Women matter

By Alison McQuade on

February 10, 2012

After a week of right-wing attacks on women's health, the White House has announced a compromise in which it will require insurers to pay for contraception when an employer may object to doing so on religious grounds.

While we’re happy to know that women can continue caring for their own health, no matter where she works, we can’t help but respond to this compromise with a heavy sigh. It’s disheartening that this important step forward for women – ensuring a basic and popular health care need is covered by insurance – became a target of the far-right.

We get that it’s an election year and candidates, like Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum are trying to rally voters on their side, but regardless of what year we’re in, women and their ability to care for their bodies and afford health care should never be a political pawn.

EMILY’s List President Stephanie Schriock responded, “Our EMILY’s List women have been fighting for what women need and deserve throughout this long year of overreaching by the radical right, and we’re committed to bringing them reinforcements on election day this November. Time and time again, we’ve seen leaders like Patty Murray, Barbara Boxer, Kirsten Gillibrand and Claire McCaskill, and the other pro-choice Democratic women in the Senate making their voices clear on health care and other critical programs for women – and with a record number of pro-choice Democratic women running for the Senate this year, women donors, voters and activists have an opportunity to expand that firewall for women and families and ensure that basic rights and opportunities are not compromised.”

Women matter. And we’re not just issues for the far-right to exploit. We’re mothers, daughters, sisters, wives, teachers, students, community leaders and friends. Our health care matters because WE matter. And this year, we won’t let anyone forget that.

Women matter

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