Losing the War on Women
Just as voters were taking a serious look at Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, the Republican party's radical anti-abortion platform and Todd Akin’s stunning ignorance has women rushing for the exits, says former Bush and McCain adviser Mark McKinnon.
.....
At exactly the time voters are looking seriously at the Republican ticket, and the ticket wants to send a message of tolerance, diversity, and inclusion, Akin says: “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”
Boom. Akin’s stunning ignorance is the political equivalent of the GOP riding over an IED. And the shrapnel is shredding everyone.
So now we can expect days of discussion about Republicans and abortion, and a heightened focus on the platform language that was drafted Monday: “Faithful to the ‘self-evident’ truths enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed. We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children.”
That means no exceptions. Not rape. Not incest. Not the life of the mother.
The head of the platform committee is Gov. Bob McDonnell, who attracted national attention when the Virginia legislature considered legislation making ultrasounds mandatory for any woman seeking an abortion.
It won’t matter much that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are saying now they would not oppose a rape exception. Unlike John McCain, who had a history of pushing for an explicit exemption in the language, Romney and Ryan have records that will send a chill up the spine of most women. Romney said in 2007 he would be “delighted” to sign a bill banning all abortions, and Ryan supported legislation restricting abortions to victims of “forcible rape.”
more:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/08/22/todd-akin-s-legitimate-rape-timing-couldn-t-be-worse-for-republicans.html?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=cheatsheet_morning&cid=newsletter%3Bemail%3Bcheatsheet_morning&utm_term=Cheat%20Sheet
DO SOMETHING!
| 
