Help me understand Republican women in their 30s and 40s

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I am an atheist feminist who is married to a Democrat man. I am independent but leaning more and more conservative these days. Issues where I lean more to the conservative side include: crime, immigration, women’s sex-based rights, ideological capture of elite institutions, education, and free speech.

It is worth recognizing that historically women trend more conservative and more religious than men. I have my own theories about why this has changed over the past several decades.

As much as democrats might believe, abortion in and of itself, does not outweigh all of the issues you listed in the minds of many women. Women who are in their late-30s and 40s aren't focused on abortion as much as they are those issues. On crime, they want to keep their families and communities safe. On women's sex-based rights, if they have girls they want them to have fairness in sports. On ideological capture of elite institutions, they want a good education for their kids that will allow them to get jobs to afford the same lifestyles they grew up with. On education and free speech, they want to have differing viewpoints available, even if they don't agree with them.

I would vote for the two of you PPs. Well said.

Except that the current crop of conservative GOP politicians won't actually help you with any of these things. They won't. They just use things like trans women to stoke your emotions.

And BTW, all women, regardless of political party, want to keep their families and communities safe. Every one. They all want good education for their kids and for their kids to find good jobs. All of them. Do you believe otherwise?

Republican women have delusions of superiority. And yet so unaware of reality. The GOP has been dismantling the education system for decades. They don't give a fig about your kids. Wake up.

Well, a whole bunch of women voters learned in the pandemic that the Democrats don’t give a fig about their kids, either, so that threat doesn’t really work for Democrats any more.

Does yelling at women that they are delusional in an effort to persuade them often work for you? It seems ineffective to me, but you do you.

The shut down of schools was the most anti-woman event of my lifetime. It set back an unbelievable number of careers for working moms.

All the more reason that women should be pushing harder for things like remote work, for affordable childcare and so on, along with better educational infrastructure. The only remote work and affordable childcare Republicans care about is you barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen obediently making your husband a sandwich.

Also, many teachers are working moms, too - Republicans hate admitting and acknowledging that early on, schools were one of the top places associated with spread in covid contact tracing data (especially since young kids are snot factories and touch everything) and that many teachers found themselves on the front lines of covid getting sick, with a number of teachers dying in the early days of the pandemic.

Teachers are essential workers, as essential as grocery store workers. Critical to the functioning of society.

We should have prioritized keeping elementary school aged kids in school. Remote learning was not developmentally appropriate. We shouldn't have demonizing parents for saying so. The teachers unions shouldn't have set teachers as adversarial against our young children.

Teachers, if you actually cared you should have been willing to die for my child.

It wasn't about YOUR child, it was about everyone's children AND the teachers.

And the proper answer would have been to keep the schools open.

Some places did and then had to close them almost immediately because schools spread pandemics faster than anyplace except cruise ships and nursing homes. You must have slept through 2020 if you believe schools could have remained open.

No, they most definitely did not have to close the schools because of Covid.You are aware that the US was an outlier for school closures including in 2020? And that even once schools remained open, COVID continued to be an issue through the various strains but we didn’t close down because of them? Life went on.

I know it’s hard to realize that the science doesn’t support school closures and never did, but it’s the reality.

[Anonymous]

It is actually costing the GOP election success. Why don't they just adjust their position to one that will retain and attract voters instead of driving them away. Particularly for an issue like this that the GOP is claiming is not a top issue.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:10-20% of pregnancies end in a known miscarriage. That’s not including all of the early unknown miscarriages.
That’s an uncomfortably high percentage of women facing denied healthcare in their red state due to draconian abortion bans. They want to force these laws on the entire nation with a federal ban.
That’s approximately a million women every year in the US at risk due to extreme laws enacted by “pro life” republicans.
How many years is a woman fertile? How many years does she play roulette with those laws?
I agree that men identifying as women should not be housed in prisons but the entire female prison population of the United States is approximately 90,000.
When I look at risk calculus I’m more immediately concerned for my daughter’s health.

