As one of his signature bills restricting women’s access to safe, legal abortion is today argued in federal court, there’s a renewed spotlight on Scott Walker’s anti-women policies that’s leaving many wondering if Walker’s war on women will cost him re-election.
The answer could be yes, according to Talking Points Memo.
In an op-ed for TPM, Robin Marty notes that Walker has lost ground with women voters having lost the female vote in the 2012 recall election by nearly double the percentage he lost women voters in 2010.
Why is that? “Since the moment he entered office, Walker’s administration has focused on a number of policies that have been particularly detrimental to women’s physical and economic health,” Marty writes. Walker’s policies include defunding Planned Parenthood and the Wisconsin Well Woman program, cuts to BadgerCare, and aggressive restrictions on the ability of women to access safe, legal abortion, to include forced transvaginal ultrasounds and the reading of a state-authored shaming script.
And citing Walker’s repeal of pay equity protections for women, veterans, seniors, and disabled workers, Marty notes that Walker’s harmful anti-women policies haven’t been limited to healthcare and comprehensive reproductive care – they have a negative impact on our economy too.
Read the TPM op-ed in its entirety here.
Background
Scott Walker is the Father of “Personhood” Amendments: Scott Walker is the Father of Personhood in Wisconsin. In 1998, then-Rep. Scott Walker co-authored a bill that would have banned abortions after 20 weeks, even in cases of rape, incest, or when the mother’s health was in jeopardy, with a penalty of life imprisonment for physicians who performed the procedure. The bill also defined a “child” as the fetus “from the time of fertilization until it is completely delivered.” And in 1998, 1999 AND 2001, Walker was the lead author of a Wisconsin Right to Life bill known as the “conscience bill” which allowed doctors and pharmacists to refuse to prescribe and dispense contraceptives.
Scott Walker Defunds Family Planning Program: Scott Walker completely defunded the state’s successful BadgerCare Family Planning Program, which provides cervical and breast cancer screening and access to birth control for 74,000 Wisconsin women.
Scott Walker Stripped Pay Equity Protections For Women, Veterans, Seniors: In an act of cowardice, Scott Walker signed, under cover of darkness, a full slate of anti-woman, anti-family legislation. This included a repeal of Wisconsin’s Equal Pay Enforcement Act, which allowed victims of discrimination access to state courts to seek less-costly redress, and stripped pay equity protections for women, veterans, seniors and disabled workers. According to the Daily Beast, “in the two years the law was in effect, not a single equal-pay lawsuit was filed,” but employers responded to the law by increasing their workplace diversity. In 2009, Wisconsin ranked 36th for gender-parity. A year later, “it had climbed to 24th,” as the gender pay gap narrowed significantly, the U.S. Department of Labor found.
Scott Walker Repeals Healthy Youth Act: Scott Walker repealed Wisconsin’s Healthy Youth Act, which required that Wisconsin schools teach medically and scientifically accurate sex education. Under the law, schools could still teach that abstinence is the best way to prevent pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections, but were also required to inform kids about condoms and birth control. If school districts did not want to provide sex education, the law required them to let parents know that it’s not part of the curriculum.
Scott Walker Signs Law Dictating Medical Procedures For Women: Scott Walker signed into law a bill that dictates that a woman seeking an abortion must undergo an exam and consult with a doctor alone, away from her friends and family. The doctor must determine whether someone is pressuring the woman into the procedure. Doctors who break the law could be charged with a felony.
Scott Walker Is Silent on Act of Terrorism at Planned Parenthood Clinic: Scott Walker made no public condemnation of an apparent act of domestic terrorism at a Planned Parenthood Clinic in Grand Chute. Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated and sentenced the perpetrator to 11 years in federal prison. The clinic in Grand Chute, which offers preventive health care to women of the Fox Valley, was the target of funding cuts by the Walker administration.
Scott Walker Signs Massive Restrictions on Safe, Legal Abortion: Scott Walker signed into law a Republican bill requiring women to undergo medically unnecessary transvaginal ultrasounds before they are able to obtain a safe, legal abortion.
Planned Parenthood Forced to Close Rural Clinics Because of Walker Budget Cuts: Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin announced as a result of state funding cuts in Governor Walker’s last budget, they would the doors of their clinics in Shawano, Chippewa Falls, Johnson Creek, and Beaver Dam. The closures eliminate critical services to 2,000 patients including lifesaving cancer screenings, breast exams, birth control, annual exams, pregnancy tests, STD testing and treatment, HIV screening, and referrals to a network of community resources. In all four communities, Planned Parenthood is the only reproductive health care provider for low-income women.
