TOP 16 Shocking Attacks from the Republican GOP' War on Women

 

TOP 16 Shocking Attacks from the Republican GOP' War on Women

1) Republicans not only want to reduce women's access to abortion care, they're actually trying to redefine rape. After a major backlash, they promised to stop. But they haven't yet. Shocker.

2) A state legislator in Georgia wants to change the legal term for victims of rape, stalking, and domestic violence to "accuser." But victims of other less gendered crimes, like burglary, would remain "victims."

3) In South Dakota, Republicans proposed a bill that could make it legal to murder a doctor who provides abortion care. (Yep, for real.)

4) Republicans want to cut nearly a billion dollars of food and other aid to low-income pregnant women, mothers, babies, and kids.

5) In Congress, Republicans have a bill that would let hospitals allow a woman to die rather than perform an abortion necessary to save her life.

6) Maryland Republicans ended all county money for a low-income kids' preschool program. Why? No need, they said. Women should really be home with the kids, not out working.

7) And at the federal level, Republicans want to cut that same program, Head Start, by $1 billion. That means over 200,000 kids could lose their spots in preschool.

8)Two-thirds of the elderly poor are women, and Republicans are taking aim at them too. A spending bill would cut funding for employment services, meals, and housing for senior citizens.

9) Congress just voted for a Republican amendment to cut all federal funding from Planned Parenthood health centers, one of the most trusted providers of basic health care and family planning in our country.

10) And if that wasn't enough, Republicans are pushing to eliminate all funds for the only federal family planning program. (For humans.

But Republican Dan Burton has a bill to provide contraception for wild horses. You can't make this stuff up

(11)Republican state lawmaker in West Virginia said on Thursday that while rape is horrible, it’s “beautiful” that a child could be produced in the attack. According to Huffington Post, Charleston Gazette reporter David Gutman was on the scene when Delegate Brian Kurcaba (R) said, “Obviously rape is awful,” but “What is beautiful is the child that could come from this.” Kurcaba made the remarks during a House of Delegates discussion of a law outlawing all abortions in the state after 20 weeks’ gestation. At 20 weeks, anti-choice activists and lawmakers allege, a fetus can feel pain and is therefore too viable to abort

(12) Scott Walker to Sign Ban on Abortions for Rape, Incest Potentially complicating his

2016 bid, the Wisconsin governor has said he will sign a 20-week abortion bill that includes no exemption for rape or incest.He signed legislation defunding Planned Parenthood in the Badger State and requiring that women seeking abortions get ultrasounds..

(13) Rick Santorum: Single Moms Need Politicians To ‘Kick Them In The Butt’ children having children is destroying the fabric of our country. If you want to close your eyes to it, if you don’t care about it, if you don’t want to solve it, if you want to continue the system, to let people stay and spiral—go ahead. Not with me.” Single mothers, Santorum asserted, needed politicians who weren’t afraid of “kicking them in the butt.” A month later, the evangelical Senate candidate told a crowd in Erie, PA that welfare reform wasn’t simply about cutting government spending, it was also a public safety issue, “What we have is moms raising children in single-parent households simply breeding more criminals.”

(14) Jeb Bush In 1995: Unwed Mothers Should Be Publicly Shamed,

Public shaming would be an effective way to regulate the “irresponsible behavior” of unwed mothers, misbehaving teenagers and welfare recipients, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) argued in his 1995 book Profiles in Character.

In a chapter called "The Restoration of Shame,” the likely 2016 presidential candidate made the case that restoring the art of public humiliation could help prevent pregnancies “out of wedlock.”

(15) Marco Rubio And Five Members Of Congress Voted For Florida's 'Scarlet Letter' Adoption Bill

Posted: 06/11/2015 6:25 pm EDT Updated: 06/11/2015 9:59 pm EDT

Sen. Marco Rubio (R) was among the Florida state legislators who voted for the so-called "Scarlet Letter" law in 2001 that required single mothers to publish their sexual histories in the newspaper in order to place their babies up for adoption.

