Thursday, October 18, 2012

Willard and Women Voters

It's no secret that Willard Mitt Romney (aka Wall Street Willie) has been having trouble with women voters. While most polls show Willard either splitting the vote of men or maintaining a slight advantage there, the same is not true of women (especially young women and single women). All of the polls show Willard is losing a significant majority of women -- a big enough majority to overcome any small advantage he might have among men.

The chart above shows why this might be true. It was made from information received in a recent Gallup Poll, taken between October 5th and 11th, of voters in twelve swing states. While the men in these swing states listed jobs (38%) and the economy (37%) as their most important election issues, women voters had different concerns. Their top concerns were abortion (39%), jobs (19%), health care (18%), economy (16%), and equal rights & pay (15%).

Those issues important to women don't fit very well with Willard's positions on the issues. He has refused to take a position on the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (which makes one think he opposed the new law -- and would oppose equal pay for women in the future). He has promised to repeal Obamacare (which eliminates "pre-existing conditions" for women and their children, bans insurance companies from charging women more than men, and provides free contraception for any women who wants it). He has also say he would continue to deny any funding for Planned Parenthood (which would directly impact the health of many thousands of poor women negatively), and supports bills that would deny women choice and control over their own bodies (forcing this country back to the days of dangerous back-alley abortions).

Think Progress has compiled a list of 5 positions taken by Willard, which are (to put it mildly) anti-woman. Here is their list:

1) Romney supported the Blunt amendment. The Blunt Amendment would allow employers to deny contraception to their female employees because of religious objections. That means any woman working for an employer who didn’t support contraception would be denied the right to have her birth control costs covered. When asked if he supported the amendment, Romney said, “Of course.”

2) Romney wants to defund Planned Parenthood. Seventy six percent of the patients who go to Planned Parenthood are seeking affordable contraception options. Low-income women, particularly, rely on the organization to get family planning options that might otherwise be out of their price range. Because the organization uses a sliding scale pay system (PDF), it allows the poorest women to get the most affordable care.

3) Romney would restore co-pays for birth control. By repealing the Affordable Care Act, Romney would get rid of the requirement that insurance companies off women a variety of birth control options without a co-pay attached. That makes it harder for women to get contraception, especially the most effective kinds, which tend to have the highest up-front costs.

4) Romney supports a ‘personhood amendment.’ Romney once told reporters that be would “absolutely” support a state constitutional amendment defining a fertilized egg as a person. Had it passed, that law would have outlawed some forms of contraception — as well as all abortions and in vitro fertilization.

5) Romney promised to reinstate the “global gag rule.” Romney could cut off family planning services that the United States currently offers to women abroad by using an executive order to reinstate the “global gag rule,” denying funding for any international organization that discusses abortion or provides abortion referrals for their clients. In an op-ed, he promised to do just that.

As the election draws nearer, and Willard realizes just how much trouble he is in with women, he is trying to soften his anti-woman language a bit. he has even put out a new commercial claiming he is for women's contraception. Obviously, he thinks women are fools, who can be placated with a few lies right before the election. I think he's wrong. I think it'll be women (combined with minorities and just enough men) who will keep him from winning this November.

(Cartoon is by Jimmy Margulies at caglecartoons.com.)

1 comment:

  1. Romney is such a bald-faced liar it is a miracle that ANYBODY supports him! He approaches each issue like am overly hun gry used car salesman who will say or do AMYTHING just to get the sale. The problem is, once a person has bought into his BS, he or she soon finds out they have bought a junker rather than the Cadillac which had been promised!

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