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Republicans Care About Women's Health Now, Huh?

by Cate Carrejo

Obnoxiously persistent rumors about Hillary Clinton's health picked up steam once again on Sunday, when Clinton left the September 11th Commemoration Ceremony early because she reportedly was not feeling well. Predictably, conspiracy theorists hopped online to tout their beliefs that Clinton is hiding some vague, more serious health issue. But among the offensive and condescending tweets proclaiming private knowledge of Clinton's health, one tweet stood out as a perfect summary of the hypocrisy of Clinton's "Healthgate." Just after the news broke, former MSNBC host Jimmy Williams tweeted "Finally conservatives care about a woman's health," destroying arguments about why Clinton's health matters so much to her opponents. Update: On Sunday afternoon, Clinton's doctor released a statement announcing that she had diagnosed Clinton with pneumonia and that the overheating spell was due to dehydration.

Clinton left the 9/11 memorial ceremony by 9:30 a.m. Sunday morning, sparking those online rumors once again. "She felt overheated so departed to go to her daughter's apartment, and is feeling much better," Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill said in a statement to reporters after Clinton left. However, the statement from the campaign didn't deter people from posting online that the early departure was a sign of some hidden health scandal, as it reportedly was only around 80 degrees in New York on Sunday. But through the sea of wild speculators, Williams was able to cut through the BS and tell it like it is.

The reality is that conservatives often claim to care about women's health, but don't follow through on that espousal. At every level of government, women's access to life-saving treatment is actively limited, through overly restrictive laws like HB-2 in Texas or widely diminished funding for Planned Parenthood. Currently, 56 percent of all Medicare recipients are women, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, including more than two-thirds of recipients over the age of 85, but Republicans are frequently trying to cut spending for the program.

Not to mention Obamacare, which provided health insurance for up to 18 million people. More than half of those covered under the Affordable Care Act are likely women, who tend to be disadvantaged in the non-group insurance market, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Yet as of earlier this year, Republicans were still trying to overturn that initiative as well. All of a sudden, conservatives are super concerned about whether or not Clinton is healthy, which is a pretty obvious sign that they care more about demeaning Clinton than actually taking care of anyone's health.

This election isn't The West Wingnobody is hiding a health condition from the American public. Only Aaron Sorkin could think up a plot that wild. It seems pretty clear that the sudden focus on Clinton's health is simply a distraction from the fact that she is an incomparably more qualified candidate for the office of the presidency than Donald Trump, and people will take nearly any excuse to tear her down.