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War on Women is an expression in United States politics used to describe certain Republican Party policies and legislation as a wide-scale effort to restrict women's rights, especially reproductive rights.[1][2][3][4] Prominent Democrats such as Nancy Pelosi[5] and Barbara Boxer,[6] as well as feminists, have used the phrase to criticize proponents of these laws as trying to force their social views on women through legislation.[7][8][9][10] The expression is used to describe Republican policies in areas such as access to reproductive health services, particularly birth control and abortion services; the prosecution of criminal violence against women; the definition of rape for the purpose of the public funding of abortion;[11][12] and workplace discrimination against women.[13][14][15][16]
While used in other contexts, and prior to 2010,[17][18] it became a common message in American political discourse after the Planned Parenthood, in attempts to restrict abortion subsidies. Other areas in dispute include public funding and/or mandatory employer insurance coverage of such matters as contraception and sterilization.
The phrase and the concept have been criticized by Republicans and some pro-life Democrats.[21] Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus described it as an over-simplified fiction advanced by Democrats and the media[22][23] while other Republicans contended that such rhetoric was used as a distraction from President Barack Obama and the Democrats' handling of the economy.[24][25][26] In August 2012, Todd Akin's controversial comments regarding pregnancy and rape sparked renewed media focus on the concept.[27][28][29] Republicans have tried to turn the phrase against Democrats by using it to argue hypocrisy for not critiquing sex scandals of members within their Party, who have cheated, sexted, and harassed women; and for not supporting bills to combat sex-selective abortion.[30][31][32][33]
In 1989, radical feminist Andrea Dworkin[34] wrote in a book introduction about "war on women"[35] and, in 1997, she collected that and other writings in Life and Death, for which the subtitle was Unapologetic Writings on the Continuing War Against Women.[36] Feminist Susan Faludi's 1991 book Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women, argued that throughout the 1980s the media created a "backlash" against the feminist advances of the 1970s.[17] Former Republican political consultant Tanya Melich's 1996 memoir, The Republican War Against Women: An Insider's Report from Behind the Lines, describes the incorporation of the pro-life movement and opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment by Republicans as a divergence from feminist causes.[18]
PolitiFact's "Truth-O-Meter" documented how "conservative, libertarian, free market and pro-family writers" on WesternJournalism.com tried to blame Democrats for waging a war on women: "Florida Democrats just voted to impose Sharia law on women." PolitiFact called the claim "ridiculous -- beyond ridiculous" and rated the claim "Pants on Fire".[159]
Jonathan Alter characterized the phrase as an "alliteratve but unfair notion".[158]
The messaging from Republicans was described as unlikely to be effective by Garance Franke-Ruta in The Atlantic because "[the War on Women] was an argument about Republican policies on women ... rather than about reprehensible individual behavior." Noting that many of the targets are not on upcoming ballots, Franke-Ruta continued by saying the Republican Party "is going to need its own pro-active framework for thinking about what is happening in America and why women have been drawn to Democrats in numbers that matter in key elections."[19]
Members of the Democratic Party, both prominent and local, have been accused of participating in the war on women. In a column for USA Today, Glenn Reynolds wrote in July 2013 that "most of the action in the war on women seems to be coming from the Democratic front," referring to the allegations of sexual harassment against San Diego mayor Bob Filner, the Anthony Weiner sexting scandal, and the Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal.[155] The Republican National Senatorial Committee has also used these scandals in press releases, tying Democratic Senators in Iowa and New Hampshire to the allegations.[156][157]
Reacting to abortion restrictions in Texas Senate Bill Five, Democratic State Senator Wendy Davis created a 13 hour filibuster to successfully block its passage before a legislative deadline in June 2013.[153] It was estimated that up to 5,000 people came to the Texas capitol in order to stop the bill.[154] Texas Governor Rick Perry called another session of the state senate in July and the bill passed by a vote of 19 to 11 and was signed into law by Perry.[1]
Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski countered the criticism from her fellow party members, challenging them to "go home and talk to your wife and your daughters" if they did not think there was a war on women, saying "It makes no sense to make this attack on women."[3]
Senator John McCain, when asked by journalist David Gregory if there was a Republican War on Women, said "I think that there is a perception out there because of how this whole contraception issue played out — ah, we need to get off of that issue, in my view."[152]
Critics of the term have said that the War on Women does not exist and some have suggested that it is a ploy to influence women voters. Reince Priebus, the Chairman of the RNC, referred to the War as a "fiction", saying "If the Democrats said we had a war on caterpillars and every mainstream media outlet talked about the fact that Republicans have a war on caterpillars, then we'd have problems with caterpillars."[147][148][149] Republican Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers called the war a myth, saying "It's an effort to drive a political wedge in an election year." Referring to the 2010 elections and Nancy Pelosi, she said that "It could be argued that the women actually unelected the first woman Speaker of the House."[150] Republican Representative Paul Ryan mocked the idea of a Republican War on Women, saying "Now it's a war on women; tomorrow it's going to be a war on left-handed Irishmen or something like that."[151]
