There really is a war on women in the US right now, but it has nothing to do with a female politician referring to a woman who has never worked at a job as, “never worked a day in her life.”  Yes, it’s true that stay at home mothers do quite a bit of work, but they aren’t working at jobs, and nobody is targeting them to lose their rights based on that particular life choice. This is simply a case of splitting hairs to manipulate people into thinking that this has something to do with the real war against women. It has nothing to do with it, and women are smart enough to know the difference.

The real war on women in the US right now has everything to do with diminishing the rights of women regarding:

• [February 16, 2012] Their right to speak in front of Congress about issues that directly affect women (a woman being referred to as “not qualified” to testify about women’s health issues) - http://www.thenation.com/blog/166311/republican-hearing-contraception-no-women-allowed
• [February 23, 2012] Access for women with low income to reproductive health care at Planned Parenthood in Texas  -The health care program in Texas provided contraception and cancer screenings to low income women. Medicaid rules prohibt the banning of specific health providers, however, Gov. Rick Perry – R  banned Planned Parenthood’s participation because he doesn’t think the funds should be permitted to go to any provider who offers or is affiliated in any way with abortion services (even though the money doesn’t pay for abortions). As a result, the federal government cut off the $30 million that it provided for the the Women’s Health Program. While Gov. Perry – R said he would replace the lost federal funds,  he has not done so, and no such program has been put in place since it was discontinued in March. Abortion is legal in the US and Medicaid explicitly states that it is the patient’s right (not the governor’s right) to select their health care practioner. Planned Parenthood is suing Texas, but right now, Perry is refusing to reverse his decision and 130,000  low-income women in Texas currently have no where to go and no funds to pay for the services if they did have somewhere to go  - http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/04/11/462293/planned-parenthood-sues-texas/
• [March 1] Legalized discrimination against women’s health needs in health insurance plans- While many people race to side with the Catholic church’s right to their belief that contraception is wrong and, therefore, they shouldn’t be forced to include it in their health insurance plans, the unequivocal real losers in this debate are women employed at institutions like church-affiliated hospitals and universities (including students who pay for their health insurance) – who are not hired or chosen to become employees or students based on their religion. When 99% of American women have used, are using or will use hormones for purpose of contraception and/or to treat other health issues, the Catholic church is still legally permitted to omit this health treatment from their plans and decide, often at the detriment of womens’ health, who may or may not receive treatment. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2012-02-08/catholics-contraceptive-mandate/53014864/1. To circumvent the obvious attack on women’s health, the Blunt Amendment sought to allow any employer the right to legally discriminate in health insurance plans, including basic health care, based on their “conscious”. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/01/blunt-amendment-vote-fails-senate-contraception_n_1313287.html
• [March 14, 2012] Their bodies -  Tom Corbett, PA-R supported an invasive measure requiring women seeking abortions to have a medically unnecessary ultrasound (including inserting a probe into a woman’s vagina) as “proof” of a pregnancy, requiring the computer monitor to be faced towards the woman so she can see the fetus, and requiring the woman to listen to the sound of the baby’s heartbeat. When asked about the woman’s right to object Corbett offered that, “They can close their eyes,” (as would a rape victim) – or not have the abortion.  This is not only incredibly invasive and cruel, but also an obvious attempt to intimidate women into not having abortions, despite their legal right to do so. http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/03/pennsylvania_governor_tom_corb_3.html
• [April 5, 2012] Their pay- Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker repealed an employment discrimination law that was implemented to help women receive equal pay for equal work. Currently women in Wisconsin earn 75 cents for every dollar that men earn doing the same work. http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/04/06/460038/scott-walker-gender-pay/
• [ongoing] Legalized price gouging of women’s health insurance premiums (aka “women are pre-existing conditions”) – In some cases,  health insurance costs for women is 84% higher than men of the same age and health group, and this is encouraged by those who believe in and support free-enterprise over insurance regulation that would require equality and fairness between genders.  http://news.change.org/stories/i-am-not-a-pre-existing-condition

The war on women is real, and the first five issues above were implemented this year, all before April 5th! This is nobody’s imagination, and what’s worse is that this list isn’t inclusive. It has nothing to do with semantics used to distinguish working women and stay-at-home mothers. Republicans want to get the heat off of themselves and this is the best they have in their claim that the Democrats are really the ones at war with women. It’s so ridiculous, and the record needs to be set straight.

