"The data is brutal: the GOP has a real birth control problem"

[applegrove]

The data is brutal: the GOP has a real birth control problem

by Kos at the Daily Kos

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/07/01/1310961/-The-GOP-s-2014-birth-control-problem

"SNIP......................


You see, sex needs to have "consequences," and birth control gets in the way of punishing sluts with babies. The good news is that these views are as obsolete as the Neanderthals, and far outside the American mainstream. Indeed, a May 2014 Gallup poll found that 90 percent of Americans found birth control to be "morally acceptable". NINETY! That's one hell of a fringe that Erickson and the Hobby Lobby crowd finds itself in.
By a 2-1 margin, Americans support the contraceptive mandate in the Affordable Care Act, including 60 percent of independents and 78 percent of Democrats. Even among Republicans, just 56 percent oppose.

And like pretty much every other social issue today, age plays a huge role. Among 18-34-year-olds, 81 percent of women support it. Among seniors, just 51 percent do. And who do Democrats have a hard time turning out in midterms? Single, predominantly young women. Just look at that consistent midterm falloff in single women voter turnout:

......

So we have an issue that galvanizes an ill-performing Democratic-base—single women. But that's not all. A plurality of REPUBLICAN women (46-45) also support the contraceptive mandate. That's the reason that Democrats have cut into Republican support among white women. White women supported Republicans by a 51-36 in 2010. The latest polling has it 45-44 GOP, a massive 14-point swing. And that was before this Supreme Court decision. The War on Women has repercussions for Republicans.



......................SNIP"

[winter is coming]

1. Women know, far better than GOP idealogues, how much birth control means to them,

and I'm not just talking about contraception.

[BrotherIvan]

2. The War on Women has repercussions

It better. If young women don't want to join a cult and have babies until they drop, they better mosey on down to the polls and get active. Because that's what the right wants, creepy purity balls and all.

[freshwest]

3. Wait until young women (and men) hear what their real agenda is:

The First Feminist President, Barack Obama

by Mandy Van Deven

March 23, 2009



On January 20th the first self-identified feminist was named President of the United States of America. Just two days after taking office, Barack Obama performed his first presidential act of solidarity with women around the world by repealing the Global Gag Rule. Established in 1984 by President Reagan, the Global Gag Rule denies aid to international groups "which perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning."

The Global Gag Rule has come to be seen as a litmus test of the current US President's stance on women's rights, though it is just one aspect of the complicated story of the impact of American reproductive rights policy in countries around the globe. [17]



After witnessing the impact of President Bush's reinstatement of the Global Gag Rule, Michelle Goldberg, journalist, author, and long-time critic of the Bush Administration's policies on sexual and reproductive health, decided that a book about the global battle for reproductive justice was long overdue. So she wrote The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power, and the Future of the World. [17]

The cover art depicting a woman holding the Earth on her shoulders is more than appropriate for this deeply-researched, historically-informed examination: fifty years worth of research about four continents has convinced Goldberg that women's oppression is at the crux of many of the world's most intractable challenges. She illustrates how US policies act as a catalyst for or an impediment to women's rights worldwide, and puts forth a convincing argument that women's liberation worldwide is key to solving some of our most daunting problems.

"Underlying diverse conflicts - demography, natural resources, human rights, and religious mores - is the question of who controls the means of reproduction," she writes. "Women's intimate lives have become inextricably tied to global forces."

http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2009/03/23/controlling-means-reproduction-an-interview-with-michelle-goldberg/

The war on women is not just a war on women, but on men, too. Men who don't support women's rights are sealing their own fate.

Not just an American problem. It is about global control and reducing all of mankind to commodities.

[BootinUp]

20. Great interview you linked to there, thanks.

[SidDithers]

21. Really good post...

Sid

[BlancheSplanchnik]

22. great post, as always, fresh.

I'll have to read it in depth tomorrow.....I'm ready for sleepyland now.

[Tarheel_Dem]

27. +1. Excellent!

[herding cats]

32. Excellent post! nt

[Warren DeMontague]

4. The GOP base basically wants to overturn Griswold and outlaw all acts of non-procreative sex.

To say they're out of step with the majority of Americans, is an understatement, to say the least.

