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My reaction to this segment by MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry reminds me a whole lot of how I felt after initially listening to Rep. Jackie Speier's remarks on the House floor, after finally being fed up with listening to her colleagues demonize Planned Parenthood and abortion. It's every bit as brave, honest and powerful and something every one of these anti-woman, anti-abortion zealots ought to have to listen to, after Richard Mourdock's callous remarks about conception via rape being "God's will."

For rape survivors, Mourdock’s remark was an(other) attack on consent:

Dear Mr. Mourdock,

Sometimes I still flinch when I’m touched a certain way, even if it’s the loving embrace of my husband. I can’t stand to watch TV shows where rape is the central plot line. Even some seasons of the year are harder for me. Those of us who are sexual assault survivors call these triggers. We spend our lives — the lives we lead after the attack — avoiding and managing these triggers.

A congressional debate shouldn’t have to come with a trigger warning. But apparently, Richard, yours should. Because in Tuesday’s debate for Indiana’s U.S. Senate seat, you said this Tuesday night during a debate in New Albany, Indiana.

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Ed Schultz spoke to the Georgetown University Law student Sandra Fluke after Rush Limbaugh doubled down on his sexist remarks from the day before where he called Fluke a slut and a prostitute. Today he went so far as to demand that "women post sex tapes online if they use insurance-covered birth control."

When asked what she thought of Limbaugh's remarks, Fluke responded that this is the sort of language used to try to silence women and thanked everyone she had heard from for the outpouring of support and that it's clear from their responses that women are not going to be silenced by the likes of Rush Limbaugh.

Fluke again handled herself with grace and dignity on Ed's show. Schultz didn't ask her about this, but I hope she's got an attorney and plans on suing Limbaugh. A little earlier in the broadcast, Schultz asked where the the CEO of Clear Channel, John Hogan, was in condemning Limbaugh's remarks and said he ought to be ashamed of himself. I couldn't agree more. Here's their contact page if you'd like to ask them.

UPDATE: Media Matters has more from Limbaugh's radio program this week and holy cow it just gets worse and that's putting it mildly. This man has literally jumped off a cliff with his hate filled rhetoric towards Fluke -- Limbaugh's Misogynistic Attack On Georgetown Law Student Continues With Increased Vitriol.

And Rep. Jackie Speier is calling for a boycott of Limbaugh's sponsors. Good for her. The man should not be allowed to continue to pollute our airways with this garbage.

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I'm still just flabbergasted that the Republicans are doubling down on the idea that running on an anti-contraception platform and basically calling women who want to use birth control sluts, as Santorum Super PAC funder Foster Friess more or less did this Thursday during his interview with Andrea Mitchell, and that somehow is a good idea for them to make some electoral gains in the upcoming election.

Chris Matthews has been pretty terrible with a lot of his coverage on the issue and carrying a lot of water for the Catholic bishops, between his interview with Melinda Henneberger, or having the gay Tory Andrew Sullivan on as some expert on women's reproductive issues later in the week.

He made up for it a bit today with the inclusion of Rep. Jackie Speier and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton on his panel to discuss Darrell Issa and his Congressional hearing on "the intrusion of government into religion" and got some of their feedback on how women are being used as a political punching bag by the right.

All I can say is that when someone has finally over reached to the point where you've even lost Chis Matthews on the issue of abortion and contraceptive rights for women in America, you've lost that battle.

Matthews warned that candidate Rick Santorum had better do something quick to fix the mess that his funder Friess made on Mitchell's show, or he's going to lose every woman voter out there. I would apply that same logic to anyone who wants to vote for any Republican period that supports taking us back to the 1950's with these battles that should have long been over with women having a right to use contraception, or to anyone that actually ever considered voting for Rick Santorum before this dust up.

Jackie Speier made a really good point that is not included in the video above, and that was asking if the Catholic church has any objection to vasectomies for men being covered in health care plans, since that's a form of contraception as well. I'm guessing the answer is no, since they only seem to be concerned about the right for someone to control their own reproduction and bodies if it means keeping those uppity women in line who haven't learned their place yet.

Lawrence O'Donnell had on Santorum's Super PAC funder Friess that same night and I don't think he really did his candidate a whole lot of favors here. His response to O'Donnell asking what he meant with his statement to Mitchell was basically, it was a joke and Rick Santorum really does believe in providing contraception to women, even though he couldn't explain his statements contrary to that.

Video below the fold from O'Donnell's show.

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Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) denied Thursday that a bill that would allow hospitals to refuse treatment to pregnant women was misogynist, adding that "nobody has ever fought more for the rights of women than I have."

In a speech on the House floor, Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) explained why she believed "The Protect Life Act" was a step backward for women's reproductive rights.

"I think this bill goes to the farthest extreme in trying to take women down, not just a peg, but take them in shackles to some cave somewhere," she said. "Twenty-five years ago, this body passed [The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA)], a bill that basically said that anyone that shows up at an emergency room would access health care, no questions asked. Now, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle want to amend that law and basically say, 'Oh, except for a woman who is in need of an abortion, or except for a woman who is bleeding to death who happens to be pregnant. Or except for a woman who is miscarrying.' Basically, what this bill would do is say that any hospital could decline to provide services to one class of people in this country and that one class of people are pregnant women."