A May 2012 Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that 31 percent of women and 28 percent of men believed there was an ongoing and wide-scale effort to "limit women's reproductive health choices and services".[2][146] 45 percent of women and 44 percent of men responded that some groups would like to limit these choices and services, but it's not wide‐scale.[146] Democrats were more likely than Republicans to say there is a movement, but the largest gap was between liberal and conservative ideologies.[146] Among those women believing these efforts to be wide-scale, 75 percent saw this as "a bad thing" against 16 percent who saw this as "a good thing".[146] In the same poll, 42 percent of women and men have said they have taken some action in response to what they heard regarding reproductive health issues.[2][146]
In April 2012, Governor Scott Walker's repeal of Wisconsin's Equal Pay Enforcement Act was described by opponents as furthering the "War on Women", which became a big issue in his recall election.[140] The Equal Pay Enforcement Act was passed in 2009 in response to the large gap between the wages of men and women in Wisconsin. Among other provisions, it allowed workplace discrimination victims redress in the less costly and more accessible state court system, rather than in federal court.[141][142] Defending the repeal, Walker stated that the Act had essentially been nothing but a boon for trial lawyers, incentivizing them to sue job creators, including female business owners, and that the law was being used to clog up the legal system in his state.[143] While it is still illegal in Wisconsin to pay women less on the basis of their sex,[143] the repeal was criticized for reinforcing the gender pay gap, a recurrent theme in the struggle for women's rights. Republican State Senator Glenn Grothman said of the repeal, "You could argue that money is more important for men. I think a guy in their first job, maybe because they expect to be a breadwinner someday, may be a little more money-conscious."[144] Law student Sandra Fluke, criticized Grothman's comment, highlighting legislation that supports equal pay for equal work, such as the federal Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009.[145]
In February 2011, Ms. magazine charged House Republicans with launching a new "War on Women" for their proposal to cut the WIC budget by 10%.[137][138] The WIC program, which President Barack Obama has called a spending priority, is a federal assistance program for low-income pregnant women, breastfeeding women, and infants and children under the age of five. The program had been running a surplus, primarily due to decreases in the cost of milk, which make up 20% of WIC expenditures, and lower participation than expected.[138] WIC's budget was later cut by 5.2% as part of the bipartisan budget sequestration in 2013.[138][139]
The renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, which provides for community violence prevention programs and battered women's shelters, was fiercely opposed by conservative Republicans in 2012.[14] The Act was originally passed in 1994 and has been reauthorized by Congress twice.[133][134] Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell, who has previously voted against renewal of the Act, said the bill was a distraction from a small business bill.[135] However, in 2013 a strengthened version of the act was passed by Congress with bipartisan support.[136]
Columnist [132]
Other Republican candidates in the 2012 election also created controversy with their comments on rape.[126] Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock, when discussing his opposition to exceptions on abortion bans in cases of rape, said, "I think even if life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen."[127][128] Tom Smith, the Senate candidate in Pennsylvania, compared pregnancy from rape to pregnancy out of wedlock.[129] Akin, Mourdock, and Smith all lost their races due to backlash from women voters.[130]
There were multiple calls from Republicans for Akin to step down as nominee. The Washington Post reported a "stampede" of Republicans dissociating from Akin. NRSC chairman John Cornyn said the GOP would no longer provide him Senate election funding.[122] A campaign spokesman for Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan said both disagreed with Akin's position and would not oppose abortion in instances of rape. Ryan reportedly called Akin to advise him to step aside.[123] RNC Chairman Reince Priebus warned Akin not to attend the upcoming 2012 Republican convention and said he should resign the nomination. He described Akin's comments as "biologically stupid" and "bizarre" and said that "This is not mainstream talk that he's referring to and his descriptions of whatever an illegitimate rape is."[124][125]
Unsuccessful Missouri Republican candidate to the U.S. Senate Todd Akin made controversial comments in August 2012 asserting (falsely[116][117][118][119]) that women who are victims of "legitimate rape" rarely experience pregnancy from rape.[27] While he issued an apology for his comments, they were widely criticized, and they sparked a renewed focus on Republican attitudes towards women[8][28][29][120] and "shift[ed] the national discussion to divisive social issues that could repel swing voters rather than economic issues that could attract them".[121]
In 2014, Michigan law prohibited all public and most private insurers from covering abortions including in cases of rape and incest.[114] It requires women to buy separate insurance and has been called "rape insurance" by opponents because of the possibility that a women will need to have separate insurance for an abortion resulting from rape.[114][115]
In January 2011, the Emily's List charged that this constituted a Republican attempt to "redefine rape".[111][112][113]
The [9] saying that the House of Representatives planned to "cut ... international family planning assistance.... [to] include the elimination of all U.S. funds designated for UNFPA"[9] (now known as the United Nations Population Fund).
