Misogynistic Republican Anti-choice Stand Needs More Light

Replace legitimate rape with legitimate health and legitimate life concerns and the new Republican Party position on women's choice comes to life: Complete ban of all abortion, and avoid talk about what a woman wants to do with her body

Republican presidential aspirants struggled to condemn rape to the chagrin of decent Americans and GOP political strategists one election ago.

Little has changed.

"This is actually pretty simple. If you’re about to talk about rape as anything other than a brutal and horrible crime, stop," said Republican strategist Kevin Madden in 2013, as a former senior adviser in Mitt Romney’s campaign. (Haberkorn, Politico)

Today, evangelicals and Republicans' perverse misogyny has GOP presidential candidates avoiding "legitimate rape" comments (ala Todd Akin), instead casting incredulity about the health, life (and implicitly the will) of women contemplating what to do with their bodies.

This comes as Republicans close Planned Parenthood clinics, tried to defund all clinics or shut down the U.S. government, force ultrasounds and "waiting periods" onto women to "provide information" for women among other "cool thing(s) out there," as Scott Walker put it in his Todd Akin moment earlier this year. (Mal Contends)

Scott Walker — and all GOP presidential candidates — now pretend to attainment in medical science and bio-medical ethics as exemplified by Walker declaring there are no circumstances in which the life of a woman is threatened by bringing pregnancies to full term, no matter what women and their doctors say and want.

Must be frustrating for Scott Walker and Republicans because women are not listening to the information Walker and Republican governors "provide" for women.

At the Fox News debate, Megyn Kelly, asked Walker, "Would you really let a mother die rather than have an abortion? And with 83 percent of the American public in favor of a life exception, are you too out of the mainstream on this issue to win the general election?"

Walker responded: "Well, I'm pro-life, I've always been pro-life, and I've got a position that I think is consistent with many Americans out there. I believe that that is an unborn child that's in need of protection out there, and I've said many a time that that unborn child can be protected, and there are many other alternatives that can also protect the life of that mother. That's been consistently proven." (Spicuzza, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

Walker likes to make things up as he goes along, and has an odd incapacity to think on his feet, especially when explaining his commitment to an abortion ban, including cases of rape, incest, health, life and of course the will of a woman.

Walker's spokesperson didn't help matters.

Writes the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's Spicuzza:

When asked what better medical options are available — and whether Walker believes there are no instances in which a family and doctors have to choose between the life of the pregnant woman and the life of her fetus — his campaign spokeswoman AshLee Strong repeated late Friday (August 7) that he is '100% pro-life.'

'He acknowledges what science says, and that is that an unborn child is that — a child, and deserving of protection,' Strong said.

Replace legitimate rape with legitimate health and legitimate life concerns and you have the new Republican Party position on women's choice, with appeals to "science," the "false choice" and misunderstanding women have when they believe their health, life and will require an abortion, ... or even access to birth control.

The up side is the 18-point gender gap of women against Mitt Romney in 2012 will likely grow in 2016 with the spreading radicalism of the Republican Party. (Bassett, Huffington Post)

The GOP solution is actually pretty simple. If Republicans enact laws or talk about laws threatening women's health, lives and will as anything other than a brutal and horrible assault against the humanity of women, stop.

Trump's Misogyny Draws Mere Tweet from Scott Walker

Wisconsin GOP Display at August
State Fair Echoes Trump Misogyny

Republican candidates can't figure out why or how to challenge their fellow misogynist and his latest rant against Fox News anchor, Megyn Kelly.

Scott Walker—in a profile in cowardice—could only manage a weak and vaguely-worded tweet of objection to Donald Trump (Martin, Haberman, New York Times).

After disinviting Donald Trump to a forum this weekend, RedState's Erick Erickson featured 10 of the Republican candidates in a rightwing gathering and of this group only Jeb Bush mentioned Trump, saying Trump's attack on Fox anchor Kelly is not good politics because it offended 53 percent of voters, women.

Following last Thursday's debate, Trump had said of Kelly, "You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever" in an interview on CNN Friday night (Martin, Haberman, New York Times).

Erickson had questioned Trump's "decency" in explaining his disinvitation of Trump, later saying Saturday at the Atlanta gathering that "I don't want my daughter in the room with Donald Trump tonight, so he's not invited. If our standard-bearer has to resort to that, then we need a new standard-bearer." (CNN)

Decency.

That's one quality lacking in Scott Walker, and is not prominent in the Republican Party's field for the presidency.

Remember Scott Walker's Todd Akin Moment

The Iowa Republican presidential caucuses are custom-made for Scott Walker, and Rick Santorum (2012 winner) and Mike Huckabee (2008 winner).

America is not.

Consider Scott Walker's Todd Akin moment in which the rabidly anti-choice governor claimed to speak for women, saying in part: "it's the initial months [of pregnancy] where they are concerned ... ."

So much for the ludicrous assertion that Walker is a small-government conservative.

Here's ten other things the nation needs to know about Scott Walker: See Analiese Eicher at One Wisconsin Now. See as well: Walker's 10 Biggest Whoppers (Lueders, The Progressive)

Scott Walker lies. It's debatable whether Walker's trait is pathological, it is not debatable that's Walker lying is destructive.

Scott's Walker's Todd Akin Moment and GOP Misogyny

Scott Walker blasted for "Todd Akin moment"

Scott Walker has been radically anti-choice his whole life, a not surprising misogynistic attribute from the fundamentalist Evangelical. (Lounsbury, The Progressive)

A woman is raped, the victim of incest or in Todd Akin's infamous phrase a victim of "legitimate rape" (Moore, NYT), Scott Walker and the Republicans believe by law they should make the decision for women as the GOP's anti-choice, forced-birth stance has become the norm for the radicalized Republicans.

Nearly one in five women will be raped at some point in their life, according to the Centers for Disease Control. (Vagianos, Huffington Post)

Tough luck.

Scott Walker who is pushing for a complete ban on abortion after 20 weeks in Wisconsin, with no exceptions for rape or incest, said, "most people ... it's the initial months [of pregnancy] where they are concerned about that [women's decision to bear children]."

Walker has divined what most women want, and in 2013 he signed into law the forced ultrasound law, which is also is a TRAP law, limiting which doctors women can consult.

Walker said his forced ultrasound law (Wisconsin Act 37) is "just a cool thing out there," expanding his proclaimed knowledge of what women want, saying "We just knew if we signed that law, if we provided the information, that more people if they saw that unborn child would, would make a decision to protect and keep the life of that unborn child." (Kelly, NPR) Walker also bragged that he and fellow Republicans defunded Planned Parenthood.

US Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) blasted Walker last night.

"This is Scott Walker's Todd Akin moment, I could not believe that our governor in a few short words showed how deeply out of touch he is with the women of Wisconsin and the women of this country; and frankly his policies with regard to women's reproductive health are actually dangerous," said Baldwin. (All In with Chris Hayes)

Walker's comments pertain to his forced ultrasound-TRAP law (Wisconsin Act 37) that is enjoined, per an opinion by the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirming the injunction by a US District judge just a few weeks after hostile oral argument in Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin v. J.B. Van Hollen (13-2726) in December 2013. (Mal Contends) (Clawson, Daily Kos)

Ripping Walker's Act 37—passed on a party line vote—at oral argument as an attempt to stop women from making their own decision about whether or not to bear children (and not a health law as Walker proclaimed) Judge Richard Posner sarcastically asked, "Is there something medically special about abortion ... because it begins with the letter 'A?'"