Here is what Republican front-runner Mitt Romney has to say for women:

• When asked about Planned Parenthood, Romney said, “We’ll get rid of that.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/13/mitt-romney-planned-parenthood_n_1343450.html
• When asked about Rush Limbaugh’s vicious personal attack on the female Georgetown law student who testified in front of Congress about the need for women’s reproductive health care, Romney said, “”I’ll just say this, which is, it’s not the language I would have used.” http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/03/romney-on-rush-not-the-language-i-would-have-used/ 
• To the issue of JOBS and WOMEN, Mitt can’t seem to find a voice for American women workers in Wisconsin when he refused to speak out against Governor Scott Walker who just repealed an employment discrimination law. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57410670-503544/obama-team-slams-romney-walker-on-womens-issues/

There is no war on women from Democrats. It just doesn’t exist. That’s why most women will be voting Democrat in the next presidential election. Women aren’t stupid, we’re not going to fall for “oh she said stay-at-home mothers don’t do any work” (when that is not what was said), and take that as a big civil rights violation against stay-at-home mothers. It’s a made up violation and it obviously hit a hot button of Ann Romney’s, who, like many stay-at-home mothers, believe that their work isn’t valued the same as those who work for pay. Sure, raising your kids is work, but it’s not the same and we all know it. Women have been there – some stay at home, some work out of the home, some work at home. some do all of the above. We get it. I like Ann Romney. I’m not against her, and I’m not going to suddenly find a reason to be against her. I like her style and she seems intelligent,  personable and sincere. But she’s not running for president and I’m not going to vote for her husband. I just don’t think he’s all that concerned about stopping this craziness against women. I don’t think he cares one bit.

One of the easiest strategies for dealing with a large group of people is to separate them into smaller groups that they identify with. This has been a long standing strategy in American politics for as long as I can remember. Anti-choice (Republicans) vs. Pro-choice (Democrats). The right to bear arms (Republicans) vs. gun control (Deomocrats). Free enterprise (Republicans) vs. enviromental control (Democrats). Which group do you belong to? Ah. Now we know who you’ll vote for!

Are we women going to further divide ourselves in politics based on if we work at jobs or stay at home with the kids?

Let’s not subscribe to this tactic. Our needs are too important and we still don’t have equal rights. Our future and our self-respect hangs in the balance.

I will never ever vote against the rights of women to be able to make choices about their bodies and their lives. I will never vote for women to be legally discriminated against by anyone – not the government, not employers, not public hospitals, universities and certainly not health insurance companies.

American citizens have had quite a lot of struggles with a weak economy, job losses, inflated health care costs among other things. I’m surprised that the GOP has so much time to focus so intently on diminishing womens’ rights and health choices. It’s like we’re going backwards in time – specifically to some distant century in the past where religious leaders against women having the ultimate dominion over their own bodies. While 99% of American women (and 98% of Catholic American women) have used, are using or will use contraception, it seems like a miscarriage of justice to even consider allowing a religion to legally discriminate against women in their health insurance plans. But that’s where we’re at.

The abortion issue has been a good one for the GOP. It’s been going on since Roe vs. Wade. The anti-choice sentiment gets the GOP a lot of votes from those who believe in “protecting the rights of the unborn”, while simultaneously stripping away the rights of women.

I don’t believe for a minute that many of the anti-choice people really give a damn about the life of anyone (these are typically the same people who complain about chipping in for the financial welfare of poor women and their children), but it makes for such a great sound bite. Some of them do care, and when that issue is so big to them, they jump onto the bandwagon of candidates who claim to stand for protecting one life over the life of another. Most of these lawmakers will never face the realities or consequence of the laws they make, very much unlike a  woman who is contemplating abortion. I think it’s fair to say that most women don’t make the decision to have an abortion without thinking it through. Yet lawmakers continuously try to determine where their invasion of a woman’s body and conscious should begin and end. They grapple with issues surrounding the pregnancy such as rape and incest in an effort to shape their laws. The abortion of one fetus is acceptable over the abortion of another fetus. They think they know best they say, certainly better than a woman who will deal with the realities of an unwanted pregnancy, however begotten. Of course this is absurd. Women know what’s best for themselves. We don’t need lawmakers making these determinations for us.

If you are a woman who doesn’t believe in abortions, the smartest thing you can do for yourself is to not have one. Even if you don’t believe you’ll ever need an abortion, there is no benefit for a woman to agree to legally remove the option to do so.

I have a close friend who is strongly opposed to abortion. At the age of 17, she selflessly carried her unplanned pregnancy to term and then made the heartbreaking decision to give the child up for adoption.  More than 35 years later, I know she thinks about her child regularly. She is comforted by the reality that she made a huge sacrifice for the benefit of her child. But it was a choice that was not forced upon her. It was a choice she made of her own free will. Because of this choice, she is even more adamantly opposed to abortion. The power of her strength, experience and convictions cannot be ignored. Her experience gives a viable option to other women who are looking for the right solution to their unplanned pregnancies. But I cannot agree with her politics because in doing so, the selfless choice she made would not have been hers, it would have been someone else’s.

Without having a choice, a woman becomes the property of the state, forced to carry and deliver babies with no say in the matter, regardless of her circumstances. When government makes laws about abortion, what they are really doing is stripping away a woman’s ability to make her own decisions. A significant and selfless act such as carrying an unplanned baby to term is reduced to being a law-abiding citizen. My friend made a choice. She was not merely a citizen following the law.

I knew many young girls who faced unexpected pregnancy and chose to have their babies and raise them. These girls were still in high school, one as young as 14. It was epidemic in my high school.

