Why Hillary Is The Right Choice For Women
by Martha Burk, Gloria Feldt, Cecelia Fire Thunder, Lulu Flores, Kim Gandy, Ellen Malcolm, Irene Natividad, Ellie Smeal, Gloria Steinem, Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones
As women who have spent our careers fighting to protect a woman's right to choose, we recognize that the next president will face serious challenges to safeguard the reproductive health of women. In our opinion, there is one candidate whose leadership on this issue is unparalleled: Hillary Clinton.
Hillary has been an uncompromising leader and loyal ally for each of us in our battles to ensure and protect a woman's right to choose in America and around the world. We know she will lead the fight for women's health and justice because we have worked with her on these issues for so many years.
· We know Hillary will appoint Supreme Court justices who honor a woman's right to privacy because she not only voted against John Roberts and Sam Alito but also spoke on the Senate floor about the threat they pose to privacy rights and Roe v. Wade in opposing their confirmations.
· We know Hillary will expand contraceptive options because she waged a successful three-year battle with Senator Patty Murray against the Bush administration to make Plan B emergency contraception available over the counter.
· We know Hillary will expand fair work-family policies because we worked with her to pass the original Family and Medical Leave Act and then to expand it to cover military families, to provide paid leave, and to improve childcare.
· We know Hillary will fight for access to family planning services for low-income women because she has fought to increase funding for contraception and family planning through Medicaid and Title X.
· We know Hillary will work to reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies because as First Lady, Hillary helped found the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancies and as Senator she spearheaded the Prevention First Act.
· We know Hillary will be mindful of the challenges that our sisters face abroad and at home because in 1995 she bravely stood before a global audience at the 1995 Women's Conference in Beijing and declared that "women's rights are human rights."
We trust Hillary Clinton because every time we needed her by our side, she has been there.
Let us be clear -- the stakes are high in this election. We firmly believe that no one is better situated to confront the challenges awaiting the next president. As a pro-choice president, Hillary Clinton will make Supreme Court appointments and decisions ensuring women's reproductive rights in this country.
We believe that Hillary Clinton is the best choice for president of the United States.
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Obama has a 100% rating for his votes on women's issue. I am a 50 yr old white woman with a Master's degree and I'm from the NE. I will gladly vote for Barack Obama because he represents ALL of my issues. I do not need to validate myself by voting for a woman, unless of course she were the one to represent me...Clinton does not.
Obama can do everything for women that Hillary can, give me a break. He will nominate the same kind of supreme court justices. Not to mention, Obama can do it all without making the first female president a person who rode her ENTIRE career on her husband's coattails. I would love to see a female president as much as anyone, but having her be that person, getting where she is because of her husband, it would be a dark day for feminism, and I fear many women don't understand the message that would send.
And this is all beside the point, because Hillary cannot beat John McCain, Obama can. If we nominate Hillary, there will be no point in discussing what she will do, because she'll be in the Senate still, McCain will destroy her in the general election, all the polls point to this, common sense points to this, he will win. A vote for Hillary is a vote for defeat in 08, and that is that.
"When South Dakota passed a law banning abortion, they asked all U.S. Senators to please help them to defeat this law, and Barack Obama was the only U.S. Senator who stood up and raised money to help successfully turn over the ban on abortion in South Dakota."
- Helen Halpin, Professor of Health Policy, U.C. Berkeley
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJK3x66gaww
Why Lorna Brett Howard, former President of Chicago NOW, switched from Clinton to Obama:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVuMYKs8iJs&feature=related
Thank you Hillary supporters for helping me to make up my mind NOT to vote for Hillary. The more negativity YOU show, the more citizens run AWAY. At this moment, AMERICA is waiting today (MONDAY) for the Clintons to display something nasty/dirty/false about her opponent (AS THEY ALWAYS DO THE DAY BEFORE VOTING). Their campaign WILL NOT concentrate on their strengths----they have to try to smear the opponent with LIES.
WHAT A ROLE MODEL FOR WOMEN!!!!!!
Actually, America is NOW saying---IF IT'S NOT DIRTY, IT'S NOT THE CLINTONS.
Sick of Hillary and her husband, the Clinton's.
What have the Clinton's done for us? That is why we are in the mess we are, he started to implement a lot of the policies that Bush1 had
proposed and now we are seeing the result. It does take a while before one can see the effects. So check your history. Hillary flip flopped way too much on the war, she was duped by a dope she claims, who needs that. And she is AIPAC, she will do anything for Israel. We don't need that, we need to get healthy ourselves first.
Are you really suggesting Obama wouldn't appoint Supreme Court justices in the liberal tradition that gave us Roe v. Wade?
This post makes the case for Obama as well as it does for Rodham Clinton.
