Letter from State Senator Eleanor Sobel printed in the Sun Sentinel:
And now, he has doubled down on his out-of-touch, conservative policies by selecting Paul Ryan
as his running mate. Ryan led the charge against women, co-sponsoring a
bill that could ban in-vitro fertilization, many common forms of birth control – including the pill – and all abortions, even in cases of rape or incest.
He supported letting states prosecute women who have abortions along with the doctors who perform them. Ryan also voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and against repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." His positions are severely conservative.
The outcome of the November election is one of the most critical for American women in my lifetime. There is so much at stake – for the economy, for the middle class, for our relationships abroad and for our children.
But for women in particular, it's that much more important.
Women's medical expenses eat up a greater share of our income, and we're more likely to be employed in low-wage jobs. That means we're less able to afford premium hikes, larger co-pays or supplemental coverage.
Yet in some cases, we have been charged 50 percent more than men for the same health care coverage just because we are women. Isn't America supposed to be the land of equal opportunity?
Before the recession, more than half of women had problems getting care because of costs, and they forwent tests, medicine and other treatments that put their lives at risk.
Now, women are gaining access to a wide range of preventive health services, including mammograms, cervical cancer screenings and birth control, without a co-pay or deductible.
They are seeing their premiums decrease and receiving rebate checks from their insurance companies. And they are no longer paying more just because they are women.
The choice is simple.
President Obama has consistently stood up to Republicans trying to curb women's rights. He reversed the global gag rule, which banned the government from providing aid to international family planning groups that provided abortion information, fought against Republican attempts to defund Planned Parenthood, and continues to stand by a woman's right to choose.
Behind every one of the President's policies is a simple idea: Women should have control over the decisions that affect their health, their lives and their careers.
We have a right to make our own health care decisions, and in spite of recent extreme and incomprehensible attempts to eliminate that right, President Obama has strongly defended it.
He is committed to keeping abortion legal the way that it is today, and to ensuring that we have the security and protection that comes with access to birth control.
In fact, many insurance plans are now required to fully cover birth control as part of women's preventive care. This will help more women make health care decisions based on what's best for their bodies, not their pocket books.
It's a savings worth hundreds of dollars every year.
I know this president has my back and will continue to be a staunch advocate for women.
I know he is the kind of man who will stand up to those who want to take away the benefits and protections that are helping millions of women every day.
On women's issues alone, the Romney-Ryan plan is devastating.
Paul Ryan has led these appalling efforts and Mitt Romney has yet to indicate in any way that he's willing to fight against them.
Eleanor Sobel is a Democratic Florida state senator representing District 31.
For the first time in decades, women again find themselves having to
defend their individual and most personal rights. Women's issues laid to
rest years ago have re-emerged as the Republican Party has moved further to the right in a frivolous attempt to fight our battles of the past.
The fact that these attempts to roll back women's rights that we fought so long and hard for have resurfaced, and Mitt Romney – at the helm of the Republican Party – has failed to elicit an ardent rebuke is disgraceful.
The fact that these attempts to roll back women's rights that we fought so long and hard for have resurfaced, and Mitt Romney – at the helm of the Republican Party – has failed to elicit an ardent rebuke is disgraceful.
He supported letting states prosecute women who have abortions along with the doctors who perform them. Ryan also voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and against repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." His positions are severely conservative.
The outcome of the November election is one of the most critical for American women in my lifetime. There is so much at stake – for the economy, for the middle class, for our relationships abroad and for our children.
But for women in particular, it's that much more important.
Women's medical expenses eat up a greater share of our income, and we're more likely to be employed in low-wage jobs. That means we're less able to afford premium hikes, larger co-pays or supplemental coverage.
Yet in some cases, we have been charged 50 percent more than men for the same health care coverage just because we are women. Isn't America supposed to be the land of equal opportunity?
Before the recession, more than half of women had problems getting care because of costs, and they forwent tests, medicine and other treatments that put their lives at risk.
Now, women are gaining access to a wide range of preventive health services, including mammograms, cervical cancer screenings and birth control, without a co-pay or deductible.
They are seeing their premiums decrease and receiving rebate checks from their insurance companies. And they are no longer paying more just because they are women.
The choice is simple.
President Obama has consistently stood up to Republicans trying to curb women's rights. He reversed the global gag rule, which banned the government from providing aid to international family planning groups that provided abortion information, fought against Republican attempts to defund Planned Parenthood, and continues to stand by a woman's right to choose.
Behind every one of the President's policies is a simple idea: Women should have control over the decisions that affect their health, their lives and their careers.
We have a right to make our own health care decisions, and in spite of recent extreme and incomprehensible attempts to eliminate that right, President Obama has strongly defended it.
He is committed to keeping abortion legal the way that it is today, and to ensuring that we have the security and protection that comes with access to birth control.
In fact, many insurance plans are now required to fully cover birth control as part of women's preventive care. This will help more women make health care decisions based on what's best for their bodies, not their pocket books.
It's a savings worth hundreds of dollars every year.
I know this president has my back and will continue to be a staunch advocate for women.
I know he is the kind of man who will stand up to those who want to take away the benefits and protections that are helping millions of women every day.
On women's issues alone, the Romney-Ryan plan is devastating.
Paul Ryan has led these appalling efforts and Mitt Romney has yet to indicate in any way that he's willing to fight against them.
Eleanor Sobel is a Democratic Florida state senator representing District 31.
Very well said, Senator Sobel.
In addition to all that you wrote, now it's officially in the Regressive republican platform for their convention next week: They are officially against legal, Constitutional abortion WITH NO EXCEPTION FOR RAPE OR INCEST.
So this means that if a woman is raped in a parking garage, not only did she have to endure the horror of her life at that moment, but now the government is forcing her to take her rapist's pregnancy to full term.
And how about a 14 year old girl raped by her 40 year old uncle? Same thing. NO EXCEPTION FOR RAPE OR INCEST.
The nutjob, Mr Legitimate Rape, now has his far rightwing extremist
fringe idiocy built right into the Regressive platform. With his bizarre
notion that a woman's body can magically "shut the whole thing down in
the case of rape" through some magical ejection button the world's
gynecologists have yet to discover, it establishes therefore, that IF
YOU ARE PREGNANT, IT WAS NOT FROM RAPE, or it would have been "magically
shut down."So there's no need for exceptions for rape and incest.
What century is this again?
This is what Ryan, the Kill Medicare Guy, has been promoting for years. No exception.
Now let's hear the righties whine, "But-but-but there's no War on Women in the republican party."
FORWARD! OBAMA 2012.
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