This.
Having received a life-saving inmates. abortion (methotrexate to treat an ectopic pregnancy) and conceived one of my DDs via IVF, I'm all too keenly aware of how the red-states' reactions to the overturning of RvW threatens the health and life of women. To say nothing of the current risks to availability of contraception posed by some in the GOP. Birth control pills are used by millions of women to manage and treat symptoms of conditions like PCOS, endometriosis, etc. Threats to contraception impact more than just those trying to avoid pregnancy.
I consider those far more impactful to the vast majority of women than a few trans athletes or inmates. Why should my DDs have less of a right to health care and bodily autonomy than their grandmothers??

Unless you are a Republican, this is irrelevant. This post is about the viewpoints of GOP women of a certain age, not why you feel more impacted by abortion. If you feel that way, vote Dem as you seem to do.

I'm the PP. Born and raised Republican. Considered myself "conservative" based on fiscal beliefs and support of military, but have always been more "middle of the road" on social issues (and I believe I still am).
Started voting split ticket in 2016 because I couldn't bring myself to vote for Trump. I refuse to vote for any Republican who supported the overturning of RvW, so I now consider myself independent.
The GOP is losing women like me.

It is hard to understand why the GOP has invested so much into crushing reproductive rights. There seem to be a few posters on here in favor of this position, but for the majority, it's such an extremely unpopular and repulsive position to take. Why is the GOP willing to lose so many voters over this issue that they keep arguing is not really that important?

Are you aware of what the number one issues are for voters right now? Hint, it’s not abortion. I think the more relevant question is why did Biden allow 1.3 million illegals in, in 2023 alone, given how many people list controlling the border as their number one issue?

I am responding to the posters on here that saying it is a defining issue. In addition it has clearly resonated in every referendum election held since roe. The talking point that the voters don't care about it does not seem to match up with what is happening in the voting booth.

But no, the people saying abortion is a defining issue on this thread are liberals who can’t understand women who don’t think the same way they do. They aren’t the Republican women who are either pro life or happy that the issue is now at the state level or are satisfied with the direction their own states have taken OR, lastly, are simply not driven by abortion when it comes to their vote.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is actually costing the GOP election success. Why don't they just adjust their position to one that will retain and attract voters instead of driving them away. Particularly for an issue like this that the GOP is claiming is not a top issue.

The Republican nominee leads in the polls, and we control most state governorships. We also won the battle for the house, and the senate map is looking pretty good. Where exactly is the cost, particularly recognizing that most pro life voters are in the GOP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is actually costing the GOP election success. Why don't they just adjust their position to one that will retain and attract voters instead of driving them away. Particularly for an issue like this that the GOP is claiming is not a top issue.

The Republican nominee leads in the polls, and we control most state governorships. We also won the battle for the house, and the senate map is looking pretty good. Where exactly is the cost, particularly recognizing that most pro life voters are in the GOP?

The house is a mess with a tiny GOP majority. There was no red wave. The democrats flipped a house seat last year and this issue was definitely part of the campaign and the final decision.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:10-20% of pregnancies end in a known miscarriage. That’s not including all of the early unknown miscarriages.
That’s an uncomfortably high percentage of women facing denied healthcare in their red state due to draconian abortion bans. They want to force these laws on the entire nation with a federal ban.
That’s approximately a million women every year in the US at risk due to extreme laws enacted by “pro life” republicans.
How many years is a woman fertile? How many years does she play roulette with those laws?
I agree that men identifying as women should not be housed in prisons but the entire female prison population of the United States is approximately 90,000.
When I look at risk calculus I’m more immediately concerned for my daughter’s health.

This.
Having received a life-saving inmates. abortion (methotrexate to treat an ectopic pregnancy) and conceived one of my DDs via IVF, I'm all too keenly aware of how the red-states' reactions to the overturning of RvW threatens the health and life of women. To say nothing of the current risks to availability of contraception posed by some in the GOP. Birth control pills are used by millions of women to manage and treat symptoms of conditions like PCOS, endometriosis, etc. Threats to contraception impact more than just those trying to avoid pregnancy.
I consider those far more impactful to the vast majority of women than a few trans athletes or inmates. Why should my DDs have less of a right to health care and bodily autonomy than their grandmothers??

Unless you are a Republican, this is irrelevant. This post is about the viewpoints of GOP women of a certain age, not why you feel more impacted by abortion. If you feel that way, vote Dem as you seem to do.

