In the unlikely event that Dick Blumenthal needs musical fodder for a filibuster — a la Ted Cruz quoting Toby Keith — might we suggest Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll.”
The senior senator from Connecticut purportedly palled around with the Blackhearts frontwoman and feminist icon Tuesday night at Lincoln Center, where Blumenthal was honored by the Center for Reproductive Rights.
On its website, the New York City-based advocacy organization is promoting a reproductive bill of rights. Among its bullet points is: “The RIGHT to a full range of safe, AFFORDABLE, and readily ACCESSIBLE reproductive health care including pregnancy care, preventive services, contraception, abortion, and fertility treatment — and accurate information about all of the above.”
Blumenthal’s popularity with women voters proved key to his victory over Republican Linda McMahon in the 2010 Senate race, when females broke 60 to 40 percent for the longtime Democratic state attorney general.
“I am proud to receive this award from the Center for Reproductive Rights, who tirelessly advocate on behalf of women’s health,” Blumenthal said in a statement. “Across the country, state legislatures are enacting at an unprecedented pace anti-choice legislation, and it is critical that we work together to turn back these efforts. Even in the wake of small victories in the Texas and Oklahoma courts, I believe we need a new approach to complement the work being done by litigators—an approach that is proactive and aggressive – seizing the initiative, rather than reacting defensively to this new onslaught of attacks on women’s health care and reproductive rights. I will work closely and proudly with the Center for Reproductive Rights and other organizations with the same commitment they have demonstrated so deeply and steadfastly.”