I personally know more women who have had abortions than given babies up for adoption. Most were teenagers still in high school, though some were in college too. Two were terrified of telling their parents, one had been raped on a date, one had been raped by her father, and one found out her baby was malformed (she used drugs recreationally because she didn’t know she was pregnant). There were others who chose abortion because they knew they weren’t ready to have a baby, and their decisions were respected by the important people in their lives, sometimes to their surprise.

All of these girls and women had a big decision to make, with all options on the table. Each made her own choice.

I believe the best way to address the issue of abortion is to provide important information and counseling without judgment or coercion. I believe it is vitally important to make sure that contraception is readily available to all teenage girls and women, regardless of their ability to pay. Their responsibility lies in taking advantage of birth control stop a pregnancy from occurring before they are prepared to deal with it. For those who chose to abstain and subsequently not believe they need birth control, the issue of rape will still remain a threat to their lives, their bodies and unexpected pregnancies.

I believe that the issue of abortion should not be one that divides us, but rather, one that unites us. I don’t advocate for abortions; I’m not pro-abortion. I am, however, pro-choice. My friend who gave up her baby for adoption had a choice. My friends who had abortions did so for their own reasons, and did so safely and by choice. It is not up to me to pass judgment on any of these women. They are my friends regardless of their stance on abortion, regardless of their position on contraception, regardless of the choices they make on any of these issues. I am glad that each one of them is alive and doing well, that they made decisions that did not cost them their dignity, did not cost them their lives and did not cost them a future they didn’t believe was appropriate for themselves.

I believe every woman matters, that every woman should be in charge of her body and responsible for the choices she makes for herself. I do not believe it is appropriate for politicians to grandstand or try to pass laws that diminish the rights of women. I believe that women are fully capable of making their own choices and do not require the interference of government for such personal matters. It’s time for politicians to back off from the issue of abortions and leave women to decide what is best for themselves.

It’s time for politicians to step up and end the discrimination so prevalent in our health insurance. Women should absolutely have access to contraception and abortions in all health insurance plans. Being a woman should not be considered a “pre-existing condition”. I have full confidence that women are fully qualified to make decisions for their own health care. I wish our politicians would give us the respect to make our own choices without trying to use our decisions against us, or to try to pit us against each other. I believe we need to come together as a united front and stand up for our collective rights once and for all.

As for the latest twist on the war against women, where Hilary Rosen stated that Ann Romney “has never worked a day in her life”, I don’t see a war tactic at all. In no way did Hilary’s statement attempt to diminish the rights of women, which is what the real war against women is about. Hilary’s point was simply that a woman who doesn’t work at a job doesn’t have the same life experience as a woman who does, Ann Romney included. This was not an assault on stay at home mothers. All women know that mothers do plenty of work raising their children, whether they work at a job or not.

I hate seeing women being divided and categorized as working mothers and stay at home mothers regarding the term “worker”. Are we really so easily offended because we don’t classify stay at home mothers as workers? A stay at home mother will not find herself dealing with pay discrimination in the workplace, she won’t know what it’s like to lose her job and find herself at the unemployment office. She won’t know what it’s like to be called at work to go pick up a sick child at school and deal with the financial repercussions of doing so if she is paid an hourly wage. She won’t know what it’s like to have her health insurance plan that she personally pays for through her own job exclude her health needs while charging her double for simply being a woman.

Ann Romney has stated several times that women are telling her that they are concerned about jobs, and I assure you they are not going to her for help raising  their children. They’re talking about work – at jobs. It’s not really all that confusing, and taken in the spirit it was given, Hilary Rosen’s statement hold true. Many women do make sacrifices to be with their kids instead of work. I think that’s honorable and I think it’s great if they have the choice. Thirty years ago, not many women had the choice to go to work. Now not many women have the choice to stay at home with their kids. Don’t be offended if you’re a stay at home mother and aren’t classified as a “worker”, and don’t be offended if you have to go to work and can’t be in the PTA.

Women need to stick together right now, to respect the choices we make for ourselves and the language we use to describe the lives we have. Don’t let this GOP strategy be an effective tactic used exclusively for the purpose of dividing us. Hilary Rosen did not insult stay at home mothers by not including them in the work force. The war on women is about real rights being violated, about losing a lot of ground in helping women address their reproductive health, including access to birth control in our health insurance plans and in state funded clinics for low income women. No rights have been violated with Hilary Rosen’s comments, and I respect her honesty and candidness. If we can’t be real with each other about the words we use to define our roles, then how can we address the issues at hand. Let’s keep it real and rise above the manipulative GOP strategy together, united.  Let’s band together and focus on the rights we have already lost or are dangerously close to losing.

I can’t help but wonder, is it possible to have a high-level government election about the financial health of this country including job creation and a strong economy, environmental issues including renewable energy options, and foreign relations WITHOUT fighting to uphold/diminish the rights of our citizens to equally enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? When we can have an election such as this, then I’ll know that we’re truly the land of the free. Clearly we have a ways to go.