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In discussion of McCain’s painful fumbling over why health insurance covers Viagra but not birth control, The Situation Room panel of Wolf Blitzer, Gloria Borger, Stephen Hayes and Jack Cafferty debate the position between a rock and a hard place that McCain finds himself, eager to win over those feminist Clinton supporters but hesitant to speak out against that mainstay of the Republican platform: restricting women’s reproductive freedom.
Ignoring for the moment that CNN cannot bother to have a single pundit on for “balance” from the left against The Weekly Standard’s Hayes and US News’ Gloria Borger, it’s Jack Cafferty who issues the befuddling “answer” to McCain’s predictament:
CAFFERTY: Well, you know, the answer is Viagra is used to treat a medical condition, erectile dysfunction. Birth control is a lifestyle choice. And that’s why insurance companies don’t reimburse for it unless pregnancy represents a danger for the woman. And then there’s a gray area where you can do a negotiation.
Excuse me? I know that most men don’t have a huge well of knowledge on the workings of a woman’s body (any more than I completely understand all of your equipment), but I think that in absence of knowledge, it might be smarter to avoid definite declarations like that. Oral contraceptives are absolutely used to treat medical conditions:
Although they are most commonly prescribed to prevent pregnancy, birth control pills are also used to treat a variety of menstrual disorders including amenorrhea (absence of menstruation), dysmenorrhea (abnormally painful menstruation) and hypermenorrhea (abnormally Menstruation is the periodic shedding of the lining of the uterus, causing bloody vaginal discharge.heavy menstrual bleeding). They may also be prescribed to treat a number of other conditions, including polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), hirsutism (abnormal hair growth) and endometriosis. In addition, birth control pills may be taken to regulate irregular menstrual cycles and to help in the transitional period prior to menopause.
In addition to preventing pregnancy and treating various medical conditions, birth control pills also offer women a number of significant health benefits, including a decreased risk of colorectal, ovarian and endometrial cancers.
And since when is the life of a woman to be considered a “gray area” for negotiation? But there’s no gray area about a man’s desire to get it up, nor any consideration to the consequences of what happens when he can? Jack, you disappoint me.
Transcripts below the fold:
BLITZER: Planned Parenthood is seizing on a stumble by John McCain when he was asked about insurance coverage for birth control and Viagra.
Let’s talk about that with once again, our senior political analyst, Gloria Borger, Jack Cafferty and Stephen Hayes of “The Weekly Standard”.
Here’s the ad that Planned Parenthood is now running, guys.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, PLANNED PARENTHOOD AD)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ever use birth control?
Then you’ll want to hear this.
QUESTION: It’s unfair. Health insurance companies cover Viagra, but not birth control.
Do you have an opinion on that?
MCCAIN: I don’t know enough about it to give you an informed answer.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Planned Parenthood Action Fund is responsible for the content of this ad.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: All right, so, Gloria, let me start with you.
What do you think? Is this going to be an effective ad, because Planned Parenthood is running it in several of these so-called swing states?
BORGER: I think what was clearly on John McCain’s mind is that he didn’t want to talk about Viagra and that’s why you saw him in such agony during this. But, you know, McCain is trying to get those women voters that say that they’re alienated from Obama, they were supporting Hillary Clinton. And, you know, this is not the way for him to get young women voters. He may have a lot of the Viagra voters, but he needs those young women if he’s going to try and win the election (INAUDIBLE).
BLITZER: Steve, what do you think?
HAYES: Well, you know, you could see McCain just struggling to come up with any kind of an answer.
(LAUGHTER)
HAYES: I think he was probably thinking, jeez, on the one hand, I really need women voters. I don’t want to say anything that will offend them. On the other hand, I’m essentially a conservative. I might make the point that maybe the federal government shouldn’t be in the business of funding, you know, things for erectile dysfunction or birth control.
BORGER: Or — right.
BLITZER: Jack?
