(Image source: ABC News )

 

BY CHRISTINA HARTMAN

 

A House committee’s critics are asking — if you’re gonna look into an issue that affects women — shouldn’t women be included in that hearing?

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s hearing Thursday asked panelists “Has the Obama Administration trampled on Freedom of Religion? ”

WMAR describes it as, “...a hearing on the controversial new rules on religious institutions and health care laws. The president’s plan calls for them to cover contraception and the organizations say that it goes against their religious teachings.”

 

The witnesses for the first panel included a Roman Catholic bishop, the president of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, and a rabbi.

But critics say the meeting of moral minds was missing something. At least in the first panel. ABC has that video .

REP. CAROLYN MALONEY (D-NY): “Where are the women? When I look at this panel, I don’t see one single woman.”

Two Democratic congresswomen walked out of the hearing in protest. MSNBC spoke with one of them , Eleanor Holmes Norton, who says she’d prepared a female witness to talk about why women should have access to birth control.

“Not only did they deny us the right to have our witness … they were violating our First Amendment rights...”

This is one of the women Democrats pitched as a witness . Sarah Fluke — a Georgetown University law student who has already spoken out publicly in support of the birth control mandate. Committee Chairman Darrell Issa says because the hearing was about religious freedom, Fluke wasn’t qualified to testify. But Issa did post her testimony on the committee’s website.

Two women are scheduled on the hearing’s second panel. Still, Fox News’ Chris Stirewalt says , gender breakdown wasn’t the point of the inquiry in the first place. He suggests — this is really a message war between two sides. Conservatives are saying...

“...it doesn't matter whether you think women should or shouldn't have access to contraception, it matters that you shouldn't be able to force a change in the policy of these religious bodies...”

Originally the White House said certain religiously-affiliated employers would have to provide free contraception to female employees.

But Friday, President Obama announced a compromise, saying insurance companies, and not religious employers, would be mandated to provide that coverage.

But so far, that hasn’t appeased the administration’s most vocal critics. The New York Times’ Erik Eckholm says , that’s not likely to happen for a while.

“The bishops and others are pushing for a reversal in Congress... But with the Senate in Democratic hands, a legislative resolution is unlikely, so both sides are pressing their cases more widely, with an eye to November’s battle for control of Congress as well as the presidency.”