Coulter's Latest Crazy Claim About Women

Ah, the antifeminist ideologue Ann Coulter. What will she say next? Apparently, this. On FoxNews Sunday, Ann Coulter spoke on Fox & Friends about a recent statement by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi that Republicans have shown "disrespect" for women. Here's part of what Coulter said:

"Republicans don't have a problem with women, as I'm sure you guys know, the audience may not. They have a problem with unmarried women who think, 'No, we don't need national defense, we need our birth control paid for.' And why? Because single women look at the government as their husbands. 'Please provide for me! Please take care of me!'"

First of all, we're amused that Coulter still equates the word "husband" with "providing for" a wife. Gender roles are so last century, after all. But secondly, note how Coulter assumes it's only unmarried women who have a problem affording birth control.

Being married doesn't necessarily make it easier to fulfill your co-pay. If anything, married women are more likely to need birth control. Statistics from the Guttmacher Institute show that married women are much more likely than unmarried women to be sexually active — and to use contraceptive methods.

Did you know that in 1986, Fremont Christian School, a private school in Washington, D.C., denied health insurance to married female employees because — and these words are straight out of the court opinion — "the Church believes, based on, inter alia, Ephesians 5:23, that in any marriage, the husband is the head of the household and is required to provide for that household."

Ann Coulter, it's not 1986 any more. More married women have private health insurance that provides for their birth control, because more married women work — nobody expects their husbands to "provide for" them.

Watch Coulter speak in the video below, particularly around 2:02.

This isn't the first time that Ann Coulter has implied that single women "look at the government as their husbands." She said the same words verbatim on the same Fox News show back in 2012.

Protest as Ann Coulter might, Obamacare has provided free access to birth control for four times as many women since its implementation — both married and unmarried women, that is. As we reported last week:

Under the ACA, 25 percent more women are now getting their Pill free, and 29 percent more are getting vaginal rings for exactly $0, according to a Guttmacher Institute study. And it’s not just the women signing up for public healthcare exchanges: The increase stems from ACA legislation phased-in last August that requires private healthcare plans to cover contraception for female policyholders. Pre-August 2012, the number of American women receiving no-cost contraception was 15 percent. Now it’s triple that, at 40 percent.

As for Pelosi's statement that Republicans aren't respecting women? Let's remember that Republicans themselves know they have a problem. In fact, they are now holding seminars on the fine art of talking to women. As Politico reported:

The National Republican Congressional Committee wants to make sure there are no Todd Akin-style gaffes next year, so it’s meeting with top aides of sitting Republicans to teach them what to say — or not to say — on the trail, especially when their boss is running against a woman.

Speaker John Boehner is serious, too. His own top aides met recently with Republican staff to discuss how lawmakers should talk to female constituents.

“Let me put it this way, some of these guys have a lot to learn,” said a Republican staffer who attended the session in Boehner’s office.

Maybe Ann Coulter could sit in as well?