CAFFERTY: Well, you know, the answer is Viagra is used to treat a medical condition, erectile dysfunction. Birth control is a lifestyle choice. And that’s why insurance companies don’t reimburse for it unless pregnancy represents a danger for the woman. And then there’s a gray area where you can do a negotiation.
But this is not going to help John McCain. It brings to mind his opposition to freedom of choice. He’s a pro-life guy. You take a look at the Justices on the Supreme Court, you put McCain in office, you replay this ad from Planned Parenthood, you can figure out what kind of justices are going to be appointed if he’s the next president.
BORGER: And, by the way, this whole thing was started by one of McCain’s surrogates, Carly Fiorina, who pointed out this imbalance between insurance companies paying for Viagra and not paying for birth control. So I’m sure John McCain was kind of scratching his head.
BLITZER: All right. Let’s have a — let’s have a laugh.
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Isn’t the risk of unwanted pregnancy a medical condition? I would say it’s as much or more so than old geezers like McCain and Cafferty wanting to get it on (as unpleasant as that thought may be). Old geezer’s health is not at risk from not being able to get it up (although it may indicate a more serious problem) but a woman’s health is definitely at risk if she becomes pregnant.
WHAT! Oh, no, no, no…. You’ve really let me down Jack. If you’re allowed to get it up by taking a pill, what’s it going to do in the wrong hands? Can you say, “RAPE?” Nope, birth control is a need, especially these days, when it’s hard enough for people. Don’t make it worse. It should be supported, and people should not be afraid of this. We’ve never quite evolved on this issue, huh?
I saw an ad for a penis pump last night…on TV that is covered by Medicare.
….great
What if the Viagra is used by middle-aged gays to help sprout a boner?
“Disappointed”?
What. A. Dope. this guy is.
Which makes him perfect for CNN.
Forget the gays, what about Viagra for no longer fertile couples who want to sprout a boner?
Many republicans have to use Viagra to become sexually aroused with a woman. This is according to The Discovery Channel.
listen cafferty knows what he’s talking about.
1. he’s dysfunctional
2. he’s a dick
Ay yi yi.
Cafferty has been tough on Bush and the war but he remains an old fashioned right winger basically, and if not, sure booted this one.
So Viagra is a medical condition because men MUST be able to have sex if they want to, and contraception not so much because women don’t have that same right?
Right.
Yeah, gotta let us men express our power and sexuality, otherwise, I mean, we might get embarrased! Which is definitely a medical condition. Women needing to stay un-pregnant and function and yet still also function sexually, eh, not so important.
I’m preaching to the choir here I realize, I think I’ll send this to Cafferty instead.
These people need to be banished from the human race. The need to not be allowed to vote, eat, drink, bathe, or interact with the rest of humanity. Isolated confinement until the end of time would be appropriate.
Good Lard.
This is pretty bad esp. when you add in the fact that for generations pregnancy was/is treated like a mere medical condition.
Men!
Wasn’t Jack being sarcastic? I mean, he usually is on CNN, so I took him as being sarcastic, as in:
Well OF COURSE Viagra is covered, it’s a legitimate medical condition, but wanting to take a pill to negate the chance of pregnancy, well, that’s just a personal choice, more of an elective sort of thing.
I am of the belief he was being tongue in cheek when he said those words. I haven’t watched the video yet, but that is my first impression knowing Jack.
After I watch the video, I’ll see if I still stand by that assessment.
Viagra is a recreational drug.
Orangutan. @ 7:
Usually it is wioth other men.
ysbaddaden @ 4:
Then it’s a “lifestyle choice,” duh.
Unless I am mistaken, when birth control is prescribed for something other than contraception, it often IS paid for by insurance companies. I believe this was the case of a few friends of mine who had to go on it once they began taking Accutaine, which causes severe birth defects.
McCain’s fumbling will be just one more long lasting boner. There’s the Viagara analogy.
