“The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” –Amendment XIX
The observance of Women’s Equality Day not only commemorates the passage of the 19th Amendment, but also calls attention to women’s continuing efforts toward full equality. At the behest of Rep. Bella Abzug (D-NY), in 1971 the U.S. Congress designated August 26 as “Women’s Equality Day.” The date was selected to commemorate the 1920 passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, granting women the right to vote. This was the culmination of a massive, peaceful civil rights movement by women that had its formal beginnings in 1848 at the world’s first women’s rights convention, in Seneca Falls, New York (NWHP)
Ninety-three years after the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, and women are still fighting for equality. Examples of the recent attacks have been spotlighted in ATD’s War on Women Series. Make no mistake about it, the WAR on WOMEN is REAL, despite the GOP’s claim that it is merely trumped up media hype.
In an interview with Bloomberg TV, RNC chairman Reince Priebus claimed the so-called “war on women” is a fiction created as the media is on par with claiming there is a “war on caterpillars.”
“Now if the Democrats said we had a war on caterpillars,” Priebus told Hunt, “then every mainstream media outlet talked about the fact that Republicans have a war on caterpillars, so then we’d have a problem with caterpillars. I mean, the fact of the matter is it’s a fiction.” (Mediaite)
Move On complied the Top 10 MOST SHOCKING attacks from the GOP’s War on Women:
1) Republicans not only want to reduce women’s access to abortion care, they’re actually trying to redefine rape. After a major backlash, they promised to stop. But they haven’t yet. Shocker.
2) A state legislator in Georgia wants to change the legal term for victims of rape, stalking, and domestic violence to “accuser.” But victims of other less gendered crimes, like burglary, would remain “victims.”
3) In South Dakota, Republicans proposed a bill that could make it legal to murder a doctor who provides abortion care. (Yep, for real.)
4) Republicans want to cut nearly a billion dollars of food and other aid to low-income pregnant women, mothers, babies, and kids.
5) In Congress, Republicans have a bill that would let hospitals allow a woman to die rather than perform an abortion necessary to save her life.
6) Maryland Republicans ended all county money for a low-income kids’ preschool program. Why? No need, they said. Women should really be home with the kids, not out working.
7) And at the federal level, Republicans want to cut that same program, Head Start, by $1 billion. That means over 200,000 kids could lose their spots in preschool.
8) Two-thirds of the elderly poor are women, and Republicans are taking aim at them too. A spending bill would cut funding for employment services, meals, and housing for senior citizens.
9) Congress just voted for a Republican amendment to cut all federal funding from Planned Parenthood health centers, one of the most trusted providers of basic health care and family planning in our country.
10) And if that wasn’t enough, Republicans are pushing to eliminate all funds for the only federal family planning program. (For humans. But Republican Dan Burton has a bill to provide contraception for wild horses. You can’t make this stuff up).
I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts. J.Locke
The battles continues as the war rages on.
The voices of WOMEN must be heard.
Speak out.