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.
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
All this support of Hillary is moot anyway. She can't possibly beat McCain. When the Republicans finish firing up their base by painting her as the bastard child of Marx, Lenin, Adolph Hitler and Satan and branding her health care proposal as "forced socialized medicine" she'll be bleeding like a stuck pig. Add her Iraq vote to demoralize Democrats and she'll be finished.
The Republicans will crucify her.
This just in, Garrison Keillor endorses Barack Obama. A representative of NOW states "Garrison Keillor just gang raped Hillary Clinton by endorsing Barack Obama!" Even though there is only one Garrison Keillor, and a gang would infer there would need to be more than one of him. On a much more serious and depressing note, NOW's incredibly erroneous and desperately partisan abuse of the term "gang rape" has effectively made the term far less serious than its original definition to describe a horrifically brutal forced sex act by a group on one person.
And after all this, Hillary is still the best choice for women? Just because she IS a woman, doesn't necessarily mean that she's going to be good to women. When it comes down to it, politicians worry about perception. Political power is the goal here, and the last thing Hillary Clinton wants to defend is a perception by an opponent used to attack her in 2012 that she is biased to one gender than another. Ever wonder why white male politicians never hire all white male cabinets anymore, no matter how conservative they are? Perception of bias is something you can't defend against all the voters in this country that believe equality is right and is an important goal for this country. To put it simply, you can't get elected if you're obviously a racist or easily perceived as a sexist. David Duke is proof of that.
Hillary is not the right choice for this woman. As another woman said, in Jan. '06:
"Enough. Enough triangulation, calculation and equivocation. Enough clever straddling, enough not offending anyone. Sen. Clinton is apparently incapable of taking a clear stand on the war in Iraq, and that alone is enough to disqualify her. Her failure to speak out on Terri Schiavo, not to mention that gross pandering on flag-burning, are just contemptible little dodges." by Molly Ivins
http://freepress.org/columns/display/1/2006/1304
It is unfortunate that great women who were so necessary a decade or two ago and who I owe a great debt to as a woman, cannot move beyond the past and can't see the forest for the trees.
Women who are still supporting the cause in the same way and are still as angry as they were a decade ago are more and more shouting at the wind. Lord knows they have cause to be angry and there is still much to be done, but the old blind/militant feminism just isn't effective anymore and is actually hurting us.
I appreciate their right to vote/support whomever they choose, but such obvious self-interest voting is as toxic as white men voting for white men, their own interests trump the greater good.
*shakes her head*
sheesh...another neandertal-feminist voting screed from the 60's-70's era.
while i agree that my my biological reprductive rights are important they are hardly the *one defining reason for me to vote for a candidate* as so promoted by so many NOW oriented feministas today.
alternative issues include, the economy, the war, the administrations utterly *shameful* attack on our civil liberties and constitution, and the ignorant reliance on fossil fuels and concurrent distain for the life of our planet just to name a few.
sorry martha, take your one issue drum thumping show elsewhere i'm a thinking woman voter. if i finall choose to vote for hillary it will be for multiple reasons.
As a woman who has supported women's empowerment issues and reproductive rights worldwide, I trust Barack Obama more than Hillary. It is true that Hillary has worked hard on women's causes, but there is more to be considered in her candidacy.
It was obvious to me and almost everyone I know that the Iraq invasion was stupid and a lie. She either didn't get it or lacked the moral courage to vote against it. I was extremely disappointed in her judgment. The deceitful way in which her campaign has been run is also highly offensive. Her Florida stunt was villainous. Now her troops are push polling in California. Running scared, apparently.
I trust Obama. Women can trust Barack Obama to preserve their right to choose. I believe he has more respect for women than Hillary apparently has for herself. He has a real relationship with his wife, Michelle, unlike the disturbing arrangement that the Clintons have worked out.
All excellent reasons why Hillary should remain in the Senate where she has been so effective. She's found her niche.
JP
It took TEN people to write...this?