Five U.S. congressmen -- Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart (R), Lois Frankel

(D), Jeff Miller (R), Gus Bilirakis (R) and Dennis Ross (R) -- were state legislators at the time and voted for the controversial bill. Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D), Frederica Wilson (D), Daniel Webster (R) and Bill Posey (R), who were also state legislators back then, voted against it.

The law, which passed with overwhelming majorities in the House and Senate, required unwed moms who wished to put their babies up for adoptions to post details about their recent sexual encounters in the newspaper in an attempt to contact the father, even if the woman was a victim of rape or incest. The purpose of the bill was to inform estranged biological fathers that their children were being adopted and give them the chance to intervene.

(16)INDIANA STANDS BY DISGUSTING DECISION TO JAIL WOMAN FOR TWENTY YEARS OVER MISCARRIAGE

Posted by Patricia Colli on 24 Dec 2015

Purvi Patel has now been incarcerated at the Indiana Women’s Prison for eight months – for having a miscarriage.

Earlier this year, 35-year-old Patel became the first person in the history of the United States to be sent to prison for feticide, which Patel insists was actually a miscarriage and a situation far beyond her control. According to Patel, she had delivered a stillborn fetus after being about 23 weeks pregnant. The premature fetus wasn’t moving, and she tried to resuscitate it but was unsuccessful in her attempts. Patel didn’t want her conservative Hindu parents to discover what had happened, so she disposed of the fetus and sought medical attention because she was bleeding.

Prosecutors in Indiana framed Patel’s incident much differently.

They accused her of taking drugs to induce an abortion – despite the fact that there were no drugs found in Patel’s system. A discredited test was also used to claim the fetus was alive at birth.

Patel was sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in prison for something she had no control over.

This case received attention all over the globe, as fears rose that Patel’s conviction of feticide and child neglect would make it easier for women to be punished for the uncontrollable variables and outcomes of their pregnancies. Reproductive rights groups rallied for her freedom, but to no avail.

https://front.moveon.org/top-10-shocking-attacks-from-the-gops-war-on-women/

FOCUS: Akela Lacy | Huge Jan. 6 Funder Is Pouring Money Into the Wisconsin Supreme Court Election**SUPPORT Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Janet Protasiewicz ****

  

03 April 23

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FOCUS: Akela Lacy | Huge Jan. 6 Funder Is Pouring Money Into the Wisconsin Supreme Court Election
Akela Lacy, The Intercept
Lacy writes: "The fate of the 2020 presidential election may have come down to one vote. At the Wisconsin Supreme Court, President Donald Trump’s bid to throw out around a quarter million ballots from Democratic strongholds was dismissed — by a 4-3 margin."  

A one-vote margin on the court held Donald Trump’s election challenge at bay. Now major election denial funders are getting involved.

The fate of the 2020 presidential election may have come down to one vote. At the Wisconsin Supreme Court, President Donald Trump’s bid to throw out around a quarter million ballots from Democratic strongholds was dismissed — by a 4-3 margin. The decision secured the upper-Midwestern state’s electoral votes for Joe Biden, ensuring his White House win.

The decision put the already conservative-leaning Wisconsin court in the sights of MAGA Republicans.

This year, with an election for a seat on the court looming on Tuesday, far-right political funders — including those who continued pouring money into attempts to overthrow the 2020 race after the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol — are putting millions into trying to throw the race to the right-wing candidate.

In the days after the attack, Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein, two of the country’s largest conservative political donors, gave more than $5 million to groups seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. The same couple has spent more than $5 million so far backing the campaign of former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly. If Kelly wins, the court would maintain a 4-3 conservative majority, but shift further in favor of the extreme right.

The Uihleins “fund a variety of other major conservative PACs and super PACS to run ads that span the gamut of culture war topics in service of Daniel Kelly’s campaign,” said Eli Szenes-Strauss, political director at Public Wise, a voting rights organization that endorsed Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Janet Protasiewicz last week. Public Wise has given $375,000 to progressive groups working on the Wisconsin race.

