Snap Fact #353 - President Obama Fights Hard for Women’s Rights: The Republicans Think That Women Should Be Subservient to Men

“We, however, affirm the dignity of women by protecting the sanctity of human life. Numerous studies have shown that abortion endangers the health and well-being of women, and we stand firmly against it.”

According to Frank Schaeffer, a former evangelical and author, "The evangelical side of the anti-abortion movement comes from a biblical position of taking the Old and New Testament literally, and one of the threads that run through the Bible, unfortunately, is a thread of misogyny, [that] women are second-class citizens, and this is bled in to the evangelical, religious, pro-life movement."

Of supreme importance is the future direction of the Supreme Court. The Romney/Ryan ticket will doubtlessly pose a threat to the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade ruling. With four justices in their 70s, the next president will get at least one or two Supreme Court nominees. They do not hide their intentions that overturning Roe V. Wade is the major litmus test for the next appointments to the Court.

Whoever wins the White House will hold the fate of a host of other women’s issues in their hands as well. In the past two years alone, there have been nearly 2,000 anti-choice provisions introduced in legislation, exclusively by Republicans. Among other things, Republican lawmakers have attempted to redefine rape, supported a bill that would let hospitals watch a woman die rather than perform a needed abortion, and tried to take away all federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

Vying for the title of the most egregious of all is the above mentioned and now famous vaginal probe forced on women in Virginia and other states. But we think that a bill that South Dakota GOP members attempted pass would have made it legal to murder doctors who provide abortion care. You heard it right, and you should be frightened that the American Taliban is coming to your town with the election of Mitt Romney and all the twisted and disturbed flotsam and jetsam that will wash up in his wake.

With the Republican’s clearly staking out their territory in opposition to women’s rights and woman’s issues in general, President Obama has a consistent record of support for females. Starting with the first bill he signed into law, the Lilly Ledbedder Equal Pay Bill; through his nearly impossible passage of the Affordable Health Care Act (ObamaCare) which did so much to level the playing field for women’s medical care. Every day the President has fought for woman’s rights against those who look at women as a slightly inferior race.

Ladies, who are you going to vote for? Will it be someone who will continue to expand your rights, or someone who thinks of you as a binder? And what about you gentlemen who have a mother, wife, sister, daughter, or granddaughter in your life, are you going to stand with those who believe that women are your equal, or those who agree with the Taliban that women are inferior and need men to tell them what to do?

For years we've seen many Republican legislative attempts to diminish the equality of women under the law. Women's healthcare rights, birth control rights, salary unfairness, the Ryan/Akins bill defining "legitimate rape", the Blunt Amendment which lets the employer "opt out" from providing preventative services for women, and much more. In today's Republican Party a candidate's position on abortion plays a major role in whether or not he or she will win the party's nomination. Short of forcing women to wear a hijab (Muslim women’s head covering) there is little to separate the views of the Taliban and the archaic views of the farthest right Republicans when it comes to their regard for woman and their place in their world.

The trademarked Republican disdain for women is written large across the landscape of America. In Virginia a woman seeking an abortion must submit to a vaginal ultrasound, and pay for it herself to boot. Virginia does not stand alone in this disgraceful spot. At least 20 other Republican controlled states have similar laws in place with 7 more on the way.

Individual Republican office holders, as well as talking heads such as Rush Limbaugh, pay an almost daily tribute to their disdain for women. There are so many recent examples that we could fill the page with them. Rush Limbaugh’s defaming of Sandra Fluke and Representative Atkins remarks about “legitimate rape” will serve as two chilling reminders of what is in the mindset of these men. It is doubly telling that there is almost never any sincere rebuke from Mr. Romney.

Take Tea Party favorite Allen West (please!). This man is a serial misogynist who proclaims that women must be subservient to men. Only a week ago a revealing letter was released, written to his wife giving her explicit and unyielding sexual marching orders to perform acts which were obviously uncomfortable for her – or else.

Below is a 30 second YouTube video of Representative West speaking at a Women Impacting Nation meeting, encouraging women to stand strong because they are essential to having a country of strong American men http://youtu.be/rUCnvIN6E5Y

Obviously, you will not find the phrase "woman subservience" explicitly stated in the Republican Platform … but the document is riddled with not so subtle hints about the Party’s true feelings for the fair sex.

Surprised? Don't be. Let’s take the example on pages 33 and 34 wherein the framers arrogantly justify that they, not individual women, know better and should have control of the most intimate decisions about a woman’s own health choices:

“Through ObamaCare, the current Administration has promoted the notion of abortion as healthcare.”