LOL
Obama has shown himself to be every bit as supportive of reproductive freedom as Hillary is, in spite of her campaign's efforts to smear him to the contrary.
Martha Burk, Gloria Feldt, Cecelia Fire Thunder, Lulu Flores, Kim Gandy, Ellen Malcolm, Irene Natividad, Ellie Smeal, Gloria Steinem, and Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones can't give a good explanation as to why Obama wouldn't also protect women's rights.
Unless, of course, they're asking us to vote for Hillary simply because she's a woman. I'm a woman, and that is not good enough for me. I care deeply about my rights but also realize that there is much, much more at stake here. And to suggest that voting for Obama over Hillary is somehow putting our rights at risk is frankly ridiculous, not to mention totally tranparent.
WOMEN for OBAMA '08
Kate Michelman's endorsement of Barack is better.
Ms. Burk,
I respect your right to your opinion, but also respectfully disagree. I have long espoused the view that electing her constitutes a "de facto breach of the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution" and is effectively electing the former president to a third and potentially fourth term. I hope the American people are coming around to vigorously endorse the idea that we no longer need any more legacy presidents, whether father/son or spousal.
I'd like to vote for Al Gore and could vote for Barack Obama. Otherwise, my vote goes to John McCain.
If Hillary is elected lets just hope that we get plenty of dems in Congress to ensure that any of her appointees can actually be confirmed. I don't see this being an issue with an Obama presidency.
For those who think Senator Obama said he didn't know how he would have voted on the war authorization, read this:
http://mediamatters.org/items/200711110004
Another myth busted.
Why Hillary is the WRONG choice for women - war is the quintessential feminist issue.
A group of prominent feminists from New York and elsewhere today endorsed Senator Barack Obama for president.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/NYfeministsforpeace/
From HufPo's Joe Weiner:
"The group based their opposition to Clinton on "her seven-year record as senator." Despite her recent pledges to remove troops from Iraq, the group stated, Clinton's "record of embracing military solutions and the foreign policy advisers she has selected make us doubt that she will end this calamitous war.""
HIllary was an enthusiastic supporter of the invasion of Iraq. Read her Senate floor speech imploring other Democrats to vote for the worst foreign policy disaster in our history. She has been thoroughly indoctrinated into the School of War First.
This feminist rejects Hillary Clinton.
If she wins the nomination, Americans will yet again be forced to choose between two war candidates. John McCain has a long record of patriotic service to this country, and there is no reason to choose Hillary over him. By objective observers, there is little to distinguish between the foreign policy of Hillary and John McCain.
It's time to change the thinking that got us into this war in the first place - a war that is draining our coffers, destroying our good will abroad, and stealing the lives of our young people.
"Rise Hillary Rise"... I like this. When I drive around my neighborhood, I see plenty of "Vote 4 Hillary" signs stuck into front lawns. You'd never know this was the state of things by watching the news, reading the Drudge Report or Huffington Post, where the media assumes, maybe rightly so, that they can influence the public however they choose. The headlines are so slanted, so obviously, glaringly manipulative.
It makes me sad to see so many people falling under the spell of Obama's rock star charisma when he just doesn't have the history to back up his pie-in-the-sky promises & it makes me sick to hear & read women, feminist women, saying that they want to live to see the first female president- just not this one...
Hillary is the best candidate, despite what parts reside below her belt & especially because of the parts that reside from the neck up. I love her. I trust her. She inspires me completely.
VOTE 4 HiLLARY! Not because you're a woman, but because you want someone with extensive white house & foreign relations experience, a person who knows all the secret hand shakes & pitfalls, to get in there & clean up that mess.
We also know she voted for the authorization to use force in Iraq, thereby giving the okay to a rogue president to start an unnecessary war. I wonder how all the women who've lost sons, daughters, husbands and lovers feel about that?
As for the other stuff you seem to be sure of, Ms. Burk, Barack probably won't be any different.
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