Speier added: "What my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are attempting to do is misogynist. It is absolutely misogynist."

Foxx responded by charging that Democrats were "outside the mainstream" for wanting to use taxpayer funding for abortions.

"For my colleagues across the ailes who say that this is a misogynist bill, nobody has ever fought more for the rights of women than I have," she declared. "Fifty percent of the unborn babies that are being aborted are females. So the misogyny comes from those that promote the killing of unborn babies. That's where the misogyny comes in, Madame Speaker."

In the past six years, Foxx has voted against abortion rights at least nine times. Family planning advocates claim that an amendment introduced by the congresswoman in May was designed to prevent doctors from being properly trained to perform abortions.

"Once again, instead of focusing on improving access to health care, opponents of women’s health are manipulating the legislative process to undermine women’s access to and information about comprehensive reproductive health care services," Planned Parenthood Federation of America's Dawn Laguens said in a media advisory.

Democrats have called House Republicans' latest effort a waste of time because "The Protect Life Act" would never be passed by Democrats in the Senate or signed into law by President Barack Obama.

"Under this bill, when the Republicans vote for this bill today, they will be voting to say that women can die on the floor of health care providers," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told reporters Thursday. "I can’t even describe to you the logic of what they are doing today."

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Lawrence O'Donnell talked to Rep. Jackie Speier about her experience on the House floor last night and the groundswell of support she has received since she spoke out for that silent majority of men and women out there who feel like she does but aren't able to speak out themselves.

Jackie Speier On Sharing Her Pregnancy-Termination Story: 'It Just Overwhelmed Me':

Rep. Jackie Speier listened to debate on the House floor on Thursday evening as a Republican Rep. Chris Smith read a long, detailed description of an abortion and a "mangled image of a dead, tiny baby." Finally, Speier stood up and told her colleagues she had undergone an abortion in the early 1990s following a complication nearly four months into her pregnancy.

"As the night wore on, the vitriol and grotesque commentary got worse and worse," Speier, a second-term Democrat from California, told HuffPost. "I sat there thinking, none of these men on the other side have even come close to experiencing this, and yet they can pontificate about what it's like. It just overwhelmed me."

Speier underwent an abortion in her early 40s, while she was serving in the California State Assembly. The procedure used to terminate the pregnancy was the same type that Smith's book described. As she listened, Speier said she became more emotional and made the decision to speak out.

"This was a wanted pregnancy, it was the second miscarriage I had had," she told HuffPost. "What they express doesn't come close to the experience that a woman goes through when she is losing a baby or when a pregnancy is terminated. It's a painful, gut-wrenching loss."

She said she had spoken publicly about her experience with abortion only once before, while debating late-term abortion in the California state legislature.

After she told her story, Speier said many colleagues -- both male and female -- offered their support, some saying she put tears in their eyes. One Republican told her the amendment was inappropriate, she said, while Smith, whose remarks caused her to speak up, said nothing.

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Someone needs to ask Chris Matthews to read this report from Media Matters before he allows wingnut Marjorie Dannenfelser back on Hardball again to tout Andrew Breitbart's latest hit job on Planned Parenthood.

A Refresher Course On Andrew Breitbart's Dishonest Tactics:

Andrew Breitbart's website Big Government is promoting heavily edited videos produced by anti-abortion rights activist Lila Rose and falsely claiming that the video proves that Planned Parenthood engages in systemic criminal activities. Below, Media Matters reviews the dishonest tactics used in the past by Andrew Breitbart, James O'Keefe, and other Breitbart associates....

Here's more from Right Wing Watch on Dannenfelser -- Right-Wing Leaders Hail House Vote to Strip Planned Parenthood of Funding:

The amendment to block funding to Planned Parenthood passed by a vote of 240-185, achieving a long-held goal of Religious Right groups that vehemently oppose the healthcare organization. During the debate, House Republicans frequently touted the hoax videos produced by the extreme group Live Action and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) even pledged to go after Planned Parenthood’s non-profit status.

Taxpayer funding of abortion is already barred under federal law, and this new amendment would stop Planned Parenthood from receiving funds to provide the medical services which comprise the vast majority of the group’s work, like cancer screenings, tests for sexually transmitted infections, and family healthcare.

But an amendment devastating women’s healthcare is a reason to celebrate for anti-choice leaders and their allies in Congress: [...]

Marjorie Dannenfelser, Susan B. Anthony List:

Ending taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood is a non-negotiable,” said SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser. “It must be a top priority in the Continuing Resolution battle. Taxpayers have strongly rejected their complicity with Planned Parenthood in the sex trafficking of underage girls. Pro-life America demands that our leaders in the Senate step up and take on this fight and that the House leadership holds its ground. Americans have spoken and the time to defund Planned Parenthood, a habitual and unapologetic ally of those who deal in the exploitation of minors, is now. This is a black and white issue and we will accept nothing less than the total defunding of Planned Parenthood in the Continuing Resolution.

And Rebecca Traister made many of the same points Rep. Diana Degette did here about what this attack on Planned Parenthood really means; defunding health care services for poor women -- This is what "pro-life" means?:

House Republicans just cut off funds for abortions -- and breast exams, cervical cancer screenings and STD testing

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