MsRepresentation Weekly Brief: August 2-August 8, 2012
Back to School Sale on Pregnancy Tests
A charter school in Louisiana is now forcing girls to take a new kind of test. Under their new policy, girls are required to take pregnancy tests if they are suspected of being pregnant. Any student who is pregnant will be forced to go on home study. Don’t want to take the test? No problem, they’ll just assume the worst and kick you out anyway. Oh also, they get to pick your doctor. MsRep is giving the Delhi Charter School a big, fat F.
High Fives All Around
Some congrats are in order! First of all, props to WCF-endorsed candidate Representative Stacey Newman for winning the seat to represent Missouri’s 87th District by ONE FREAKIN’ VOTE! And let’s not forget about WCF-endorsed candidates Laura Ruderman and Crystal Williams for running great races even though they didn’t advance in the elections for Washington’s 1st Congressional District and Missouri’s Senate, respectively. All of these races show how important it is for you to get to the polls...and while you’re at it, whip out your purse!
More Good News
And give it up for State Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who was the first Muslim woman to be elected to the Michigan legislature back in 2008 and won the primary for the 6th District in Michigan’s House of Representatives last night. MsRep is always less than thrilled when two rock star women candidates have to duke it out, but Rashida’s always been a go-getter that won’t let her constituents down. Bonus: she’s ok saying the word vagina.
Hacking into Women’s Rights
Last week, a cyber-security(?!?) bill failed to pass in the U.S. Senate when some members offered amendments repealing the Affordable Care Act and banning abortion in D.C. after 20 weeks. Senator Joe Lieberman decried the bill as "yet another vehicle for partisan ideological shots at one another." Bah, who uses the Internet anyway?
Not Achin' for Akin
In Missouri, WCF woman-in-office U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill has been facing extreme negative advertising from PACs, depicting her as “bloated, sometimes goofy, sometimes exhausted.” Meanwhile, her GOP opponent, Todd Akin, has been leading the charge to strip federal Title X funding from Planned Parenthood, and aggressively supported a measure to undermine a woman’s right to purchase private health insurance plans that cover abortion care. If Akin beats McCaskill in the upcoming election, MsRep thinks everyone will be pretty Missouri-able.
He’s the PITTS
In the ongoing battle to defund Planned Parenthood, North Carolina State Representative Larry Pittman claimed the organization was “bloody, indecent, [and] immoral.” You know what’s indecent? Not letting women make informed, independent decisions about health, sex, and family planning. You know what’s immoral? Shutting down an organization that provides life saving health screenings. Want to get rid of the Pitt-falls of this state? Check out some exceptional women running for office in North Carolina, including Patsy, Janet, Elaine, and Deborah.
Gushing over Gillibrand
WCF woman-in-office U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand held a fundraiser last week asking her donors not to support her reelection campaign. Instead, Gillibrand asked supporters to funnel more money into getting more women in office. As the Senator put it, “If we had 50% of women in Congress, we would not be debating contraception. We would be debating the economy, small business, jobs, national security — everything but.” AMEN.
Starry-Eyed
After getting endorsed last week by President Bill Clinton, WCF-endorsed candidate Tarryl Clark was endorsed last week by the Star Tribune, one of Minnesota’s largest papers, in her bid for the 6th Congressional District. The paper said, “Clark alone has shown that she can operate effectively in today’s rough-and-tumble partisan lawmaking environment.” MsRep is no astrologist, but she thinks the stars are aligning for Clark.
If at First You Don’t Succeed…
MsRep was a little surprised to learn that 2010 was the “Year of the Woman.” Don’t get us wrong, it’s nice to see both Democrats and Republicans cheering the fact that more women were running for office than ever before. But here’s the funny thing…in 2010 women actually lost seats in Congress. So you can understand if MsRep is a little skeptical when she hears 2012 bandied about as the Year of the Woman Seriously We Mean It This Time. Want to make 2012 a banner year for women? Then vote with your friggin’ purse.
Liar, Liar
As MsRep mentioned last week, Texas is proposing a new rule that would prohibit doctors in the Women’s Health Program from even discussing abortions with their patients. This week, five groups of over 47,000 physicians and medical students wrote a letter to the Texas Department of State Health Services saying the rule would “jeopardize medical ethics and doctors’ relationships with their patients.” Ya THINK?!?
What’s Black and White and Read Four Times Over?
MsRep extends her congratulations to WCF-endorsed candidate Elizabeth Esty for winning the endorsements of not one, not two, not three, but FOUR newspapers! The New York Times, The Hartford Courant, the Danbury-News-Times, and The Register Citizen all selected Esty as their Democrat of choice in the race for Connecticut's 5th Congressional District, and two even called for her opponent, Chris Donovan, to pull out of the race following a scandal. Esty has had a handful of very vocal detractors, but maybe this will shut them up.
No Signs of Slowing Down for Sutton
WCF-endorsed Congresswoman Betty Sutton is leading a tight race against anti-choice Congressman Jim Renacci, holding on to a 42 to 40 percent lead. The race for Ohio's 16th Congressional District is (Sutt)ON!
Violence Against (Some) Women Act
Senator Bill Grassley (R-Iowa) and Senator Patty Murray (D-Washington) butted heads on the Senate floor last week over the inclusion of LGBT and immigrant women in the Violence Against Women Act. Senator Grassley stormed out in the middle of Senator Murray’s remarks, citing the inclusion of these women in the bill as “political.” Political? Grassley, I think you mispronounced “common sense.”
Reason to ReJoyce!
WCF-endorsed candidate Joyce Healy-Abrams, who is campaigning to represent Ohio’s 7th Congressional District, has been endorsed by the National Farmers Union and the Ohio Education Association. She’s always been such a B.A.!
Winning Gold Isn’t Ladylike
In an article about U.S. Olympic gold medalists in Judo, Andrew Brown questioned whether the sport was “wholesome” since the women show “pure, fierce... aggression,” and compared it to “two drunken women bashing” each other outside of a bar. Don’t you hate it when those silly girls think they can do the same things as men…like vote and play sports? Speaking of sports…
Blowing the Whistle on Sexism
Tomorrow, for the first time in NFL history, a woman will be on the field refereeing the game. NFL, your call for forward progress is very audible, and MsRep is glad you went for this touchdown instead of sitting on the sidelines. Ohh, snap! …Okay. We’re done.
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