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[quote=Anonymous]I resent being told that the women’s issues in the news are a mere “distraction” from What Really Matters (It’s The Economy, Stupid).

By all means, I invite, even encourage, all of our elected representatives to focus on the economy.  But for some reason, many of them are NOT doing so.  Far too many legislators are instead indulging in repugnant efforts to restrict and control women’s reproductive rights.  From Arizona bills which sound as if they were written by the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, to Michigan bills penalizing women for having abortions by requiring funerals for fetal remains, to Virginia’s infamous attempt at vaginal wanding, there is a reason why this distraction has not disappeared from our national conversation.  It is because Republicans simply will not stop their very frightening onslaught against women’s reproductive liberty.

If you don’t wish to be unfairly characterized as waging a “War on Women”, why are you still commenting on women’s reproduction?  Why are you still introducing bills on this topic?  Why did you bar female representative from the House floor in Michigan for using the word, “vagina” – a word which others in your party (usually male) unfortunately seem to feel perfectly entitled to bandy about?  Why do you oppose the characterization of birth control as a medication like any other under health care plans?

If Republicans feel that eradicating abortion is the right thing to do, I can respect their feelings (even if I disagree with their methods).  What I do not respect is a party which wages a war on women’s reproductive freedoms and then complains of being treated unfairly when the press reports on that fact.  If your party is anti-abortion, anti-choice, anti-birth control (in sum, anti-woman), then you own that.  Don’t dissemble.  And don’t infuriate women by telling us that our concerns about your anti-choice platform are a mere “distraction”.

Republicans make much of personal freedom and the right to retain one’s own property.  Far more important to me than the security of my property is the liberty of my person.  I have a fundamental right to my own bodily sovereignty.

The recent comments on rape by Senate candidate Todd Akin are not a mere political sideshow.  They are a very clear demonstration of the dangerous ignorance of many Republican candidates and lawmakers who have express a clear commitment to governing women’s sexuality and reproduction.  Akin is relevant because far too many people within the Republican Party share his views on rape and abortion – see Paul Ryan (hardly a fringe element) and his co-sponsorship, with Akin, of the Sanctity of Human Life Act of 2009.

It is unprecedented that our sitting President has a very good chance of being reelected, despite an unemployment rate of over 8%.  How can this possibly be?  It is because are making it impossible for me, and others like me, to vote for you.  It doesn’t matter how hard you hammer away at the President over the economy, or jobs, or anything else.  I refuse to share authority over my body with the government.  Doing so would make me little more than a slave.  Ask a slave if they care about the economy, or jobs.  They’d probably tell you there is only one thing they care about:  Freedom.

Republican threats to female liberty must end if our nation is to focus its attention on “more important” issues.  I invite the Republican Party to transform the national conversation by transforming itself.

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