Overstepping multiple boundaries into what most people would consider to be inappropriate territory, Fox News’ Andrea Tantaros wondered aloud yesterday if President Obama wants girls ages 15 and up to have birth control so he can put his daughter, Malia, on birth control.
via Media Matters
TANTAROS: I mean look, if the president is going to talk about his daughters, typically I would not talk about the daughters, unless, of course, they go to the Bahamas on spring break and we have to pay for it and I think it’s wrong, which I do. But they’re not grown women. So I’m just wondering, at 15 years old, is the Obama daughter, Malia, going to go on birth control? Are they gonna put her on birth control? Because he’s very concerned with the contraceptives and pharmaceuticals that are going in the mouths of everybody else’s 15-year old daughter.
Continuing the right wing tradition of pushing non-combatants into the fray, Tantaros says ‘typically I would not talk about the daughters, except when I do.’
It’s not as if the FDA and the Department of Health will be force feeding contraceptives to “everybody else’s 15-year old daughter.” They will simply be available in case of need. And it’s not as if the reproductive health of the president’s daughters are Tantaros or anyone else’s business. Nor is it relevant.
There are racial connotations to this line of inquiry that I feel wouldn’t be asked if the first family was white. This narrative that President Obama is some kind of pimping, sexual enabler has been on full display over the past week in conservative media.
What they consider to be promoting “criminal behavior,” many of us would consider to be responsible parenting.
By the way, taxpayers did not pay for the president’s daughter’s trip to the Bahamas. But I’m sure you knew that.