The Uihleins, who founded shipping company Uline, each gave a maximum $20,000 directly to Kelly’s campaign. Richard also funds a super PAC called Fair Courts America that has spent at least $5.2 million so far on television, radio, and digital ads backing Kelly and opposing his liberal opponent Protasiewicz. (The Uihleins did not respond to requests for comment through requests made to Fair Courts America as well as company emails.)

With more than $30 million spent so far on television ads, Wisconsin’s upcoming April 4 Supreme Court election has already broken state records. The race is officially nonpartisan, but its implications for the right to abortions has garnered widespread attention. National groups supporting the right to abortion have spent half a million dollars backing Protasiewicz, and anti-abortion groups have spent more than $1.7 million backing Kelly. Kelly’s campaign declined to comment.

While the fight to restrict abortion has driven much of the messaging in the race, many observers have pointed out that democracy is also on the ballot. Kelly and his financial backers have played a key role in seeking to dismantle democratic checks and balances both in Wisconsin and across the country. Kelly’s work advising GOP officials in a fake elector scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election has come under heightened scrutiny in the weeks leading up to the Supreme Court election day.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court race could become a playbook for future Republican efforts to challenge election results around the country, Szenes-Strauss said.

The Republican Party and right-wing judicial advocacy groups are watching the race closely to see what kind of messaging works and turns out voters, he said. “It’s coming down to a couple of billionaires and the nefarious dark-money groups that they back hemorrhaging tens of millions of dollars into their candidates.”

Election Denial

The Uihleins gave lavishly to election denial efforts both in the run-up to and the immediate aftermath of the January 6 attack. Richard Uihlein was the primary funder of the Tea Party Patriots, a group that helped organize the rally that preceded the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Uihlein’s $4.3 million in contributions to the group led the Democratic Attorneys General Association to call on officials and candidates to refuse additional contributions from the family.

In the days following the attack, through the Ed Uihlein Family Foundation, the Uihleins gave millions of dollars to groups that spread lies about 2020 election results or aided Republican officials seeking to overturn the results.

The day after the attack, the couple gave $1 million to the Conservative Partnership Institute, where GOP lawyer Cleta Mitchell leads the group’s work on undermining elections. Mitchell advised Trump during the call in which he pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to lie about the state’s election results.

Less than a week after the Capitol riot, the Uihleins gave $250,000 to Turning Point USA, which had sent more than 80 buses of people to the rally that preceded the attack. On the same day, the couple gave $100,000 to the Federalist Society, whose senior member John Eastman drafted a plan for Trump to overturn the election results and spoke alongside him at the rally preceding the attack.

Between January 7 and February 21, 2021, the Uihleins gave millions to groups that amplified unfounded claims of voter fraud and stolen elections or worked to directly challenge election results. The groups included the American Legislative Exchange Council, the Center for Security Policy, Sons of Liberty, the Texas Public Policy Foundation, Judicial Watch, FDRLST Media Foundation, and the Thomas More Society. The extent of the Uihleins’ contributions to groups that undermined the 2020 election was first reported in a January analysis from the watchdog group Accountable.US.

Kelly and Uihlein’s Tangled Web

Former Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker appointed Kelly to the state Supreme Court in 2016 to complete the term of a retiring justice.

After losing his 2020 election to stay on the court, Kelly advised the Wisconsin Republican Party in its efforts to create a fake elector scheme to challenge the state’s presidential election results. Kelly’s role in the fake elector scheme was revealed in February 2022 during the state party chair’s deposition to the House committee investigating the January 6 attack.

The state GOP and Republican National Committee paid Kelly just under $120,000 for his work, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported last month.

After his 2020 loss, Kelly also worked at several organizations linked to the Uihleins, as well as other figures involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election, including Mitchell, the Wisconsin Examiner reported last month. Kelly worked for an Illinois nonprofit called the Liberty Justice Center, which has done legal work for Fair Courts America. He also worked at the Bradley Foundation in Wisconsin, which funds conservative causes and where Mitchell is a member of the board of directors.