If she were so concerned about a woman's right to choose, why did she sabotage one of our own party? Why did she send out email saying Obama is not steadfast on a woman's right to choose? She purposfully slimed a patriot in the fight for our right to choose. I want a woman president, I am a professional woman and a feminist. But I belive we are fighting for equality, meaning we want to be judged on the content of our character, not our gender. Judging Hillary's content of character will make me not vote for her. I want a woman president, I just don't want this woman. Many previous Hillary supporters feel the same way and now support Obama.
To emphasize this point, this person was a Hillary supporter and Women's rights leader, former president of NOW, and was so disgusted with the tactics she switched partes. Take a look at her vid explaining why:
http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=OVuMYKs8iJs
Hillary doesn't care or she'd drop out knowing that she will not be voted for by independants and the Republicans will beat her. She's deluding herself if she thinks she will win. There's a lot of Democrats who won't vote for her in the general. Like... ALL of the under 30 voters. You people supporting Hillary are out of your minds if you think under 30 people will vote for Hillary.
But keep going Hillary. You'll be the first woman to lose the general election. History will be made.
Progressives shake their heads and wonder how working/middle class people voted against their best economic interests when they supported Bu$h.
Now we see feminists who are willing to do the same stupid thing. A vote for Obama IS NOT a vote against women and a vote for Clinton IS NOT a vote for the best interests of this country, which includes women.
If a pro choicer offered me a million bucks I wouldn't take it because it would be dirty money.
Pro Choicers gave us George W Bush in 2000 and gave him to us again in 2004.
Pro Choicers started the war in Iraq by letting Bush be president.
Be very careful what you pro choicers wish for because if you give us a Republican in November
I think many of us are going to be taking a collection up to buy all of you a one way ticket to a nice warm south pacific island.
We don't need abortion lovers anymore...all they care about is abortion!
For all you women who denigrate Hillary and buy into the media and right wing propaganda about her with your whiny complaints about her personal life, her husband,and daring to snipe that she wouldn't be anywhere without him, read this: http://www.womensmediacenter.com/ex/020108.html Adn then come back here and try to claim that you are nothing more than petty women bashing one of your own in favor of a knight in shiny armor who makes pretty speeches someone else wrote for him. Feminists indeed. You don't know the meaning of the word.
Pardon me, but if reproductive politics become an issue of contention between DEMOCRATS, your party is truly beyond all hope (despite the almost constant use of the term).
I've read carefully through all three pages of comments before posting this.
The comments, taken as a group, are profoundly revealing. Most of them are thoughtful - from liberals, progressives and independents who really want to see a new day in America.
I believe comments on both sides are largely sincere - just as I believe the multiple blog authors here are sincere.
But the consensus here (for what it's worth) is that Hillary is a fatally flawed candidate...for several reasons.
And most commenters dissent from the idea that Hillary is somehow more in tune with a feminist agenda for the Supreme Court, or for legislation, than Barack. There is simply no evidence to back that up...none whatsoever.
As we move towards Super Tuesday, it seems fitting to note that the underdog Giants upset the favored Patriots - and that the power of momentum has brought Barack even with Clinton on a national stage as well.
We could well be looking at a great upset here - and a historic moment for passing the torch to a new generation of dem leaders.
If that happens, please Hillary supporters: refrain from following the example of the New York NOW head Marcia Pappas. This isn't a misogynist conspiracy...really. There are fringe types who'd never support a woman, and fringe types who'd never support a black.
Discount that fringe, and you get the broad electorate of the party, and the country. Let's see what happens on Tuesday - and beyond.
I fully support a woman's right to choose when it comes to her reproductive health, and I understand that you believe Hillary Clinton, being female, would have the greatest understanding of this issue. However, I don't for a second believe that Barack Obama would vote against a woman's right to choose nor do I for a second believe that Mr Obama would consider nominating an appointee for Supreme Court Justice who would be biased on this topic.
I think that this issue is way too narrow an issue to base one's decision about the presidency on given the current condition of this country and what we have been through the past eight years.
This would be a deciding factor in deciding between a democrat and a republican candidate but no between two democratic candidates.
With all due respect, if appointing the right Supreme Court justices is so important (and it is), then why would we pick the most divisive politician in America as our presidential nominee--a person whom 50% of Americans have said they don't like and wouldn't vote for?
That just doesn't make sense to me--even given Hillary's record on women's rights.
Barack Obama is pro-choice and is 100% commited to women's issues. And, in my opinion, he's a much more electable candidate. Watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVuMYKs8iJs
Today, Kate Michelman, the former president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, endorsed Obama. You can see and read more about Obama's commitment to women here:
http://www.barackobama.com/tv/women.php
http://women.barackobama.com/page/content/WFOhome
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