Why women should vote for Gore
by Mindy Cameron
Seattle Times editorial page editor
All right, ladies. We've got work to do. The
presidential race is going down to the wire. Pollsters
tell us men are favoring George W. Bush. Let's roll
up our sleeves and get the job done right. With a
little help from guys who get it, we can determine
who's going to be the next president.
The choice is clear: Al Gore.
OK, I don't like him a whole lot either. I'm never sure which Al
Gore will show up: Brainy Al, Irritating Al or Wooden Al.
I confess, I went through a period of feeling pretty good about Gov.
Bush. He seemed a likable, trustworthy guy, a welcome change. I
snapped out of that fantasy weeks ago. We're not picking a prom
king, for heaven's sake, we're choosing the person who will name
as many as three new justices to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Go with Gore.
Ralph Nader is dead wrong when he says there's barely a
difference between the two candidates.
If you call yourself an environmentalist, you know he's wrong.
If you believe in equal opportunity, you know he's wrong.
If you care about women's reproductive health and personal
freedoms, you know he's wrong.
I am still incredulous about Nader's claim to The Times editorial
board that there is no difference between the two parties on Roe v.
Wade. The landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision of 1973
legalized abortions, and in doing so gave women a new measure of
control over their own lives and futures.
What kind of fools does Nader take us for?
The Republican Party platform, blessed by Bush, calls for
overturning Roe v. Wade. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia
has written that Roe should be overturned. Bush says Scalia is his
model justice.
Nader and others take a pinched view of the matter. This is no
slender reed of an issue, it's not only about abortion rights. Roe is
as much a symbol of victory for women's rights after a century of
struggle as it is a specific legal right to have an abortion.
More to the point is the persistent campaign of social conservatives,
including Gov. Bush, to push back at every opportunity on a broad
range of issues involving women's reproductive health, at home and
abroad.
Just last week, Congress and President Clinton agreed to remove a
gag rule that kept federal dollars out of the hands of groups that
provide abortion services abroad. There's a catch, though. The
money can't be spent until Feb. 15. If Bush is president,
Republicans expect him to reimpose the gag rule.
Of course he would. He's already on record promising to "do
everything in my power to restrict abortions." In five years as
governor of Texas, he has signed 18 anti-choice provisions into law.
Now there's the brouhaha over Texas Health Commissioner Dr.
Reyn Archer, approved by Bush for the job. Like Bush, Archer has
a well-known daddy, GOP Congressman Bill Archer of Houston.
Archer, an OB/Gyn physician, once testified to a congressional
committee that in his private practice if women "didn't bend to my
will" he asked them to go elsewhere. Archer is not only against
abortions, he's against the best means of preventing them,
contraceptives.
If Archer hadn't just been caught making offensive racial and
sexual remarks to a black female employee, he may well have been
in a Bush Cabinet.
Bush has supported Archer in earlier controversies, but now he has
distanced himself from his embarrassing health commissioner.
It's hard to know what to make of the Archer episode. At the very
least, it's an aspect of the Texas story the congenial Bush has
skillfully dodged as he has wooed his way into the hearts of
American voters.
It's a triumph of charm over substance. Bush has no substance. His
record in Texas is flimsy at best.
It's charm over hard work. Bush is campaigning like the dickens
now, but he is not known for hard work.
It's charm over compassion. "Compassionate conservative" is a
great slogan. I nearly fell for it, until that moment in the debates
when he seemed gleeful about Texas executions; until I took a
closer look at his record on choice and family planning.
There's nothing compassionate about gag rules, about
abstinence-only programs, about denying the full range of family
planning options to poor women.
Bush says he trusts people to make their own decisions. Well, he
doesn't trust women when it comes to the most difficult decisions
about their own bodies.
Like I said, Al Gore is no knight in shining armor. But he respects
all women, not just his mom, wife and daughters. He'll hold the line
against the conservative campaign to erode women's fundamental
rights. That's worth my vote. |