In state campaign finance filings, Fair Courts America, the Uihlein super PAC backing Kelly, shares an Illinois address with another of its major funders, a registered nonprofit advocacy group called Restoration Action. Restoration Action is run by Republican operative and former Illinois Senate candidate Doug Truax. On March 1, Uihlein’s PAC received $1 million from Restoration Action.

Truax is also founder and president of Restoration PAC, which is registered with the Federal Election Commission, or FEC. The Uihleins have used Restoration PAC to fund other groups backing Kelly’s campaign, sometimes claiming that Protasiewicz’s backers want to push “trans ideology” on children. The groups include a super PAC called Women Speak Out that is associated with Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, as well as the American Principles Project PAC, which has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on ads attacking Protasiewicz since the February primary.

Uihlein has given $70 million to Restoration PAC since 2015. Last year, Restoration PAC gave $647,000 to Fair Courts America’s federal PAC.

Last year, Restoration PAC spent at least $3 million on independent expenditures in congressional races. The treasurer for Fair Courts America also signed FEC paperwork for many of Restoration PAC’s 2022 independent expenditures.

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Marco Rubio $1.5 million, Scott Walker $1.1 million, Lindsey Graham $800,000

THE COST OF REPUBLICAN PROSTITUTION 

Scott Walker backs radical Rebecca

Scott Walker endorsed Tony’s radical opponent Rebecca Kleefisch, cementing her status as a candidate who would be a disaster for our democracy and roll our state backwards. We know what Scott Walker and Rebecca Kleefisch would do to Wisconsin, because they already spent 8 years deeply hurting our state. They gutted public education, creating a historic teacher shortage, and attacked working families while approving the largest handout to a foreign corporation in American history. With everything they did to take Wisconsin backwards, it’s no surprise Scott Walker’s standing with Rebecca Kleefisch. This also means we need to be ready to take on their political machine and fight back against their radical attacks on Wisconsin families and our democracy. Can Tony count on you to rush a donation to show Scott Walker that he and his anti-democracy billionaire friends cannot stop our progress in Wisconsin? Onward, Team Evers Support Tony Paid for by Tony for Wisconsin.

 

“Wisconsin election conspiracy theorist launches campaign for governor”
- WISN (ABC)

Donald Trump favorite and election conspiracy theorist Timothy Ramthun just jumped in the race against Tony!

He’s having his first event with My Pillow owner and insurrection enthusiast Mike Lindell, and as crazy as he is, we need to take his attacks on our election process very seriously.

Timothy Ramthun entering the Republican field means that Donald Trump could be taking a growing interest in interfering with Wisconsin politics. Can we count on you to pitch in to make sure we’re ready for whatever Ramthun and Trump throw at us?

Here’s a brief summary of only SOME of the unpatriotic nonsense that has managed to escape Timothy Ramthun’s mouth.

• “I’d like to see a constitutional crisis”
• Called on Wisconsin to pull our electors back despite zero evidence the election wasn’t fair
• Claimed baseless audits were needed and would reveal “nefarious” things
• Compared the 2020 election to the American revolution of 1776

The bottom line is this: this Trump-wannabe is dangerous and shouldn’t be in charge of anything — especially the state of Wisconsin.



Onward,

Team Evers

I had to make sure you saw this...

I don’t know if you’ve been watching what has been playing out in the critical 2020 battleground state of Wisconsin over the past several days… Despite the entire state being under a “stay at home” order and the Democratic governor trying in various ways to push back Election Day and extend absentee voting, Wisconsin WILL hold in-person voting today, with its citizens forced to risk their health, or even lives, to exercise their right to vote.

And the final word on this shameful attack on democracy? It came from the 5-4 right-wing majority on the U.S. Supreme Court!

In her dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg pointed out, “Either they will have to brave the polls, endangering their own and others’ safety. Or they will lose their right to vote, through no fault of their own.”

