Public Employee Press


Other Voices
Jane LaTour
The right-wing offensive to wipe out women's rights

One day after the Iowa caucuses, Republican candidates headed to the less conservative state of New Hampshire and soft-pedaled their hard-line positions on issues important to women.

Before the record they left behind fades into historical obscurity, let's look at their positions on matters of primary concern to women - families, policy issues, economics, equality, and reproductive rights. For candidates who label themselves "pro-life," their record demonstrates a profound indifference to the lives of women and children

For decades, Republicans have been an obstacle to family-friendly policies. That's one of the reasons the United States ranks well behind the rest of the world when it comes to family policies, such as child care and paid family leave. Day care is more expensive than college in 31 states. The United States is one of only three countries to offer no paid maternity leave.

The United States does have one family-friendly policy - the Family and Medical Leave Act. But that's no thanks to the Republicans.

In her book, "Rumors of Our Progress Have Been Greatly Exaggerated," Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney writes about the battle for the FMLA: "Congress had passed the FMLA, but Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush had vetoed it every time." It took President Bill Clinton to sign it into law in 1993.

Despite the Equal Pay Act of 1963, women still earn 72 cents to a man's dollar. One remedy that sought to address pay equity for women was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Yet Senate Republicans killed the proposal at least three times when President George W. Bush was in office. President Barack Obama signed the bill into law nine days after taking office.

Between 2001 and 2007, while President George W. Bush was in office, funding for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which is charged with enforcement of fair hiring, lost 25 percent of its staff, due to funding cuts.

Republicans have a long history of attacking women's reproductive rights. Candidate Marco Rubio has a record of opposing abortion even in cases of incest and rape, though he tried to obfuscate that in New Hampshire. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who dropped out of the race after his dismal showing in New Hampshire, soft-pedaled his rants about Planned Parenthood, which Senate Republicans voted overwhelmingly in December 2015 to defund.

Another chestnut from the Republicans' war against women that has emerged as a campaign issue is the Violence Against Women Act. The GOP fought a long campaign against reauthorization of the act, which is credited with saving the lives of women who are victims of domestic violence. Up in New Hampshire, candidate John Kasich ran an ad that attacked Sen. Rubio for his opposition to its reauthorization.

One last, outrageous example (think Flint, Mich.): In 2012, Congress slashed the funding for anti-lead programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by 93 percent. As columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote in The New York Times, "The continuing poisoning of half a million American children is tolerated partly because the victims often are low-income children of color."

And then there's Donald Trump. But he's not even a real Republican. He's just an old-fashioned misogynist.

Jane LaTour is a former associate editor of Public Employee Press.