Jerry Bader Jumps on the Right-Wing Bully Bandwagon

MADISON, Wis. — Green Bay radio talk show host Jerry Bader, on his June 18 show, jumped on state Republicans’ bullying bandwagon in the debate over a series of radical anti-women’s health care bills rushed through the legislature. Bader, previously suspended from the air for comments about another woman elected official, launched a bullying attack against State Rep. Mandy Wright for sharing her deeply personal story during debate on a bill to restrict women’s access to legal health care services.

One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross commented, “It’s impossible to describe the depravity of Jerry Bader’s comments with words that can be printed in a newspaper or spoken during the family hour on television or the radio. His views expressed on his June 18 show are repugnant and vile.”

On the program Bader attacked State Rep. Mandy Wright for sharing her story of an unreported sexual assault by a relative. Wright spoke during debate over only exempting victims of reported rape from a requirement that they be forced to undergo a mandatory ultrasound before being able to end a resulting pregnancy. A transcript of his remarks is available here.

Other legislators who shared stories of how such anti-women’s health care legislation would have affected them and their constituents were accused of sensationalism by bill authors. Topping it off was the unseemly spectacle of Senate President Mike Ellis breaking his gavel while screaming at Democrats to “sit down and shut up” as he abruptly cut-off debate on the bill in the Senate a day earlier.

Ross concluded, “The GOP agenda of taking away insurance coverage for women’s health care services, mandating intrusive trans-vaginal exams for victims of rape and incest and repealing equal pay laws is deplorable. Jerry Bader and the Republicans’ ‘sit down and shut-up’ attitude toward anyone who opposes their misguided misogyny is disgusting. Neither one has any place in politics in the year 2013.”