[leftstreet]

5. They want more white babies

You don't find anti abortion whackos protesting clinics in impoverished minority areas

White 'middle' class women aren't cranking out enough babies for the evangelicals, so they're freaking out

[Warren DeMontague]

6. That hasn't been my experience. I've seen them protesting in poor inner city areas, for instance.

I really think it is mostly about controlling what other people do- that's what some people live for... That authoritarian, control freak rush.

The irony is that these restrictions on choice invariably fall on and impact the poorest people and those in the most dire straits already. Even before Roe the privileged generally had far more options than those in poor and minority communities.

[leftstreet]

7. Really. That's unusual

Interesting

[Warren DeMontague]

9. If you google "planned parenthood in poor neighborhoods", you'll see it is something of an obsession

With certain corners of the anti-choice movement.

[leftstreet]

11. We might have different definitions of 'impoverished'

You're probably referring to working class (still called middle class) white areas, whereas I specifically meant impoverished minority areas

[Warren DeMontague]

14. No, I'm not.

And like I said, the simple reality is that in terms of facts on the ground, restrictions on choice have always disproportionately impacted impoverished and minority communities, much as the drug war does.

[Hekate]

12. I guess you haven't heard the "abortionists want genocide for black babies" lie, or the ...

... or the "eugenics" lie.

It's all out there and has been for ages. Anti-choice policy/theology is all about control of women's bodies and "dirty" unauthorized sexual behavior, and it really does not matter the color of the woman.

[leftstreet]

15. It's actually about class

But I understand the point you're making

[Warren DeMontague]

16. Agreed. That's why i suggested they do a quick google search.

I mean, I'm sure there are racist aryan nations asshats in the anti-choice movement, but en masse i dont think that is what is driving the rhetoric.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

24. a friend of mine (black, liberal, male) and I had a conversation

With a black, kind of conservative, male who totally thought Planned Parenthood was trying to wipe out the black race, because he thought they "focus operations in poor, black communities".

Yet he didn't have any insight into what lack of women's health care, sex-education, reliable, non-judgmental medical help, and resulting forced pregnancies do to young black women, trapping families in the poverty cycle. It stunned me how he had NO insight into the female experience--the LONG-TERM DEVASTATION to a girl's life when she is enslaved to her reproductive functions.

He had no awareness or respect for black women and girls who might want to have a say in what happens to them and the kids they raise! Stunned me, the selective thinking.

[Hekate]

26. It is stunning, isn't it? nt

[ancianita]

18. I've thought this for years.

[Hekate]

8. If Democratic candidates fail to run on this issue this year they are blind fools...

... and much as I hate to say it, deserve to lose.

[winter is coming]

10. +1. GOP politicians are more conservative on social issues than most of their base.

It's a huge opportunity for us.

Wouldn't it be ironic if this turd of a decision helped us regain control of the House?

[Warren DeMontague]

13. They need to put this crap about "all powerful values voters" to bed for good, first off.

Unfortunately the Shrum-esque pandering noises from certain corners of our party lately don't give me a ton of hope.

One would think they've noticed by now that every time one of these pulpit-thumping asshats opens their mouth about the real agenda, they lose big.

[Marrah_G]

17. The Dem party needs to find some excellent social media marketing companies

That is how kids view the world now. If you want to reach them you have to go through social media in circles/sites/pages they frequent.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

25. Obama campaign team was very social media savvy....

Would be good if they were engaged for the mid-term fights.

[Marrah_G]

30. Absolutely

[ThoughtCriminal]

19. Candidates need to be put on record

Voters need to know where they stand. No hiding, no two-face pandering to the extreme fundy base and then ducking in the general election.

[jtuck004]

23. 233 of them in Congress, to be specific. n/t

[Puzzledtraveller]

28. They never had this demo anyway.

[Baitball Blogger]

29. How many minority women does Hobby Lobby hire?

If they are hiring disproportionately more white employees, then I can see how they can kill two birds with one stone.

[BadGimp]

31. very astute obversation

And an even more astute suggestion...

MIDTERMS MATTER and rhe Democratic Party needs to WIN this next one.