Republican war on women

This ad is from the “American Bridge 21st Century”, a liberal SuperPAC that says it is “committed to holding Republicans accountable for their words and actions and helping you ascertain when Republican candidates are pretending to be something they’re not.” They’re the people who within two minutes had an ad attacking Romney over his ludicrous “binders full of women” debate line.

This particular ad highlights the far, far right extremism of the Republican candidate for US Senate from Indiana, Richard Mourdock, who said in a debate that pregnancy resulting from rape is "something God intended."

Mourdock’s extremism has been well-known for a very long time, and it’s part of the reason that Indiana teabaggers rallied behind him to dump incumbent Republican US Senator Richard Lugar (who was merely very conservative, not a “severe conservative”) as the Republican Party nominee. The ad for Mourdock is the only ad that Romney made for a US Senate Candidate. The very next day, Mourdock made his extremist statement.

Romney’s people must have known about Mourdock’s extremism, but they decided to cast their lot with him anyway. Is this simply more of Romney’s pandering to the religious radicals in the Republican Party, or is it indicative of Romney’s true ideology? And, how can we possibly know when Romney’s held every position possible on every issue?

We know that Romney opposes abortion in most circumstances. He’s pledged to sign a bill declaring that human life begins at the moment of conception, which would outlaw hormonal birth control methods—the most popular form of contraception. That idea is so insane that even the voters of Mississippi rejected it—and that’s a state with a grade of “F” from the pro-choice National Abortion Rights Action League.

Romney’s running mate, Paul Ryan, has always opposed all abortion exceptions, arguing that it should be illegal in all circumstances, including rape and when the life of the mother is in danger. Toward that end, Ryan partnered with Todd “Legitimate Rape” Akin to try to redefine rape, something Ryan has been running away from as fast as he can. He really is a lot like Romney in that regard, actually.

Romney has pledged to only appoint US Supreme Court justices who will promise to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that established a constitutional right to an abortion. He’s also promised that he’d do everything he can in every other way to flout the law and the ruling.

The Congressional Republican Party has used most of its time since the 2010 elections trying to outlaw abortion (or nearly outlaw it through harsh restrictions), and to fight against access to birth control. So, the Republican Party clearly has utter contempt for women. In that light, Romney’s support for the far, far right extremist Mourdock isn’t at all surprising.

The “Republican Party Rape Advisory Chart” [click to embiggen] accompanying this post is from Daily Kos member Brainwrap (who made it available to anyone who wants to post it), and it provides a handy way for American women to evaluate the status of their rape in the minds of Republican politicians. Because if Republicans win next month, women may find the chart very needed.

NB: This post has been revised since originally published.