I think we may have a chance here to pick up one of these crazy rumors as it is being spawned and pushed. This one is being sent around the Web with this text:
In recent weeks, the GOP attack on contraceptives and women’s rights has been returning to the legislative tables, and causing a stir among women’s rights activists and media outlets nationwide.
Now it seems that many within the Republican party who strive to ban contraceptive use also see it as a necessity to prohibit the use of tampons, and seek to ban the sales of these and similar products as soon as possible.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) recently put together an all male panel for discussion at the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing on the contraceptive coverage rule and excluded women from the conversation. It seems that he is set to establish a similar group of men to discuss the use of tampons within a woman’s vagina.
It is unnatural for a woman to insert a foreign object into her body for the sake of stopping the menstrual flow. I, as well as several others seek to eliminate the sales of such objects. Women should let nature take care of itself the way that our Almighty Creator intended. To try to manipulate and control such an occurrence goes against God’s plan for women.
Initial drafts of this new legislation have already been brought before Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), and several other GOP Congressmen. It is likely to come to a vote as early as next month. If passed, tampons will no longer be available to sell or purchase, and women will have to find an alternative means to alleviate menstrual excreta.
Several Democratic Congresspeople are already petitioning in dissent of this new piece of legislation, and will not give up without a fight to preserve a woman’s right to take care of her own body as she deems most effective.
This is pretty much a classic urban legend: it cites no sources, but it has a lot of little details intended to give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative. But then some of those details are … off. Like “Congresspeople petitioning in dissent.” I don’t know that I’ve ever seen that phrase in print, and it immediately raises questions like “petitioning whom?” Googling for that phrase brings up — this same report, repeated over and over. In fact, this complete text appears to be the only place in which this story appears, and it’s not on news sites — although if previous experience is any guide, it will be, reported as “there is a story that” or “it is reported that”.
All in all, this is a pretty fresh one. Steaming.
Update: Okay, so I was a little too subtle, in that the site I cite is a satire site and the probable source. But google for a sentence from the story and see how many times it’s being referenced as true.
Update 2: At 4:33PM PDT, Google gives me 2600 hits of sites reporting it as true. See, for example, here, where it’s now attributed to the Republican Party Platform.
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