I'm the PP. Born and raised Republican. Considered myself "conservative" based on fiscal beliefs and support of military, but have always been more "middle of the road" on social issues (and I believe I still am).
Started voting split ticket in 2016 because I couldn't bring myself to vote for Trump. I refuse to vote for any Republican who supported the overturning of RvW, so I now consider myself independent.
The GOP is losing women like me.

It is hard to understand why the GOP has invested so much into crushing reproductive rights. There seem to be a few posters on here in favor of this position, but for the majority, it's such an extremely unpopular and repulsive position to take. Why is the GOP willing to lose so many voters over this issue that they keep arguing is not really that important?

Are you aware of what the number one issues are for voters right now? Hint, it’s not abortion. I think the more relevant question is why did Biden allow 1.3 million illegals in, in 2023 alone, given how many people list controlling the border as their number one issue?

I am responding to the posters on here that saying it is a defining issue. In addition it has clearly resonated in every referendum election held since roe. The talking point that the voters don't care about it does not seem to match up with what is happening in the voting booth.

But no, the people saying abortion is a defining issue on this thread are liberals who can’t understand women who don’t think the same way they do. They aren’t the Republican women who are either pro life or happy that the issue is now at the state level or are satisfied with the direction their own states have taken OR, lastly, are simply not driven by abortion when it comes to their vote.

Of course there are conservative women who don't think the way the rest do. But the conservatives who don't think like the rest are in a small and ever-shrinking minority. And what you don't seem to understand is the significance of how many there are who don't think the way you do - maybe you've already forgotten about how much the post-Roe landscape has shifted, for example the Kansas abortion referendum.

[Anonymous]

All I am seeing here is that Republicans have emotional hatred and delusional paranoia toward transgender people, poor immigrants, and basic public health protocols. Targeting fears and prejudices to try to incite panic, as with every other election since 1964.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:10-20% of pregnancies end in a known miscarriage. That’s not including all of the early unknown miscarriages.
That’s an uncomfortably high percentage of women facing denied healthcare in their red state due to draconian abortion bans. They want to force these laws on the entire nation with a federal ban.
That’s approximately a million women every year in the US at risk due to extreme laws enacted by “pro life” republicans.
How many years is a woman fertile? How many years does she play roulette with those laws?
I agree that men identifying as women should not be housed in prisons but the entire female prison population of the United States is approximately 90,000.
When I look at risk calculus I’m more immediately concerned for my daughter’s health.

This.
Having received a life-saving inmates. abortion (methotrexate to treat an ectopic pregnancy) and conceived one of my DDs via IVF, I'm all too keenly aware of how the red-states' reactions to the overturning of RvW threatens the health and life of women. To say nothing of the current risks to availability of contraception posed by some in the GOP. Birth control pills are used by millions of women to manage and treat symptoms of conditions like PCOS, endometriosis, etc. Threats to contraception impact more than just those trying to avoid pregnancy.
I consider those far more impactful to the vast majority of women than a few trans athletes or inmates. Why should my DDs have less of a right to health care and bodily autonomy than their grandmothers??

Unless you are a Republican, this is irrelevant. This post is about the viewpoints of GOP women of a certain age, not why you feel more impacted by abortion. If you feel that way, vote Dem as you seem to do.

I'm the PP. Born and raised Republican. Considered myself "conservative" based on fiscal beliefs and support of military, but have always been more "middle of the road" on social issues (and I believe I still am).
Started voting split ticket in 2016 because I couldn't bring myself to vote for Trump. I refuse to vote for any Republican who supported the overturning of RvW, so I now consider myself independent.
The GOP is losing women like me.

It is hard to understand why the GOP has invested so much into crushing reproductive rights. There seem to be a few posters on here in favor of this position, but for the majority, it's such an extremely unpopular and repulsive position to take. Why is the GOP willing to lose so many voters over this issue that they keep arguing is not really that important?

Are you aware of what the number one issues are for voters right now? Hint, it’s not abortion. I think the more relevant question is why did Biden allow 1.3 million illegals in, in 2023 alone, given how many people list controlling the border as their number one issue?

