Women Are Not Single Issue Voters And Contraception Is Not A Single Issue

Filed in National by on March 11, 2012

Lately I’ve heard politicians of all stripes state that women are not single issue voters.  This statement appears when the subject of contraception emerges and the two parties use the line for different reasons.

The point is… access to affordable contraception encompasses more than a single issue.  Rush Limbaugh and the Republicans act like contraception is something that only pertains to a woman looking for a good time on a Friday night – as a way to cut loose without suffering the “consequences.”

For 99% of women who use, or have used, contraception, the decision to prevent pregnancy is based on economics.  Can we afford to have a child at this time?  Are we at a point in our lives where having a child would be a responsible financial decision?  Do we even want to have children?  (That last question has Republicans taking to their fainting couches.)

If we were talking about buying a new car and whether we could afford it, or if spending our money on that was responsible when we were struggling to pay other bills, we would be applauded for demonstrating good fiscal sense.  In fact, Republicans normally love to wag their fingers at people buying big screen televisions they can’t afford.  Pointing out how people are irresponsible with their finances is one of the GOP’s favorite pass times.

So why don’t they admit that household economies are directly tied to family planning?

Because to them finances aren’t the issue until after birth.  Once you’re holding the baby the GOP will wag their fingers at you and call you irresponsible.  Some will gleefully tell you that you should have kept your legs closed… holding an aspirin between your knees.

Which brings us right back to the Right’s need for the Madonna/whore score sheet.  And who ends up on that sheet depends on how they vote.  It’s the difference between Jamie Lynn Spears and Bristol Palin.  And given the way Conservatives sit as judge and jury over every pregnancy, pronouncing whether the pregnant woman is saint or sinner, it’s easy to conclude that not all pregnancies are created equal in their eyes.

Which brings us back to women’s desire for affordable contraception and the economy.  If all politics is local, then all economies can be found in every household’s checkbook ledger.  Republicans are ignoring that reality, and they are paying the price.

When a Wall Street Journal-NBC News survey asked in the summer which party should control Congress, 46 percent of women favored Democrats and 42 percent preferred Republican control.

But in a survey released Monday, compiling data since the beginning of the year, that figure had widened considerably to a 15-point advantage for the Democrats, according to polling by the team of Democratic pollster Peter Hart and Republican Bill McInturff. Fifty-one percent favored Democratic control; only 36 percent wanted to see the Republicans in charge.

Republicans can’t win without women. Repeat:  Republicans. Can’t. Win. Without. Women.

And I can’t see how they get them back.  Would a man forget, or dismiss, a candidate who proposed castration, sterilization or celibacy?  Laugh at those examples at your own risk.  And once you’re done laughing consider the “choices” Republicans are giving women – transvaginal ultrasounds, Personhood bills, doctors permitted to lie about prenatal testing results, celibacy.  What’s considered ridiculous in a man’s world is becoming the norm in a woman’s.

This isn’t a joke.  And it won’t be forgotten or dismissed in November because, no matter how hard Republicans try to make this about religious liberties or, if we’re being honest, sex, contraception is also about the economy, stupid.

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A stay-at-home mom with an obsession for National politics.

Comments (8)

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  1. anon says:

    Republicans have already lost women. You can say Rush is an “entertainer” and that what he says doesn’t mean anything, but when you look at what Republicans are doing on the state level you just can’t ignore the fact that they ARE waging a war against women.

    Republicans act like every woman who has an abortion does it without consideration or conscience, like after they leave the clinic they throw a party then go back out and get pregnant again.

    I’ve had enough of them.

  2. Yes yes yes this. I also think contraception is a 1st amendment issue in that my employer does not have the right to force their religion on me.

  3. Jason330 says:

    It is hard not to view women Republicans as hapless dupes.

  4. SOCIALISTIC BEN says:

    bravo pandora. i have nothing else to add… remember this day.

  5. SOCIALISTIC BEN says:

    not really jason… they aren’t single issue voters.. to them, the issue of undeserving black people getting a fair shot at life is a bigger outrage than not being allowed to make their own decisions.

  6. cassandra_m says:

    Not to mention that the GOP insistence on interfering with family planning decisions flys in the face of their smaller government, fewer regulations mantra. Of course they would be in favor of this when it comes to the interests the people who pay for the party want (businesses) and those clinging to their guns and religion. But apparently women are meant to be second class citizens when it comes to the less regulation business. Women, on the whole, are running their households and their lives with greater efficiency than the federal government at this point, so it is a little stupid to mess with what is currently working.

  7. cassandra_m says:

    In a related topic — this Yahoo contributor discusses Why Palin, Bachmann Are Not Credible as Strong Female Leaders. Mostly he finds that the their lack of ability to call out and push back on the sexism and chauvinism on constant display from their own party. Falling in line, blaming the media and otherwise getting in lockstep with the deflection rolled out doesn’t make you strong and doesn’t demonstrate any leadership. It just shows them to be just one more of the usual empty GOP suits.

  8. anon says:

    I’m disappointed this bill doesn’t include a complete colonoscopy:

    Before getting a prescription for Viagra or other erectile dysfunction drugs, men would have to see a sex therapist, receive a cardiac stress test and get a notarized affidavit signed by a sexual partner affirming impotency, if state Sen. Nina Turner has her way.

    And check out this, I wonder how the number of bills concerning abortion compares to jobs bills passed by states:

    States passed a record 92 abortion-related bills in 2011, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that focuses on reproductive health. At the same time, fewer than one in four state legislators nationwide are women — they number 23 percent in Ohio — according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

    Those are just the abortion related bills that passed.

    http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/dayton-news/bill-introduced-to-regulate-mens-reproductive-health-1341547.html