America is involved in many wars: There’s the war on poverty. Over the last forty years the US spent trillions of dollars to combat poverty but according to the most recent census in 2011, there are 46.2 million people living under the poverty line. Heartbreaking. Then we have the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that continue to cost American military personnel and innocent civilians their lives, billions of our tax dollars (ballooning our national debt) and rob us of our much-needed resources that could be better put to use here in our backyards. Infuriating. Then let’s not forget the war on drugs. The US spends billions of dollars on programs pushing prevention measures and yet we still have an epidemic of prescription drug abuse sweeping the nation (as well as other illegal recreational drugs), people driving under the influence killing pedestrians and fellow drivers, and racial and ethnic minorities taking the biggest hit with 60% of the incarcerated for drug offenses being people of color- with people of color 10 times more likely to be incarcerated for drug infractions than their white counterparts. Disgraceful. Lets not forget unofficial but very real war on Gay Marriage. Right now, same-sex marriage is only legal in the District of Columbia and six states: Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, Iowa, New Hampshire and New York. Civil unions are legal in New Jersey, Illinois, Delaware, Rhode Island and Hawaii. Insane. And currently there seems to be an auxiliary of weapons ready to fire in the war being waged against women. This war is clearly led by the Republicans and it shocks me that women are Republicans at all. Many feminists would probably say that the first problem is the House is run by men. Then to make things worse, its run by Republican men who have voted time and time again for extreme agendas that have been referred to by most Democrats as anti-women, in the 112th Congress.
The House voted 55 times to sabotage women’s health by taking funding away from programs that provide health care and support for women and generally, rolling back women’s rights. Just today, Mitt Romney told Ohio:”The actions I’ll take immediately is to remove funding for Planned Parenthood”. So that’s what we have to look forward to if he gets elected. What that means is simple and terrifying. Lets get real; the wealthy will always have access to safe and legal abortions since they can travel to countries where they are being performed. Poor women, if women lose the right to choose, will be left behind being forced to rely on back door butchers and the dark days of wire hangers. The Republicans havevoted to take access away from availability to contraception, access to preventive healthcare, take away federal funds for reproductive and maternal care services, pull money that provide programs that offer nourishment to pregnant women, women who are breast feeding and their families, and aim to allow insurers to charge women more than men for their policies for health insurance, end the basic guarantees of Medicare and Medicaid for female seniors and low income females, and they are even targeting the Paycheck Fairness Act and Violence Against Women Act. Republicans are taking their plan of action even further by opposing the birth control mandate, which requires health organizations cover contraception for women! If that isn’t a war I don’t know what is. Its time that women rise up and get to the polling stations to take the House back from extremist men and stand up for the rights womencurrently enjoy and the organizations who rely on federal funds to continue to protect them. Women have fought hard for the rights they have now and they are continuing to fight for full equality. There’s still a long way to go but there’s no way in hell we can go backwards. So women, lets do everything we can to ensure that the war on women will stop. The only way, in my opinion, is to vote for Obama. And men, stand up for your mothers, wives, girlfriends, sisters and friends. Get out and vote. Your daughters are depending on it.