Your otherness about “illegals” doesn’t negatively affect most people. In fact the work of “illegals” keeps agriculture, manufacturing, and much of the service industry running. Without them, prices would be higher because all of the red state whiners on federal disability won’t do those jobs.

Women’s healthcare affects all of the women and most of the men and children in this country directly or tangentially. Lack of access to contraception and healthcare will take us back a hundred years.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Republican women in the age range you mentioned are by and large intelligent, articulate, understand the role of government and are carrying concealed weapons to ward off criminals and rapists.

They have conservative views, are willing to compromise on abortion, with laws similar to what exists in Europe. They want a secure border and support giving people a hand up without providing perpetual handouts.

In other words typical normal people that lean a little right of center who are never going to support the extreme views of the progressive wing no matter how loudly they shout.

You must be a smug idiot to think women can just ward off rapists.

Aren’t you one of the people that think it’s fine for imprisoned women to be cell mates with convicted rapists and male sex offenders? Don’t you believe the imprisoned women can just ward off the rapists who now identify as women and share their cells? Why would this be any different? At least the PP has a gun.

Time to stop drinking and get out of mommy's basement.

So yes, you believe women prisoners should be imprisoned with convicted male rapists who now identify as women. Got it.

Moron. No one wrote that.

Yep. Seems like some angry right winger is hard at work strawmanning and sock puppeting tonight.

We are still waiting for the PP who resorted to name-calling (“Moron.”) to come out and state that he fully opposes housing biological female prisoners with transwomen convicted of rape or sexual assault, and that he is opposed to the political party that is supporting that policy.

No one is answering you, because this is a non issue that you made up. Part of the "Dem platform"? Absolute BS.

It doesn't matter how many times you post utter BS, it remains utter BS.

Do you think it’s not happening? Or that democrats don’t support it? Because that’s just not true. It is happening, and it’s being pushed forward by democrats.

In NY: https://jimowles.org/news/hochul-wants-transgender-inmates-to-choose-where-theyre-housed-in-prisons

In NJ: https://www.npr.org/2021/06/29/1011181718/new-jersey-prisoners-will-be-placed-based-on-gender-identity-under-a-new-policy

In CA: https://apnews.com/article/us-news-laws-gavin-newsom-ca-state-wire-lifestyle-14cd954b06360d21349b77233318369e

In CT: https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/389512-aclu-praises-connecticut-for-passing-most-protective-transgender/damp/?nxs-test=damp

From your first link,

"In 2014, the city created a special housing unit on Rikers Island for transgender inmates — those who were born male but identify as female."

Do you even know what a SHU is? It's SEPARATE housing. The trans prisoners are SEPARATED from the general population. That's very very different from your disingenuous narrative about how the libs want big hairy guys with swinging dicks loping freely through prisons raping female prisoners.

That was in 2014. In 2022 a woman in Rikers in NY was raped by a man in shared prison housing. It sounds like you agree that persons with male genitalia should not be housed with women in prison. I look forward to your opposition to these laws that require prison placement by gender identity instead of sex.

https://nypost.com/2024/01/24/metro/man-posing-as-trans-woman-raped-female-prisoner-at-rikers-lawsuit/amp/

Don't take that haughty "well I see that you agree" tone with me. On this thread, I have consistently said from the start that they should be housed separately. Trans prisoners may be the victimizers in shared prison environments are also far more likely to be the targets of abuse as well. And that also trashes your narrative about how Dems are all just these narrow minded "followers" who say you have to vote on the basis of your ovaries and who care about abortion and abortion only. Also, the prison issue does not in any way dissuade me from continuing to vote Dem, because there is a much bigger range of issues at stake.

You really need to start leaving your narrow and ill-informed viewpoints at the door because every attempt of your to push a narrative about what Dems and liberals are about seems to be a wild swing and a miss.

DP

I’m not the PP but here is what you and many other Democrats do not get about your constant dismissal of issues related to trans rights and the superseding of women’s rights. The constant response is exactly like what you wrote above, where the instances where women are victimized are picked apart as rarities, and presented in isolation. Oh, only a few women are raped in prison by transwomen. Oh, only a few of your daughters lose to trans girls in sports, and why do your daughters even have ambition in sport anyhow? They should be happy to let boys win; that’s “being kind” anyhow and sports ambition in girls is ugly. Oh, transwomen just want to pee and only a few male predators will take advantage of the new inability to remove creepy men from restrooms. Oh, the transwomen sending rape threats to JK Rowling and other women who stand up for women’s rights are rare and they are autistic anyhow so you should be kind and understand that their rape threats are acceptable because they struggle emotionally. Oh, you should be happy being referred to as an “front hole,” because that’s more inclusive. And so on, across individual events and issues.

