Gender Gap, Republicans and Abortion

Much has been said about the gender gap and the Republican Party. As the election for president draws near, more and more pundits will be asking, “What is the gender gap and is it real?”

The gender gap is a serious, well-thought-out and intelligent disagreement on substantive social issues. Those issues include gun control, affirmative action, health care, the environment, welfare reform, Medicare, Social Security, jobs, the economy, deadbeat dads, education, crime and the most contentious of all issues--abortion.

Whatever the cause of the gender gap, sharp political differences between the sexes emerged in the 1980s and reached a pinnacle in 1992, when women--including moderate Republicans--voted to elect Bill Clinton. In fact, if Republican women had stayed home in 1992, Bob Dole would be the president today. Unhappy with the ideological shift of the GOP, women voted against Dole--and the assault on their civil rights.

The issue of choice continues to divide Republicans today. And it goes far beyond how people, particularly women, feel about abortion. It is more about what kind of Republican you are. To be an anti-choice Republican identifies one as intolerant and rigid.

Why is the issue of “choice” so significant in the upcoming election? In 1973 the Supreme Court in Roe vs. Wade upheld the right of women to determine their free will over their bodies. Roe vs. Wade has been under threat of being overturned since then in a court that now consistently divides 5 to 4. The next president likely will make at least one appointment, and perhaps three. Three of the nine justices are 70 years of age or older (one is 80 years old). A change of one vote on the Supreme Court could overturn a woman’s right to choose.

In Roe vs. Wade, the court cited the rights provided in several constitutional areas: free thought and association; freedom from search and seizure; self-incrimination; granting of enumerated rights to the people; and, most importantly, the guarantee of personal liberty. It also sought middle ground. The trimester “viability” argument balanced two views--mother and potential child. In the first trimester the right of the mother is paramount; in the last trimester, the interest of the fetus and the mother have equal standing.

A woman’s right to choose is as important as any of the constitutional rights that our founders envisioned.

The Republican Party’s platform, debated every four years, includes language that, in essence, says that “life begins at conception and, therefore, a decision to abort a fetus is murder.” Another section “reaffirms support for the appointment of judges at all levels of the judiciary who respect ‘traditional family values’ and the sanctity of innocent human life.”

There are those who would use the excuse that the platform means nothing and the Republican candidates are free to make decisions about their position on free choice for women. But they are wrong. The Republican Party platform sets the tone and the philosophy of our candidates. More importantly, it charts a course of action for all Republican officeholders at all levels of government to follow. By making women criminals and doctors subject to arrest, the Republican Party is really saying that the fetus has more rights than their wives, sisters and daughters.

Today, the Republican Party is white, male, Southern and evangelical. The party of free speech; separation of church and state; individual rights and liberties; individual responsibility and limited government seems only to support those concepts when it comes to men. If a candidate proposed eliminating the right to “bear arms” or eliminating the right to “religious freedom” there would be a huge outrage. Why is there no such outrage when Republican candidates refuse to support freedoms of women? Unless the party finds a way to broaden its base and consider the views of women, it will not become a successful and sustained majority party again.

The gender gap was created in the frustrations of women across the country and in their perceptions that Republicans are deeply rooted in discrimination and willing to put our civil rights in jeopardy. To remedy this, we must elect more women to our decision-making bodies and elect candidates who will stand up courageously and vote for the Freedom of Choice Act--the federal legislation that can restore the protection of Roe vs. Wade, once and for all. We are not asking for permission to get an abortion, we are demanding the right to make the decision ourselves.

We must protect the right for women to make choices about their bodies, for all women, no matter where they live, how old they are or how much money they have. And we must put politicians on notice that women will remember in this election--and every election thereafter--if they refuse to protect all of us, without exceptions.