This attack on democracy comes at a devastating time and denies voters their fundamental right to cast a ballot all to give Donald Trump and Republicans an unfair advantage in one of the most critical swing states this November!

To recap this saga:

First, the Republican-controlled Wisconsin legislature resisted every effort to make voting accessible during the coronavirus pandemic – as recently as Saturday, shutting down those efforts in an emergency session called by the governor.

Following that, the governor announced an extension of absentee voting and pushed back in-person voting until June, but the Right Wing-dominated Wisconsin Supreme Court blocked his order.

Then, just last night, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 not only to stand with Wisconsin Republicans’ voter suppression and force Election Day to happen during the coronavirus stay at home order but also to overrule a previous lower court order that had slightly extended the absentee ballot submission postmark deadline … meaning all absentee ballots are now due TODAY by 8pm!

This outrageous attack on the public’s health and safety as well as our democracy itself is the latest salvo in a war on the right to vote, strategically orchestrated between Republican elected officials and the right-wing judges they fight so hard to get onto our courts.

It’s now clearer than ever that the only way we’re going to save our democracy and stop these attacks on the right to vote is by voting right-wing vote suppressors out of office. That’s why Wisconsin is at the very top of our list of Tier 1 target states in 2020 for our various electoral programs (which include support for state and local progressive candidates) and why we’re working so hard to defeat Trump AND flip control of the U.S. Senate, so we can get judges who actually believe in a democracy that will protect voters’ rights.

Today’s election in Wisconsin is not just for the presidential primary. It is actually the final, general election for several key state and local races.

Crucial to Wisconsin’s role as a swing state, there is a Wisconsin Supreme Court election on today’s ballot in which a far-right justice is up for election. And THAT election could determine whether a MASSIVE voter purge put forth by Wisconsin Republicans is allowed to move forward! That purge is based on highly suspect data and methods that could kick hundreds of thousands of voters off of the rolls and would, of course, disproportionately disenfranchise Democratic-leaning voters, particularly minority and low-income voters.

DNC official Maria Cardona, writing in The Hill, points out some interesting info about that right-wing Wisconsin justice:

Justice Dan Kelly, an incumbent with an exceedingly thin résumé, was appointed by former Governor Scott Walker. He's been endorsed by President Trump, and he's running his "nonpartisan" campaign out of the Wisconsin Republican Party Headquarters. Kelly has recused himself from that voter purge case, but he signaled last month he would likely rejoin the case after this election.

Wisconsin very well could be the most crucial swing state in this year’s presidential election. Wisconsin Republicans are fully aware of that fact and, just like far-right Republicans in other states, their loyalty belongs to TRUMP – not to their constituents or to the American values they swore to protect. And, apparently, the same goes for far-right judges.

Thank you for fighting for our democracy.

-- Ben Betz, Digital Director

P.S. PFAW put out a release last night that said:

"With this outrageous ruling the Supreme Court's far-right majority put not just its thumb, but its entire fist, on the scale in favor of making it harder for people to vote. This ruling will disenfranchise tens of thousands of Wisconsin voters in the midst of a terrible public health crisis, forcing them to choose between casting their ballot or risking their health and the health of others. If there were any lingering doubt that Republican aims of voter suppression were being aided and abetted by the courts and via far-right appointments to the bench, it was removed tonight."

This is an existential threat to our democracy and, even though these are difficult times, we can’t let Trump Republicans and the Far Right (including far-right judges) exploit the current crisis for partisan power grabs.

Radical Right extremists are trying to turn back the clock on a century of advances in civil rights, women’s rights, workers’ rights, the social safety net and more… With Donald Trump in the White House, they’re waging an all-out assault on the fundamental pillars of our country – democracy, checks and balances, a fair and independent judicial branch, and core values like fairness, equality, and justice for all.

PFAW is fighting back every day with:

✔ Grassroots organizing
✔ Lobbying and advocacy
✔ Research and education
✔ Voter mobilization
✔ And more…

But we can’t do this vital work without the robust grassroots financial support of our members and activists.