[110] Several top-level staff members resigned from Komen during the controversy.[109] Four days later, Komen's Board of Directors reversed the decision and announced that it would amend the policy to "make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political".[108] On January 31, 2012, breast cancer organization
[107] A 2011 Kansas statute cut funding to Planned Parenthood.[106] as a tactical arm of Planned Parenthood.Girl Scouts of the USA Indiana Representative Bob Morris later referred to the [105] The Indiana legislature passed a bill restricting Medicaid funds for Planned Parenthood.[104] The future of the Women's Health Program in Texas, which receives 90% of its funding from the federal government, is unclear.[103] to criticize the Republican Party after War on Women Several Democrats used the phrase
In February 2012, Republican Congressman [100] Nancy Pelosi circulated a petition and asked that Republicans in the House of Representatives disavow the comments by Friess and Limbaugh, which she called "vicious and inappropriate".[101]
On January 20, 2012, Health and Human Services' Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced a mandate requiring that all health plans provide coverage for all contraceptives approved by the FDA as part of preventive health services for women.[93] Following complaints from Catholic bishops, an exception was created for religious institutions whereby an employee of a religious institution that does not wish to provide reproductive health care can seek it directly from the insurance company at no additional cost.[94] Missouri Senator Roy Blunt proposed an amendment (the Blunt Amendment) that would have "allowed employers to refuse to include contraception in health care coverage if it violated their religious or moral beliefs",[95] but it was voted down 51-48 by the U.S. Senate on March 1, 2012.[96] A bill passed by the Arizona House would allow employers to exclude medication used for contraceptive purposes from their health insurance plans.[15][16]
In April 2012, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed into law a bill requiring doctors who prescribe the medical abortion pill to have three meetings with patients or be subject to felony charges. Planned Parenthood suspended non-surgical abortions in the state.[92]
A Kansas bill passed March 2012 requires doctors to warn women seeking abortions that they are linked to breast cancer,[90] a claim that has been refuted by the medical community.[91]
Several state legislatures have passed or are considering legislation to prevent parents from suing doctors who fail to warn them of fetal problems, which are sometimes known as wrongful birth lawsuits. Some of the laws, such as one proposed in Arizona, make exceptions for "intentional or grossly negligent acts", while others do not.[87][88][89]
In February 2011, South Dakota state legislators considered a bill that would expand that state's definition of justifiable homicide to include killings committed by a party other than a pregnant woman for the purpose of preventing harm to a fetus, a measure interpreted by critics as allowing the killing of abortion providers.[85] Similar legislation was considered in Iowa.[86]
Since the mid-1990s, the regulatory burden on abortion providers has increased.[83] TRAP laws (Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers) have been passed in numerous states.[84]
In 2011, voters in Mississippi rejected Initiative 26, a measure that would have declared that human life begins at fertilization, which had drawn support from conservative Republicans and Democrats. Critics of the initiative indicated that the law would have made abortion illegal even in cases where the mother's life is in danger.[82]
[81] have proposed so-called "heartbeat bills" that would prohibit abortions when the heartbeat of the fetus can be detected. Fetal heartbeats can be detected as early as six weeks into a pregnancy.Ohio States such as [80] In 2013, Idaho's ban was struck down as unconstitutional by a federal judge.[79] have passed such bills; unlike Arizona, the gestational age in these states is calculated from fertilization (20 weeks post-fertilization-which means 22 weeks LMP).[78] and Oklahoma,[77] Idaho[76] Indiana,[75] In April 2012,
In June 2013, Representative incest, has been referred to as the "women as livestock bill" by opponents[69] after Representative Terry England made a comparison between women seeking abortions for stillborn fetuses to delivering calves and pigs on a farm.[70]
Virginia State legislators passed a bill in 2012 requiring women to have an ultrasound before having an abortion.[60] The legislation, signed by Governor Bob McDonnell, would require that the provider of an abortion make a copy of the fetal image and include it in the file of the patient.[61] In Louisiana, where pregnant women are already required to view ultrasounds of their fetuses before receiving an abortion, lawmakers proposed a bill that would require them to listen to the embryonic/fetal heartbeat as well.[62] Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett drew criticism when he said of his state's new mandatory transvaginal ultrasound law that "You can't make anybody watch, okay? Because you just have to close your eyes. As long as it's on the exterior and not the interior."[63]