You don’t understand that many, many women don’t view and won’t view all these events in isolation. They see this as a constellation, all these indicators of how Democrats value women and girls. You want to minimize into discrete events precisely so you can hide the overall picture. But women are too smart for that.

In the end, this is where we are: The Democrats see women as public emotional support animals for men and boys. The Republicans see women as private reproductive chattel. We are living Andrea Dworkin’s observation that conservative men see women as private property and liberal men see women as public property.

So, if both parties equally dehumanize women, women voters who choose to still participate in the political system are going to probably start voting for other reasons: education, immigration, crime, etc. They are also going to start disassociating with either party (which is already happening; women are increasingly registering as independent).

You can scream at them about how they are wrong and you are right, you can gaslight them and insult them, you can use racist and sexist words to describe women who pick a different path than you, but none of that will (a) work to change minds and (b) matter at all.

This isn’t a pie - women don’t lose rights because trans people are gaining rights.

When a woman is raped because a man declared his right to share a prison cell with her due to his gender identity, she has lost rights.

When a girl stands on the second step of a podium because a boy who said he is a girl is on the first step, she has lost rights.

When a woman is in a locker room and finds her naked self in front of a naked man and nothing can be done about it because he says he’s a woman, she has lost rights.

Both men and women are victims of prison rape. There's an underlying problem that goes beyond any gender identity issue.

Regarding locker rooms: Trans women are women. They would be more out of place in a men's locker room than in a women's locker room. Just like trans men are men. Do you really want them in the women's locker room?

Of the three points you make, I find the one regarding trans women participating in women's sports the most compelling. I don't know what a solution might be - create a separate division for trans women? But...it's sports. Most people I know will base their choice at the ballot box on something other than sports.

Just stop it with that garbage. It is such a silly statement. They aren’t women anymore than they are sea otters. Stop trying to gaslight America

Call it silly, but gender reassignment surgery is a thing. If a woman has the same parts as you do, what is the big deal?

Gender and sex are different things, and laws protecting women are based on their sex.

Just so we're on the same page, what determines someone's sex...their birth certificate?

Now you’re confused about gender vs sex?

Here in Virginia anyway, they are interchangeable: https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/vital-records/what-is-the-procedure-to-update-a-virginia-birth-certificate-after-a-person-has-undergone-gender-transition/

So a trans woman can show up to a locker room carrying a birth certificate indicating they are a woman.

So because the paperwork changed, sex did too? And now gender and sex are indistinguishable, is this the argument of the left?

I can't speak for others, but my argument is this: You (or somebody, I can't keep track) said "laws protecting women are based on their sex." But how do you enforce that law in a locker room? Nobody is carrying their birth certificate with them, and even if they were the sex on their birth certificate can easily match the gender they claim.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is actually costing the GOP election success. Why don't they just adjust their position to one that will retain and attract voters instead of driving them away. Particularly for an issue like this that the GOP is claiming is not a top issue.

The Republican nominee leads in the polls, and we control most state governorships. We also won the battle for the house, and the senate map is looking pretty good. Where exactly is the cost, particularly recognizing that most pro life voters are in the GOP?

Republicans underperformed badly in 2022 but narrowly retook the House only because of reapportionment after the 2020 Census. The incompetence and lunacy of the Republican House has been a gift to Democrats because the GOP has been so dysfunctional and insane that no one with any sense want that clan of idiots to have power.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is actually costing the GOP election success. Why don't they just adjust their position to one that will retain and attract voters instead of driving them away. Particularly for an issue like this that the GOP is claiming is not a top issue.

