11:12 am Feb. 20, 2012
"Saturday Night Live" adds to its voice to complaints that House Republicans only invited men to a hearing to discuss contraception coverage. Democrats like Representatives Carolyn Maloney and Eleanor Holmes have used the all-male moment to turn the conversation about contraception into a wider conversation about women's health.
"Really, Congress?" Amy Poehler said on S.N.L.'s "Weekend Update" segment. "You held a congressional hearing on reproductive rights and didn't invite any women. Really? That would be like not inviting any men to a congressional committee debating the Maxim Top 100."
The hearing was about religious freedom and the president's call to require contraception coverage for employees at religious institutions. The Republican who led the hearing, Rep. Darrel Issa, said in the committee's defense that Democrats did not submit the name of their witness with enough advance notice and that the witness the Democrats wanted to use was a college student with no real expertise in the matter.
Maloney, a member of the committee, asked repeatedly where the women were, a question that was picked up afterward by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and other Democrats.
