Kleinman last week) is joining in, releasing a statement slamming both Corbett and Romney over the forced ultrasound legislation.

"Mitt Romney's top Pennsylvania supporter, Governor Corbett, again dismissed concerns over the mandatory ultrasound bill -- insisting that this unnecessary medical procedure is "not invasive at all' and that "you can't make someone watch.' It is no surprise that Mitt Romney is "extraordinarily proud' of Corbett's endorsement, since he is campaigning on a platform that would be damaging to women across the country," she said. "Romney wants to "get rid of' Planned Parenthood, a vital health care provider for millions of women; thinks that Roe v. Wade should be overturned; supports the Blunt Amendment that would hand women's health decisions over to their bosses; and can't say whether he would have signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law. We can't afford for our governor, and certainly not a presidential candidate, to be this dismissive of women's health."

Schwartz's statements about Romney's somewhat-newfound positions on women's health care are all true. The one-time pro-choice Senatorial candidate of Massachusetts has vastly shifted his position on the issue over his years running that state and later for president. He does not favor a federal ban on abortions, but instead has said he'd support overturning Roe v. Wade and leaving it up to the states.

To highlight Romney's supposed weaknesses on women's issues, the Obama Campaign has actually set up an online tool called "The Life of Julia," in which you get to see, throughout a pixilated, faceless woman's life, how the Obama Administration's choices on healthcare, federal funding for education and other initiatives help women. Which they claim Romney is willing to destroy through his support of Rep. Paul Ryan's budget plan. The problem: Democrats don't have a budget plan of their own. But we digress.

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