The Political Voices of Women

This is an excerpt from BlogHer Contributing Editor Suzanne Reisman’s post, on how women vote when it comes to reproductive rights.

Maybe people don’t prioritize reproductive rights as an issue in this election because they think neither candidate really opposes them. For example, Planned Parenthood produced a short (and entertaining) video about McCain’s track record on the issues vs. Bush’s, and most people were unaware that McCain is even more extreme than Bush in some instances. For example, he does not believe that insurance companies should be required to cover birth control. (And if you think that this won’t happen, the movement to ban the pill is well underway. Allowing insurance to deny prescription drug coverage to women for ideological purposes is only step one.)

When people learn what a candidate’s position on reproductive rights is, does that change their perception of the candidate? (If yes, I’m assuming this means that the reproductive rights issue is actually very important to voters, but they don’t realize it because they don’t think that the election will jeopardize them.) Arianna Huffington at The Huffington Post reports that:

Over half of all women in these states have no idea what McCain’s positions are on reproductive health. Forty-nine percent of women in battleground states who currently favor McCain are pro-choice. Twenty-three percent of them believe McCain agrees with them on choice.

Read Suzanne’s full post at BlogHer