In 2011 and 2012, "War on Women" was used to describe the legislation passed by many states requiring that women seeking abortions first undergo government-mandated ultrasounds.[53] Some states require that women view the image of the fetus and others require that women be offered the opportunity to listen to the fetal heartbeat. Since many women's pregnancies are not far enough along to get an image via a traditional ultrasound, transvaginal ultrasounds, which involve the physician inserting a probe into the woman's vagina, may be required, but these requirements vary state to state.[54][55] Critics have questioned the value of having a medically unnecessary procedure, and characterized it as similar to some states' legal definition of rape.[56] Writer Megan Carpentier underwent the procedure and indicated that although it was not comparable to being raped, the process was "uncomfortable to the point of being painful, emotionally triggering... and something that no government should force its citizens to undergo to make a political point."[57][58] However, in an article critical of the assumptions of those on both sides of the issue, sociologist Tracy Weitz, who opposes mandatory ultrasound, notes that "the use of trans-vaginal ultrasounds is routine among abortion providers."[59]
Many states have adopted model legislation written by Americans United for Life, a pro-life advocacy group.[50][51] In June 2011, Charmaine Yoest and Denise M. Burke of Americans United, acknowledged the expression in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, writing that "Indiana is being threatened with the loss of federal funding for health care and being held up to scorn as having 'declared war on women.'"[52]
Democratic strategist Zerlina Maxwell wrote an editorial for U.S. News & World Report in which she cited a Guttmacher Institute analysis showing state legislatures enacted 135 pieces of legislation affecting women's reproductive rights as evidence that the "Republican 'War on Women' is no fiction."[10] The analysis found that between 2000 and 2011, the number of states hostile to abortion rights have increased markedly, and that in 2011 there was an unprecedented rise in the number of provisions passed by state legislatures restricting abortion.[47]
The "War on Women" expression was used often when describing the unprecedented rise in the passage of provisions related to women's health and reproductive rights in 2011 and 2012.[45][46] In 2011, state legislatures across the United States introduced over 1100 provisions related to women's health and reproductive rights,[45][48] and in the first quarter of 2012 an additional 944 provisions were introduced in state legislatures, half of which would restrict access to abortion. Legislation has focused on mandatory ultrasounds, narrowing the time when abortions may be performed and limiting insurance coverage of abortion.[46][49]
In the 2010 midterm elections, the Republican Party won the majority in the House of Representatives. On January 4, 2011, the day after Congress convened, Kaili Joy Gray of the liberal Daily Kos wrote an opinion piece titled "The Coming War on Women".[42] In the article, she outlined many of the measures that Republicans intended to push through the House of Representatives, including personhood laws, fetal pain laws, and the effort to defund Planned Parenthood.[42] In February 2011, an AlterNet article by Sarah Seltzer and Lauren Kelley entitled "9 New laws in the GOP's War on Women" [43] began to document state-level legislation restricting abortion access and rights. That same month, New York Representative Jerrold Nadler referred to the proposed No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, one of the Congress's first actions and one that would have changed policy to allow only victims of "forcible rape" or child sex abuse to qualify for Medicaid funding for abortion, as "an entirely new front in the war on women and their families".[44] Florida Representative and Chair of the Democratic National Committee Debbie Wasserman Schultz began using the term "War on Women" in March 2011.[11]
[41][40]
Second-wave feminism, Women's suffrage, Feminist theory, Women's rights, Third-wave feminism
Gender studies, Feminism, Psychoanalysis, Women's studies, Patriarchy
Gender identity, Feminism, Transgender, Sociology, Feminist theory
Men's health, Abortion, Birth control, Maternal health, Menopause
Discrimination, Cultural assimilation, Multiculturalism, Misandry, Human rights
Feminism, Women's suffrage, Second-wave feminism, Feminist theory, Feminist movement
Feminism, Feminist theory, Gender studies, Girl, Second-wave feminism
Feminism, Feminist theory, Gender studies, Feminist movements and ideologies, Girl