Democratic senators standing up for women's health. (Mike Theiler/Reuters)

Democratic senators standing up for women's health. (Mike Theiler/Reuters)

The women in the Senate Democratic caucus are having some fun at the expense of a Republican party tied up in knots over having their "religious freedom" fight hijacked by Rush Limbaugh and exposed for what it's truly been about all along: the war on women.

GOP leadership in both the House and Senate are furiously backtracking their efforts to make birth control hard for women to obtain. House Speaker John Boehner has the companion bill to the Blunt amendment stuck away indefinitely in committee. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has stifled all talk of forcing another Blunt amendment vote.

Enter the Senate Democratic women, "twisting the knife," as Greg Sargent says, into the Republicans over their disastrous overreach.



The letter from the female Senators — which is timed to International Women’s Day — asks Boehner to pledge not to move any more birth-control-related legislation in the House. “We are asking that you abandon the promise you have made to bring legislation to the House floor similar to the Blunt amendment, which was defeated in the Senate last week, and which would turn the clock back on women’s access to health care,” the letter says. “We ask that you listen to the overwhelming outcry from American women who support access to contraception and drop all politically-charged efforts to deny them coverage.” The letter represents an effort to force Boehner’s hand by getting him to declare clearly whether the House will vote on its Blunt amendment, or whether he intends to let the controversy fade way quietly.

It’s time for you to put an end to the attacks on women’s health care and to work with the Senate to get back to the American people’s top priority: creating jobs and boosting our economy.

The letter was signed by Sens. Patty Murray, Mary Landrieu, Barbara Boxer, Claire McCaskill, Jeanne Shaheen, Maria Cantwell, Kirsten Gillibrand, Dianne Feinstein, Amy Klobuchar, Debbie Stabenow, Kay Hagan and Barbara Mikulski, and is definitely aimed atletting Boehner off the hook and not letting the controversy fade away. And while they're at it, they gave another little twist of the knife with this:Wherethe jobs, Speaker Boehner?