Yes Virginia, there is a war on women
by digby
Kaili Joy Gray at Daily Kos has been covering the war on women in this cycle better than anyone. And she put together a barn-burner for her last weekly dispatch before the election.
I think this part is especially important to remember:
[E]ven for those of us who are well-versed in the war waged on women since long before 2011, the Republicans’ full-blown assault was far worse than we could have imagined. The following is but a sample of the 67 abortion bills introduced this session:
H.R. 212: Sanctity of Human Life Act: “To provide that human life shall be deemed to begin with fertilization.”
H.R. 1096: Sanctity of Life Act of 2011: “To provide that human life shall be deemed to exist from conception, and for other purposes.”
S. 91: Life at Conception Act: “A bill to implement equal protection under the 14th article of amendment to the Constitution for the right to life of each born and unborn human person.”
H.R. 374: Life at Conception Act: “To implement equal protection under the 14th article of amendment to the Constitution for the right to life of each born and preborn human person.”
S. 314: Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act of 2011: “A bill to ensure that women seeking an abortion are fully informed regarding the pain experienced by their unborn child.”
S. 2103: District of Columbia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act: “A bill to amend title 18, United States Code, to protect pain-capable unborn children in the District of Columbia, and for other purposes.”
H.R. 3805: Ultrasound Informed Consent Act: “To ensure that women seeking an abortion receive an ultrasound and the opportunity to review the ultrasound before giving informed consent to receive an abortion.”
H.R. 3130: Heartbeat Informed Consent Act: “To ensure that women seeking an abortion receive an ultrasound and an opportunity to review the ultrasound before giving informed consent to receive an abortion.”
H.R. 3802: National Pro-Life Waiting Period Act of 2012: “To require an abortion provider, before performing an abortion, to wait for a period of at least 24 hours.”
S. 3290: Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act (PRENDA) of 2012: “A bill to prohibit discrimination against the unborn on the basis of sex or gender, and for other purposes.”
H.R. 5646: Homeland Security Respect for Life Act: “To prohibit funds appropriated for the Department of Homeland Security from being used to pay for an abortion, and for other purposes.”
H.R. 6173: PRO-LIFE Act: “To amend the General Education Provisions Act to prohibit Federal education funding for elementary schools and secondary schools that provide on-campus access to abortion providers.”
H.R. 3: No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act: “To prohibit taxpayer funded abortions and to provide for conscience protections, and for other purposes.”
It wasn’t just an assault on reproductive rights, though. Oh, no. They also fought against the Paycheck Fairness Act, because while Republicans will give lip service to the idea of equal pay, they don’t really support it. Mitt Romney has said, during this election season, that women’s real concern is having more flex time so they can rush home to cook dinner for their families. Equal pay? Nah.
Republicans fought against renewal of the Violence Against Women Act too. Why? Because they don’t believe violence against immigrants, lesbians and Native American women is a problem. Those women don’t deserve protection, according to Republicans. As with their shifting definitions of rape, some victims of domestic violence aren’t really victims, so screw ’em.
And let’s not even get started on the conversation about rape—forcible rape, legitimate rape, easy rape, honest rape, emergency rape, rape thing rape, gift-from-God rape. Who knows what kind of some-rape-is-not-really-that-bad rape they’ll think up next?
And friends, that’s just at the federal level. If you don’t think women are right to be a tad concerned about this in the immediate now then you are not paying attention.
I’m hard pressed to think of any other time in American history in which long settled rights, freedoms and social norms for a particular group of people have been systematically attacked and rolled back. (I can think of a few in world history and it didn’t end well.) These throwbacks are for real and they represent half the damned country.
I suppose that some of those who were lucky enough to be born with the proper dangley bits naturally feel comfortable giving lectures about how this isn’t as important as other things. But you’ll have to forgive those of without those dangley bits for taking this whole thing a little bit personally.
Blue America endorsed a number of great women this cycle. Coming into the final stretch we have five excellent women House candidates and two great women Senate candidates if you’d care to give them one last financial bump or can volunteer to help them GOTV on Tuesday:
Patsy Keever, Ann McLane Kuster, Carol Shea Porter, Aryanna Strader and Sue Thorn for the House. Tammy Baldwin and Elizabeth Warren for the Senate.
In fact, all of the candidates on both of those pages are dedicated feminists who stand up for the rights of women. We’re going to need all of them we can get.
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