Because it's a cult of personality right now. Donald Trump is the cult leader and there are no actual positions that are firm other than that one.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:10-20% of pregnancies end in a known miscarriage. That’s not including all of the early unknown miscarriages.
That’s an uncomfortably high percentage of women facing denied healthcare in their red state due to draconian abortion bans. They want to force these laws on the entire nation with a federal ban.
That’s approximately a million women every year in the US at risk due to extreme laws enacted by “pro life” republicans.
How many years is a woman fertile? How many years does she play roulette with those laws?
I agree that men identifying as women should not be housed in prisons but the entire female prison population of the United States is approximately 90,000.
When I look at risk calculus I’m more immediately concerned for my daughter’s health.

This.
Having received a life-saving inmates. abortion (methotrexate to treat an ectopic pregnancy) and conceived one of my DDs via IVF, I'm all too keenly aware of how the red-states' reactions to the overturning of RvW threatens the health and life of women. To say nothing of the current risks to availability of contraception posed by some in the GOP. Birth control pills are used by millions of women to manage and treat symptoms of conditions like PCOS, endometriosis, etc. Threats to contraception impact more than just those trying to avoid pregnancy.
I consider those far more impactful to the vast majority of women than a few trans athletes or inmates. Why should my DDs have less of a right to health care and bodily autonomy than their grandmothers??

Unless you are a Republican, this is irrelevant. This post is about the viewpoints of GOP women of a certain age, not why you feel more impacted by abortion. If you feel that way, vote Dem as you seem to do.

I'm the PP. Born and raised Republican. Considered myself "conservative" based on fiscal beliefs and support of military, but have always been more "middle of the road" on social issues (and I believe I still am).
Started voting split ticket in 2016 because I couldn't bring myself to vote for Trump. I refuse to vote for any Republican who supported the overturning of RvW, so I now consider myself independent.
The GOP is losing women like me.

It is hard to understand why the GOP has invested so much into crushing reproductive rights. There seem to be a few posters on here in favor of this position, but for the majority, it's such an extremely unpopular and repulsive position to take. Why is the GOP willing to lose so many voters over this issue that they keep arguing is not really that important?

Are you aware of what the number one issues are for voters right now? Hint, it’s not abortion. I think the more relevant question is why did Biden allow 1.3 million illegals in, in 2023 alone, given how many people list controlling the border as their number one issue?

I am responding to the posters on here that saying it is a defining issue. In addition it has clearly resonated in every referendum election held since roe. The talking point that the voters don't care about it does not seem to match up with what is happening in the voting booth.

But no, the people saying abortion is a defining issue on this thread are liberals who can’t understand women who don’t think the same way they do. They aren’t the Republican women who are either pro life or happy that the issue is now at the state level or are satisfied with the direction their own states have taken OR, lastly, are simply not driven by abortion when it comes to their vote.

No, try again. I'm the former-Republican PP from up thread a bit. I'm not a liberal, and I'm not some weird outlier. But this is absolutely my hill to die on when it comes to supporting candidates with my vote. What good are the other issues if bodily autonomy and the right to appropriate healthcare (in case of a dangerous pregnancy or pregnancy loss) aren't protected for everyone in this country?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:10-20% of pregnancies end in a known miscarriage. That’s not including all of the early unknown miscarriages.
That’s an uncomfortably high percentage of women facing denied healthcare in their red state due to draconian abortion bans. They want to force these laws on the entire nation with a federal ban.
That’s approximately a million women every year in the US at risk due to extreme laws enacted by “pro life” republicans.
How many years is a woman fertile? How many years does she play roulette with those laws?
I agree that men identifying as women should not be housed in prisons but the entire female prison population of the United States is approximately 90,000.
When I look at risk calculus I’m more immediately concerned for my daughter’s health.

This.
Having received a life-saving inmates. abortion (methotrexate to treat an ectopic pregnancy) and conceived one of my DDs via IVF, I'm all too keenly aware of how the red-states' reactions to the overturning of RvW threatens the health and life of women. To say nothing of the current risks to availability of contraception posed by some in the GOP. Birth control pills are used by millions of women to manage and treat symptoms of conditions like PCOS, endometriosis, etc. Threats to contraception impact more than just those trying to avoid pregnancy.
I consider those far more impactful to the vast majority of women than a few trans athletes or inmates. Why should my DDs have less of a right to health care and bodily autonomy than their grandmothers??

