LETTERS: GOP Platform Removes Choice for Women

Dear Nashua Patch,

This issue sits at the intersection of politics and religion, men and women. It is a topic that generates spirited debate as recently seen from the incendiary comments of Missouri Republican congressman Todd Akin. His “legitimate rape” statement was bad enough but to further connect it with the claim that it rarely leads to pregnancy is just shocking. This attempt to rewrite biology is something one might expect to hear at a carnival side-show. But even more shockingly, he is not the first or only Republican politician to make this claim.

In 1988 Pennsylvania Republican State Representative Steven Friend claimed the odds of becoming pregnant from rape are one in millions and millions and millions. He said the trauma of rape causes women to secrete a certain secretion which has a tendency to kill sperm.

In 1995 North Carolina State Representative Henry Aldridge said people who are raped, who are truly raped, the juices don't flow, the body functions don't work and they don't get pregnant.

In 1998 Fay Boozman of Arkansas said fear-induced hormonal changes could block a rape victim's ability to conceive. Boozman was later tapped by Governor Huckabee to run the Health Department in Arkansas. 

These similar statements seem to offer a peek into the Republican stance on women’s reproductive rights. It is important to know that Paul Ryan has stood shoulder to shoulder with Todd Akin, co-sponsoring several anti-abortion bills in the House.

We will all have a choice to make in this upcoming election. And for women’s rights, the choice could not be more different. The Romney-Ryan plan will remove choice from women in reproductive rights. They will defund Planned Parenthood, rollback the Healthcare Act and its protections for equal pricing on healthcare for women. They oppose paycheck fairness.

Being a white middle-aged male, I am the last person that women would want weighing in on their reproductive rights – I would think they have had quite enough of that. I do however have two daughters and I am thinking of their future. The choice could not be clearer for me and my daughters agree.

I support the President’s plan of going forward with the health care plan where 47 million women across the country can now get important preventive health care with no co-pay or deductible. The helps women fight for equal pay for equal work, and President Obama has defended a woman's right to choose.

John Hanson

Merrimack, NH