VOTE TALLY UPDATE 4:36pm: Senator Weinberg's bill is passed 26-13 to restore state funding. Just before the vote, she remarked on the fact that almost every woman spoke in favor of it, "and some good men", and that perhaps these women "know something".
UPDATE: Listen LIVE to discussion about the bill to restore state funding to women's health care - sorry, the feed is not embeddable.
UPDATE2: Doherty, speaking from the Senate floor, just apologized to Sen. Weinberg for accusing her of lying. Says he was "exuberant" at the Right to Life rally and should have said Weinberg was "misleading". I'm not hearing an apology for "Nazi" and "apartheid".
Here is part of what Senator Michael Doherty said today, speaking at a Right to Life rally on the State House steps:
Nobody has any problem trying to have no affiliation with nefarious organizations such as the Nazis or apartheid regimes," said Doherty. "But somehow, we're asked to use our tax dollars to support these type of organizations.
I'd like to say the LD-23 senator has gone 'round the bend. But, horrifying as this is, this is consistent with Doherty's level. This is a guy who fears that kids on school trips to the state house might be freaked out by trans people in the washroom, and who - like Christie - denies global climate change.
Doherty also used today's occasion to pile on (again, like Christie) Loretta Weinberg, accusing Weinberg of lying about access to critical health services if $7.45M state funding for women's health services/family planning is not restored to the NJ budget.
Both Christie and Doherty have been saying women can be steered to hospital ERs and to FQHC's, Federally Qualified Health Centers. But hospital ERs are simply not set up for non-emergent cases clogging their waiting rooms. And 2 weeks ago, Katherine Grant-Davis, president & CEO of NJ Primary Care Association - they represent the FQHCs - said they couldn't keep up with the 124% increase in patient load that they've already had since 2002, and Christie's cuts are already adding to the burden.
The New Jersey Senate votes today on a bill to restore that $7.45M state funding back into New Jersey's budget. Like Star-Ledger said, in an editorial posting today, strongly backing the fight to restore that state funding, Weinberg has the facts on her side. But I suppose that doesn't matter as much to Doherty, who only has to appeal to the right-wing and Christian money that fuels his political engines up in the sticks of Warren and Hunterdon counties.
Nazis. Apartheid. Wow. |
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