Republicans restart the 'War on Women'

By Mitchell Blatt
0 Comment(s)Print E-mail China.org.cn, February 13, 2015
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Well, that was quick. After winning the Senate, Republicans are back to their old tricks targeting abortion and other so-called "women's issues."

After winning the Senate, Republicans are back to their old tricks targeting abortion and other so-called "women's issues."



Since 2010, Democrats have accused the Republicans of waging a "war on women." Republicans opposed abortion rights, contraception mandates, and other issues. For the 2014 elections, Republicans tried to change their image. Their makeover lasted until Election Day.

After taking office, one of the first measures of the 114th Congress was to try to pass a ban on abortions after 20 weeks. The so-called "Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act" would have banned such abortions under the pretense that the fetus developing at that point can feel pain and is "viable" outside the womb. According to a 2003 paper by Louis P. Halamek, a professor of pediatrics at Stanford University, "Most neonatologists would agree that survival of infants younger than approximately 22 to 23 weeks' estimated gestational age is universally dismal and that resuscitative efforts should not be undertaken when a neonate is born at this point in pregnancy."

The bill might have passed if it were not for a number of Republican women withdrawing their support. Rep. Renee Ellmers and Jackie Walorski pulled their names from the bill, citing concerns with its political impact and its effect on victims of rape. Ellmers said, "The first vote we take, or the second vote, or the fifth vote, shouldn't be on an issue where we know that [to] millennials, social issues just aren't as important."

She's right. According to a Gallup survey, 50 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 identify as "pro-choice" - that is the political euphemism for pro-abortion rights - whereas only 41 percent identify as "pro-life," or anti-abortion rights. If asked in specific circumstances whether abortion should be legal, 78 percent of Americans think abortion should be legal under some circumstances - in instances of rape, for example. In 2012, Republican Senate candidates Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock lost their Senate elections after arguing that abortion should be illegal in all cases.

In this case, the abortion ban would have prevented many victims of rape from having abortions, because it would only have allowed rape victims who reported their rape to police to have abortions after 20 weeks. However, a lot of rapes - 64 percent, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics - are not reported.

Surveys can be analyzed in many ways, and anti-abortion rights activists argue that the surveys support their position because abortion is less popular in the second and third trimesters than it is in the first trimester. (The third trimester starts at 26 weeks.)

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