Republicans are absolutely clueless about anything that has a vagina — which explains high divorce rates in “Red” areas of the country. It’s almost like the sun cannot rise and set without a conservative saying something awful and/or scientifically illiterate about women. This is an issue that, oddly, persists across both sexes among our frenemies on the right.
The GOP has recently been trying to abolish the “anti-woman” stigma the party has earned time and time again with seemingly helpful efforts to make “The Pill” an over-the-counter medication, though the disdain for females is still readily apparent when one considers that this is intended to distract from their attempts to deprive women of numerous health care needs — like the inclusion of contraception under health care plans and safe, reasonable access to abortions if a woman chooses to have one. And if a woman is raped — hoo boy, do conservatives get nasty!
With the 2016 campaign underway, let’s take a look back at some of the Stupid Party’s more memorable “thoughts” on women and their rights [in no particular order].
1. Women are just “hosts” for the precious babies that the GOP suddenly stops caring about once they are born, Virginia Senator Steve Martin said in 2014:
“I don’t expect to be in the room or will I do anything to prevent you from obtaining a contraceptive. However, once a child does exist in your womb, I’m not going to assume a right to kill it just because the child’s host (some refer to them as mothers) doesn’t want it.”
2. Women who have abortions should be hanged, according to conservative columnist Kevin Williamson:
3. Rape and incest are “minor problems” when compared to abortion, GOP strategist Matt Mackowiak mansplained:
“Texas is a pro-life state. We can get into minor issues that are one percent or two percent the problem. But ultimately, Texas is a strong pro-life state. Abbott would love to fight this campaign on that issue alone from here on out but Wendy knows that’s not strategically wise.”
4. “No” doesn’t always mean “no” if the man decides it doesn’t, says aging right-wing slob Rush Limbaugh:
How many guys, in your own experience with women, have learned that no means yes if you know how to spot it? … Are these [policies] not lawsuits waiting to happen?
5. Emergency rooms erase rape, claimed Texas Rep. Jodie Laudenberg in 2013:
“If a woman is raped… We have hospital emergency rooms. We have funded what’s called rape kits that will help the woman, basically clean her out. And then hopefully that will alleviate that.”
6. Oral contraceptives cause prostate cancer…in women…who don’t have prostates, so said New Hampshire state Rep. Jeanine Notter in 2012:
“As a man, would it interest you to know that Dr. Brownstein just published an article that links the pill to prostate cancer?”
7. Abortion causes breast cancer, and women should pop out babies as early as possible — a lie so precious Republicans in New Hampshire included it in an anti-abortion bill in 2012:
“In fact, for each year that a woman’s first full-term pregnancy is delayed, her risk of breast cancer rises 3.5 percent. The theory that there is a direct link between abortion and breast cancer builds upon this undisputed foundation.”
8. Women who use contraception are sluts and prostitutes, so sayeth Rush Limbaugh in response to Sandra Fluke’s testimony about a lesbian friend who uses birth control for noncontraceptive medical purposes:
“What does it say about the college co-ed Susan Fluke [sic] who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex. What does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She’s having so much sex she can’t afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex.”
9. “Legitimate rape,” courtesy of Todd Akin:
“From what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let’s assume maybe that didn’t work or something. I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist.”
10. Long before “legitimate rape,” Bush-appointed federal judge James Holmes said in 1980 that wimmin can’t get pregnant from rape:
“Concern for rape victims is a red herring because conceptions from rape occur with approximately the same frequency as snowfall in Miami.”
11. Seriously, the “juices don’t flow” and pregnancy just doesn’t happen if a woman is raped, Republican Rep. Henry Aldridge said in 1995:
“The facts show that 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. Medical authorities agree that this is a rarity, if ever.”
12. Contraception is as cheap as an aspirin between the knees, Rick Santorum donor foster Freiss said in 2012:
“On this contraceptive thing, my Gosh it’s such [sic] inexpensive. You know, back in my days, they used Bayer aspirin for contraception. The gals put it between their knees, and it wasn’t that costly.”
13. God wanted you to be raped, Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock told victims who might want an abortion in 2012:
“I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize life is that gift from God. And I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.”
