Republicans seem to have an evil genius for tone-deafness when it comes to women.

On Thursday, a photograph that was widely circulated on Twitter showed a room packed with white men cutting a deal to eliminate maternity care and mammograms from the package of essential benefits that insurers are required to provide in the Republican bill to replace the Affordable Care Act. There were some women out of camera range, including Kellyanne Conway, the White House counselor.

Earlier in the day, Senator Pat Roberts, Republican of Kansas, made an ill-judged quip that he quickly had to apologize for: “I wouldn’t want to lose my mammograms,” he said to a reporter from Talking Points Memo.

And Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, noted during his daily briefing Thursday, “Well, I think if you’re an older man, you can generally say you’re not going to need maternity care.”

Image Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, commenting on Twitter on Thursday.

Indeed. What’s essential is in the eye of the beholder, and the deciders here are overwhelmingly men. They’re not at risk if these benefits are dropped from required coverage (with the rare exception of male breast cancer).