Why women should vote for Obama
Now, before you right me off as some right wing liberal, let
me just say I’m approaching this from the simple angle that I’m a woman. If you don’t like Obama’s foreign policy,
current economic stance, ‘Obamancare’ I can completely respect that. I honestly don’t know enough about that to
comment about it, so I won’t. But there is something I do know. That if we vote
for Romney/Ryan our rights a female whole will see set backs, and right now our
issues are being peddled as non-issues in comparison to everything else, and
women THEY ARE JUST AS IMPORTANT.
1)
Choice
Roe vs. Wade, if you don’t know,
gave women the right to choose to terminate a pregnancy. But Roe vs. Wade means more than that to us
ladies. We, as a whole, have been oppressed over years and have been told how
our bodies should be or shouldn’t be. Roe vs. Wade was about us having control
over our bodies, just like birth control gave us autonomy over our sexuality. Do
you really want a bunch of crusty old dudes saying what you can and can’t do
with your vagina?
Ok, so you don’t believe in
abortion, hey, neither do I, if we’re talking as a means of birth control.
There are multiple ways to avoid pregnancy (abstinence, BC, etc). Many pro-choicers will tell you they
themselves wouldn’t get one, but they want women/girls who find themselves in
desperate situations to have access to terminate a pregnancy without going a la
back alley, which can be incredibly dangerous and deadly. Pro-Life needs to be pro ALL life, even the
mother’s life . A woman’s life needs to be just as valued.
Look at Paul Ryan
C’mon ladies (considering voting
this guy), really? Rape as a “method of
conception.” This guy is along with Romney is looking at making abortion
illegal or incredibly difficult to obtain one. 1 in 4 women is sexually
harassed or assaulted in their lifetime (the numbers are probably far higher).
Those assaults have lead to pregnancy.
If this can put in in perspective line yourself up with 3 other of your girlfriends,
and pick out which one will probably be (or has been) sexually abused,
assaulted, or harassed and tell me if you’d tell them their rape was just a
‘method of conception.’
I realize that some abortions will
come from two consenting adults getting pregnant, however ultimately our own
personal preference can’t interfere with someone elses. Just like you wouldn’t
want someone else telling you what to do, lets do the same for our sisters out
there who are in some difficult situations. Lets NOT vote for someone who will
take away access (or make it very difficult) to a medical procedure that can be
incredibly dangerous without proper medical training. Abortions have been going
on for years, and they will continue going on even if they are outlawed or made
increasingly difficult to get hold of, so why put a woman’s life in danger?
Just because the abortion ban
doesn’t apply to you personally doesn’t mean that it doesn’t apply to another
woman who could find herself in some very difficult situations or be forced to
make a difficult decision.
2)
Birthcontrol and preventative care
Romney has talked about cutting funding to Planned
Parenthood, which, contrary to some beliefs offers more than abortions. Planned
Parenthood helped me get free birth control and pap smears when I was 17. Sure
I was on my parents insurance, but I didn’t want them finding out. I got
checked for STD’s regularly with Planned Parenthood, and look at me now 31, not
pregnant, STD free, and pretty upstanding citizen. Planned Parenthood provides
not only access to teens who need support, because lets be real, teens are
going to keep having sex whether we like it or not, but also to mothers and
women who don’t have access to insurance.
I refer my client’s mothers who planned parenthood when I
find out they haven’t seen a gynecologist in years. Do we want someone who will
cut funding that helps women out as much as planned parenthood? Don’t buy into
the hype that all they do is provide abortions, they also provide medical
support to women of low socioeconomic status who so desperately need these
services.
3)
Equal Pay for equal work
The Republican SENATE BLOCKED the move to close loopholes in
the Equal Pay Act. They blocked it, do you want President who represents a
party that would be all “hey women, we don’t want to pay you the same as men? “
Like, that’s NOT COOL. When asked,
Romney simply stated that ‘they’d get back to us on that.’
I know there are some great Republicans out there, and I
fear that those of you that are reasonable are being poorly represented by this
extreme right that is very vocal. But
women, lets stand up for each other (and
for women who are so often oppressed and denied access to what they need) and
for our basic rights to equal pay, access to free birth control, preventative
care, and freedom of choice. We are not 2nd class citizens to be
denied these things. If you don’t like
Obama, don’t like him, but like his support of Women. Vote for a candidate that
supports you as an equal citizen, not one that needs her body and her check to
be policed. There will be dire consequences for women (not just you) everywhere
if Romney and the Republicans win.