Unless you are a Republican, this is irrelevant. This post is about the viewpoints of GOP women of a certain age, not why you feel more impacted by abortion. If you feel that way, vote Dem as you seem to do.

I'm the PP. Born and raised Republican. Considered myself "conservative" based on fiscal beliefs and support of military, but have always been more "middle of the road" on social issues (and I believe I still am).
Started voting split ticket in 2016 because I couldn't bring myself to vote for Trump. I refuse to vote for any Republican who supported the overturning of RvW, so I now consider myself independent.
The GOP is losing women like me.

It is hard to understand why the GOP has invested so much into crushing reproductive rights. There seem to be a few posters on here in favor of this position, but for the majority, it's such an extremely unpopular and repulsive position to take. Why is the GOP willing to lose so many voters over this issue that they keep arguing is not really that important?

Are you aware of what the number one issues are for voters right now? Hint, it’s not abortion. I think the more relevant question is why did Biden allow 1.3 million illegals in, in 2023 alone, given how many people list controlling the border as their number one issue?

Your otherness about “illegals” doesn’t negatively affect most people. In fact the work of “illegals” keeps agriculture, manufacturing, and much of the service industry running. Without them, prices would be higher because all of the red state whiners on federal disability won’t do those jobs.

Women’s healthcare affects all of the women and most of the men and children in this country directly or tangentially. Lack of access to contraception and healthcare will take us back a hundred years.

Right, and overall, crime rates among illegal aliens are actually lower than crime rates in the general US population. There's certainly a case to be made regarding prioritizing crackdowns on migrants and illegal aliens who are members of gangs or who do have a history of violent crime, but the overwhelming majority are harmless and very productive members of American society.

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Anonymous wrote:I am an atheist feminist who is married to a Democrat man. I am independent but leaning more and more conservative these days. Issues where I lean more to the conservative side include: crime, immigration, women’s sex-based rights, ideological capture of elite institutions, education, and free speech.

It is worth recognizing that historically women trend more conservative and more religious than men. I have my own theories about why this has changed over the past several decades.

As much as democrats might believe, abortion in and of itself, does not outweigh all of the issues you listed in the minds of many women. Women who are in their late-30s and 40s aren't focused on abortion as much as they are those issues. On crime, they want to keep their families and communities safe. On women's sex-based rights, if they have girls they want them to have fairness in sports. On ideological capture of elite institutions, they want a good education for their kids that will allow them to get jobs to afford the same lifestyles they grew up with. On education and free speech, they want to have differing viewpoints available, even if they don't agree with them.

I would vote for the two of you PPs. Well said.

Except that the current crop of conservative GOP politicians won't actually help you with any of these things. They won't. They just use things like trans women to stoke your emotions.

And BTW, all women, regardless of political party, want to keep their families and communities safe. Every one. They all want good education for their kids and for their kids to find good jobs. All of them. Do you believe otherwise?

Republican women have delusions of superiority. And yet so unaware of reality. The GOP has been dismantling the education system for decades. They don't give a fig about your kids. Wake up.

Well, a whole bunch of women voters learned in the pandemic that the Democrats don’t give a fig about their kids, either, so that threat doesn’t really work for Democrats any more.

Does yelling at women that they are delusional in an effort to persuade them often work for you? It seems ineffective to me, but you do you.

The shut down of schools was the most anti-woman event of my lifetime. It set back an unbelievable number of careers for working moms.

All the more reason that women should be pushing harder for things like remote work, for affordable childcare and so on, along with better educational infrastructure. The only remote work and affordable childcare Republicans care about is you barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen obediently making your husband a sandwich.

Also, many teachers are working moms, too - Republicans hate admitting and acknowledging that early on, schools were one of the top places associated with spread in covid contact tracing data (especially since young kids are snot factories and touch everything) and that many teachers found themselves on the front lines of covid getting sick, with a number of teachers dying in the early days of the pandemic.

Teachers are essential workers, as essential as grocery store workers. Critical to the functioning of society.

We should have prioritized keeping elementary school aged kids in school. Remote learning was not developmentally appropriate. We shouldn't have demonizing parents for saying so. The teachers unions shouldn't have set teachers as adversarial against our young children.

