We all thought last week’s males-only House hearing on birth control was about as absurd as you could get. What could possibly be more absurd than a bunch of old white guys debating whether women should be able to obtain birth control from their health insurance policies while involving no women in the discussion?

Turns out, plenty.

As Jon Stewart brilliantly pointed out last night, the baseline absurdity of that situation, which already seems like a throw-back to 1948, could be heightened by having one of the men quote Stalin in his argument. It could also be heightened by having one of them invoke the almost impossibly ill-chosen metaphor “rape of the soul” to describe his feelings about birth control. As you can see below, that all happened.

But even more absurd, Stewart pointed out that many religious institutions’ insurance policies already cover Viagra. “What do you think they’re doing with their erections?” he asked. The church has an answer for this one, too: Viagra apparently solves an actual medical problem, whereas contraception is just an elective choice.

Eloquent as always, Stewart rephrases: “So the Catholic church says a boner is a need, but not getting pregnant is more of a want.” Watch below.

[Atlantic]