A woman who votes for Mitt Romney is not merely voting against her interests.
The fact is that Romney, at every crucial turn, has acted against her health, her safety, her right to equal pay, her family, her role in positions of leadership, and her freedom over her own body.
As Governor, Romney vetoed a bill that would have provided emergency contraception to women who have been raped. Romney vetoed funding for breast cancer detection, prevention and treatment on multiple occasions as Governor--as he did for the prevention, detection and treatment of cervical cancer. Even after being warned against continuing such actions by his own Lieutenant Governor, Kerry Healey, he continued to act against programs for health issues ranging from breast cancer to teen pregnancy.
He has vowed to cut all funds to Planned Parenthood, denying women life-saving screenings for cervical cancer, mammograms, family planning services and other critical and necessary care, impairing their ability to work, and to care for and sustain their own lives and that of their families.
In September, he vowed to replace Supreme Court Justices such as the 79-year old Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg with those who would remove the Constitutional right to abortion. This would place abortion in the hands of each state--making it a potentially criminal act in those that oppose it, and placing the lives of countless women at risk.
He has opposed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which provided a historic basis for women to receive equal pay for equal work. At Bain, he did not appoint a single woman as a partner. As Governor, he had to be forced to appoint women to his Administration by outside women's groups, who had to bring him the infamous "binders of women" in order for him to act.
Even on the basic issue of women's safety, Romney has been remarkably detached, disconnected, out-of-touch. When asked during his first run for President in 2008 about the Violence Against Women Act--he never had heard of it.
The fact that Romney is willing to remove from women basic rights over their health; to exercise control over the often life-changing, life-saving decisions that she must make over her own body; to act against their right to equal pay for the equal work that they perform for their own livelihood and that of their families; to restrict them from positions of leadership that they have worked for, earned, and deserve; and fails to recognize even fundamental issues of safety means that Romney has not and will not act for women's basic rights and needs.
A woman who votes for Romney votes against her health; her rights; her safety; the well-being of herself and her family--and against her freedom. The facts are clear. Make sure that you act, to prevent them from becoming a reality.