Teachers, if you actually cared you should have been willing to die for my child.

It wasn't about YOUR child, it was about everyone's children AND the teachers.

And the proper answer would have been to keep the schools open.

Some places did and then had to close them almost immediately because schools spread pandemics faster than anyplace except cruise ships and nursing homes. You must have slept through 2020 if you believe schools could have remained open.

No, they most definitely did not have to close the schools because of Covid.You are aware that the US was an outlier for school closures including in 2020? And that even once schools remained open, COVID continued to be an issue through the various strains but we didn’t close down because of them? Life went on.

I know it’s hard to realize that the science doesn’t support school closures and never did, but it’s the reality.

Correct. Covid deaths peaked in January 22 after the closures ended. The closures were not effective.

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Anonymous wrote:10-20% of pregnancies end in a known miscarriage. That’s not including all of the early unknown miscarriages.
That’s an uncomfortably high percentage of women facing denied healthcare in their red state due to draconian abortion bans. They want to force these laws on the entire nation with a federal ban.
That’s approximately a million women every year in the US at risk due to extreme laws enacted by “pro life” republicans.
How many years is a woman fertile? How many years does she play roulette with those laws?
I agree that men identifying as women should not be housed in prisons but the entire female prison population of the United States is approximately 90,000.
When I look at risk calculus I’m more immediately concerned for my daughter’s health.

This.
Having received a life-saving inmates. abortion (methotrexate to treat an ectopic pregnancy) and conceived one of my DDs via IVF, I'm all too keenly aware of how the red-states' reactions to the overturning of RvW threatens the health and life of women. To say nothing of the current risks to availability of contraception posed by some in the GOP. Birth control pills are used by millions of women to manage and treat symptoms of conditions like PCOS, endometriosis, etc. Threats to contraception impact more than just those trying to avoid pregnancy.
I consider those far more impactful to the vast majority of women than a few trans athletes or inmates. Why should my DDs have less of a right to health care and bodily autonomy than their grandmothers??

Unless you are a Republican, this is irrelevant. This post is about the viewpoints of GOP women of a certain age, not why you feel more impacted by abortion. If you feel that way, vote Dem as you seem to do.

I'm the PP. Born and raised Republican. Considered myself "conservative" based on fiscal beliefs and support of military, but have always been more "middle of the road" on social issues (and I believe I still am).
Started voting split ticket in 2016 because I couldn't bring myself to vote for Trump. I refuse to vote for any Republican who supported the overturning of RvW, so I now consider myself independent.
The GOP is losing women like me.

It is hard to understand why the GOP has invested so much into crushing reproductive rights. There seem to be a few posters on here in favor of this position, but for the majority, it's such an extremely unpopular and repulsive position to take. Why is the GOP willing to lose so many voters over this issue that they keep arguing is not really that important?

Are you aware of what the number one issues are for voters right now? Hint, it’s not abortion. I think the more relevant question is why did Biden allow 1.3 million illegals in, in 2023 alone, given how many people list controlling the border as their number one issue?

I am responding to the posters on here that saying it is a defining issue. In addition it has clearly resonated in every referendum election held since roe. The talking point that the voters don't care about it does not seem to match up with what is happening in the voting booth.

But no, the people saying abortion is a defining issue on this thread are liberals who can’t understand women who don’t think the same way they do. They aren’t the Republican women who are either pro life or happy that the issue is now at the state level or are satisfied with the direction their own states have taken OR, lastly, are simply not driven by abortion when it comes to their vote.

Of course there are conservative women who don't think the way the rest do. But the conservatives who don't think like the rest are in a small and ever-shrinking minority. And what you don't seem to understand is the significance of how many there are who don't think the way you do - maybe you've already forgotten about how much the post-Roe landscape has shifted, for example the Kansas abortion referendum.

And I'm pretty sure that the majority of women who are looking to take down the GOP in the post-Roe era DO NOT have abortion as their sole defining issue. Instead, I would wager that they already had many other issues and concerns, and that the overturn of Roe was more like the final straw to break the camel's back. And the GOP completely missed it. The Republicans, in their hubris and haughty arrogance, took and took and took, and just assumed women would be subservient and accept it all.