Cafferty’s comment will be a perpetual cock blocker keeping him from getting any. Thus the birth control connection.
You people really think every women should have birth control covered by their insurance plan, or in a more perfect world, covered under a universal health care plan? That is, covered as birth control, not covered as treatment for an illness (of course anything and everything should be covered if its used to treat an illness)
You really think erectile dysfunction isn’t a illness that shouldn’t be covered?
Birth control is a treatment for the side effects that are caused by old men who CHOOSE to take Viagara.
Get off the Viagara, Jack.
people are way too hard on other people here. but of course, all those who anonousmly blog do so because they live the perfect life, never once doing no wrong.
nobody bats 1000.
it’s humanity. don’t forget that you cylons!
QuakerDave @ 5:
Sometimes he makes sense, but basically he’s just a cranky old fart that CNN rescued from The Island of Misfit Anchors (which you may remember from “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer”). Your other choice on CNN would be Uber-Retard Glenn Beck - who NEVER makes sense and seems to personify Gore Vidal’s prophesy of the chuckling, grinning American fascist dictator.
Yep, pretty sure Jack was being sarcastic. So I think the attacks on him are unfounded, because he was just saying what we all know to be true from the perspective of the Conservatives. It’s not that he agrees with it, mind you, just that the fact is, so long as Conservatives hold so much sway over private insurance, the decisions of those companies will reflect their agenda and priorities.
So cut Jack some slack people! :D
I don’t know about you all but unless I am able to have an erection I die.
Its not a lifestyle choice that being a man I want to be able to have sex, nope its a medical condition and I suffer physical duress unless I get a boner.
Its not a medical condition that women are able to get pregnant and have to deal with the associated 9 months of physical changes, its a lifestyle choice that those trollops and c*nts want to go out and bang every thing out there like Vickey Iseman did.
And of course this whole thing was started by Carly Fiorina . . .
OH SNAP!!!
Come on, this is the angle to jump on, folks.
Because he can’t throw Fiorina under the bus as easily as he could the old white guys.
If he really needs women’s votes as badly as that segment implies, dems should smack him down but good here. oh no not the piledriver!!!
Whats with the hate on for viagra? Why are you people so offended by people having sex? You all treat it like a dirty little drug, and some brilliant witty insult to accuse someone of taking it, when its totally legit.
Cafferty is a typical rightwing gasbag who thinks all women are uppity, whiny and subservient to men.
8 dw Says: listen cafferty knows what he’s talking about.
1. he’s dysfunctional
2. he’s a dick
Limp or throbbin’?
I stated this in another post on this general topic, but it bears repeating:
Even when just used as birth control, the Pill serves essentially the same function as Viagra. Men take Viagra when the want to do it, when they otherwise wouldn’t be able to. Women take the pill when they want to do it, when they otherwise wouldn’t be able to. This statement works out logically if and only if we believe in the underlying principle that women should be in charge of when they have or don’t have sex, and when they have or don’t have babies. That is why the anti-choice crowd is also anti-birth-control: they don’t think that women should be able to control their own reproduction, or their own sex lives.
dosido @ 11:
When you think about, Western medicine has always considered being female a disease. It’s no coincidence that “hysterectomy” and “hysteria” have the same root: Greek “hysterikos” for “womb.” Sometime, you just gotta cut the crazy out. \snark (;>
If it wasn’t for Viagra, the Republican party would cease to procreate.
CAFFERTY: Well, you know, the answer is Viagra is used to treat a medical condition, erectile dysfunction. Birth control is a lifestyle choice. And that’s why insurance companies don’t reimburse for it unless pregnancy represents a danger for the woman. And then there’s a gray area where you can do a negotiation.
If the problem of not getting an erection is a medical condition, what do you do with that erection once the medical condition is treated, make a lifestyle choice? In the traditional sense, wouldn’t an erection disorder treatment always lead to a lifestyle choice?
