In September I wrote about pro-life women candidates running in the mid term elections. How did they do?
On pro-life female Senate candidates…
Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell lost to pro-choice Chris Coons in Delaware.
Senate candidate Carly Fiorina, lost to pro-choice Barbara Boxer in California.
Senate candidate Sharron Angle lost to pro-life Harry Reid from Nevada.
And Kelly Ayotte won the Senate seat for New Hampshire.
On pro-life female governors, Susana Martinez , candidate for governor in New Mexico won as the nation’s first Hispanic female governor. Too bad she does not represent women’s reproductive rights.
Nikki Haley, candidate for governor in South Carolina won as the first Indian American female governor. Same goes for her too–does not rep women’s reproductive rights.
And Mary Fallen won over Jari Askins–Fallen too made history as Oklahoma’s first female governor. Even if Askins would have won she is pro-life as well. I wonder how much of Fallen pulling the mommy card influenced voters, if at all…
Other female pro-life winners I am missing? Just looking at these, seems there are more wins, thus more worries at the state level.
Back in June, Ramesh Ponnuru, senior editor at the National Review, in a Wall Street Journal essay disussed how if more pro-life women win their elections, it will “change the tenor of the national conversation about abortion” because conservative and liberal women politicians will be discussing abortion, not men with men, or men with women pro-choice politicians respectively.
Do you think enough pro-life women have won for Ponnuru’s point to have merit?
I don’t know if there are enough pro-life women in executive positions for Ponnuru’s point to have merit, but I personally do take female pro-lifers more seriously than pro-life men. I do think because abortion primarily affects women, abortion policy should be heavily discussed and led by women. Even if I don’t agree with the pro-life women, I’d rather have more pro-life women at the table than pro-life men.
Christine, I have to think on that one. While great to have more women, if there are more staunch pro-life women, as Ponnuru points out, they may be even more convincing re pro-life issues as it is coming from a woman. Being adamant about what is right for each woman, and fighting to put laws in place to decide for her, whether man or woman, remains the biggest issue for me. ~L
http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2010/10/14/130601_local-news.html
I Would appreciate if you could look at this link. we have our own issue here in Australia and this sorry incident took place here where I live ( a popular tourist area). On the other hand a local gynaecologist was one of the first to obtain rights to import the abortion drug and also to use in the hospital so thats positive, it can be quite remote outside of this town and difficult for some of the rural women to access medical services. Our Female State government leader is pro choice but refuses to bring the issue up due to anti choice factions. Your political system and country is bigger than ours and I am glad that Christine has faith in these women but I am a little worried that being a woman in this position and still a pro lifer may mean they are representing a more extreme view than even some of the men…
This is exactly an an example of what can happen when women do not have access to reproductive health care. I know your leader is pro-choice and have been curious about what might happen there as anti-choice is a powerful force in your country. In the U.S. we do have roe v wade, but like I write in my latest post, there is cause for concern give the current make up in congress with the number of leaders that are not pro-reproductive rights. Please write in with the verdict and we’ll chew some more..~L
Sorry the verdict was not guilty thankfully but the premier here still refuses to do much
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/opinion/blogs/blunt-instrument/where-do-you-stand-on-abortion-anna/20101014-16kz2.html
another state has similar laws but I dont believe they recently prosecuted anyone on it, most people have access to the service if needed, but this court action was a terrible waste of time and money. I believe the majority of people in this country are very progressive but these cases bring the extremists out of the woodwork.
Thanks for the update and the link to the article. I find it interesting that she is acquitted even though there are strict anti-abortion laws. The author of the piece seems right in challenging Bligh to take her stand and stop staying quiet in order not to p-off her anti-abortion folks in government. What is the position of your new Prime Minister Julia Gillard? ~L
she is pro choice by all accounts but what stand she makes remains to be seen if ever. She is openly atheist and childfree. But often pays lip service to religious schools and events( i am not religious myself).
Dilma Rousseff–the first woman president in Brazil too “was” an atheist until it began to hurt her. She also had some positions that re loosening anti-abortion laws in this country but back off on that too to get elected… ~L
yes thats the whole problem. Not that you expect too much from your average politician but it would be nice if one them stood for something!
personally I believe people would respect them more for it, than less but I cant think of an example off hand of this happening regarding the tough issues.