Cafferty’s argument is dumb and makes no sense unless medicine to make a mans penis erect is used for other reasons (other than having intercourse). I really can’t think of any other use.
McCain is a typical neocon who is careful not to step on the toes of all the dingbat looneys who support him. Religious nuts, medical lobbyists, and the old conservatives who think people shouldn’t have intercourse, (unless it’s with your wife on special occasions,… or with a prostitute or a young male congressional page).
I think Jack is being defensive. Viagra SHOULD be covered, because I NEED it! Whereas if you don’t want to be impregnated, that’s your choice. Dinosaur.
Wow, he dropped the ball on this one.
If anything is a “medical condition” getting pregnant is and if anything is a “lifestyle choice” taking pills to enable one to have sex certainly is. Being unable to screw is not a threatening “medical condition” you fucktard Cafferty. On the other hand, getting pregnant has of course a whole array of potential “conditions” associated with it, medical and otherwise. Gawd that was such an asinine comment, what an asshole.
Kevin @ 33:
I think that was his right testicle.
An erection is a normal biological function. If your bowels stop functioning, you get it treated. If your dick stops functioning, you get it treated. Why is this so hard to understandÉ
Snowball @ 30:
Well, closeted self-hating homosexuals can’t procreate anyway, so this is sort of a moot point.
What drugs is Cafferty taking. A normally level headed guy comes out such an ignoramus statement? Tell the woman who has 10 kids and another on the way that birth control is a lifestyle choice, Jack. You are a real bonehead on this one.
Barrett D — I don’t think anyone is hating on Viagra. Sex is great! The point is the hypocrisy of these people thinking old dudes getting to have sex without embarrassment (”errr…this has never happened to me before….”) is more medically necessary than young women being able to have sex without ending up preggers.
Just when you think there’s no way he can miss this opportunity to finally please the ladies, Jacks off again.
birth control used as birth control should not be covered.
birth control used as treatment for an illness should be covered.
viagra used to cure erectile dysfunction (or any other illness) should be covered
viagra used as an aphrodisiac should not be covered.
Does that make sense to anyone…
it can be discussed whether any of that should be covered by an insurance. but the ability to get pregnant ist not a disease.
erectyl disfunction is a disease. (at a young age)
so where’s the outrage?
Barrett D @ 18:
Even supposing that your premise is correct, that ED is an illness, and should be covered, why should that have anything to do with whether or not birth control is covered? We don’t have to deny coverage for ED in order to cover birth control.
Your argument is crap.
Viagra really isn’t a cure for any medical condition, it does not cure erectile dysfunction which can be caused by a number of medical conditions, some serious, some not. Erectile dysfunction is a symptom, not a disease.
20 Obummer Says: people are way too hard on other people here…
That’s because we eat our Viagra.
“I’m strong to the “enda” ‘Cause I eats me Viagra, I’m Popeye the Sailor Man…”
@34, by your definition “being awake” is also a medical condition. he clearly meant “disease”.
I gotta point out that Cafferty was the only one there being frank about the whole issue. He told us what “the answer” is, which is the answer that the insurance companies give. They don’t like to answer things like this publicly. The other two chuckleheads were trying to add spin to this, but Cafferty laid it out in black & white. I’m not convinced that this is what he really believes, but it sure-as-manure is what the policy IS for most HMOs. THESE are how the people who look after the health of Americans think, and THESE are the people who should be held accountable. Stop blaming the messenger for the message.
Uh…translation:
men controlling their own sexuality should be covered
women controlling their own sexuality should be expensive
Barrett D gets to make all the rules
’cause he’s a man who needs Viagra
(I tried to be civil at first, but you just really, really don’t know what you’re talking about…)
Goddam, folks. This is not a Jack Cafferty issue (and if you can’t connect his sarcasm about ED with the “subtle” comments on Scalia and Alito, I ain’t gonna help ya).
I