14. In 2013, Congressman Steve Stockman postulated that if babies had guns, they would kill their mothers rather than be aborted…and ultimately die anyway:
15. Tea Party queen, Saturday Night Live has-been Victoria Jackson, blamed the Sandy hook massacre on abortion in 2012:
“My friend Jim Riley posted: ‘Wasn’t the Connecticut killer just doing what abortionists do every day?’ It’s a wonder we don’t have more 20 year old “dads” doing what women and doctors have been an accomplice to for years in America. When you forget the TEN COMMANDMENTS, people, THIS is what you get. Obama dramatically wiped a tear as he said, ‘the majority of those who died today were children — beautiful little kids … They had their entire lives ahead of them — birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own… YEAH OBAMA. SAME AS THE MILLION BABIES YOU HAD ABORTED THIS YEAR. ARE YOU CRYING FOR THEM?!”
16. Fetuses masturbate, according to Rep. Michael Burges in 2013:
“Watch a sonogram of a 15-week baby, and they have movements that are purposeful. They stroke their face. If they’re a male baby, they may have their hand between their legs. If they feel pleasure, why is it so hard to believe that they could feel pain?”
17. Alabama state Rep. Mary Sue McClurkin said in 2013 that a fetus should be considered an organ in a woman’s body:
“When a physician removes a child from a woman, that is the largest organ in a body. That’s a big thing. That’s a big surgery. You don’t have any other organs in your body that are bigger than that.”
18. According to Tom Cotton, who violated the Logan Act in his attempt to throttle a nuclear deal with Iran, said women should not serve in the military because they’re weak:
“To have women serving in infantry, though, could impair the mission-essential tasks of those units. And that’s been proven in study after study, it’s nature, upper body strength, and physical movements, and speed, and endurance, and so forth.”
19. A woman wasn’t truly raped if she didn’t go to the emergency room immediately, according to 2016 presidential candidate Ron Paul:
” If it’s an honest rape, that individual should go immediately to the emergency room. I would give them a shot of estrogen or give them –“
20. Some girls –especially underage ones — “rape easy” according to Wisconsin Republican Roger Rivard:
“If you do (have premarital sex), just remember, consensual sex can turn into rape in an awful hurry. Because all of a sudden a young lady gets pregnant and the parents are madder than a wet hen and she’s not going to say, ‘Oh, yeah, I was part of the program.’ All that she has to say or the parents have to say is it was rape because she’s underage. And he just said, ‘Remember, Roger, if you go down that road, some girls,’ he said, ‘they rape so easy.'”
21. “Why not just sit back an enjoy” being raped, wondered Texas Republican Clayton Williams:
“Well, bad weather is like rape: if it’s inevitable, you might as well relax and enjoy it.”
22. If a woman who was raped wants an abortion, her doctor should make sure she was REALLY raped, said Idaho state Senator Chuck Winder in 2012:
“I would hope that when a woman goes into a physician with a rape issue that that physician will indeed ask her about perhaps her marriage, was this pregnancy caused by normal relations in a marriage, or was it truly caused by a rape.”
23. Mike Huckabee would force child rape victims to give birth to, and raise, their rapists’ babies:
“Let nobody be misled, a 10-year-old girl being raped is horrible, but does it solve a problem by taking the life of an innocent child?”
24. According to Fox News contributor Liz Trotta, female soldiers should just expect men to rape them:
“The sexual abuse report says that there has been, since 2006, a 64% increase in violent sexual assaults. Now, what did they expect? These people are in close contact, the whole airing of this issue has never been done by Congress, it’s strictly been a question of pressure from the feminists.”
25. According to Republican Paul Ryan, rape is just another method of conception — like in vitro fertilization, which he wants to criminalize:
“Asked in 2012 if a woman should be able to get an abortion if she is raped, Ryan answered, “I’m very proud of my pro-life record, and I’ve always adopted the idea that, the position that the method of conception doesn’t change the definition of life.”
26. To 2016 presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, there’s an upside to rape:
“And so I know it happens, and yet even from those horrible, horrible tragedies of rape, which are inexcusable and indefensible, life has come and sometimes, you know, those people are able to do extraordinary things. “
27. Seriously, God really wanted you to be raped because it’s a “blessing”, Missouri Republican Sharon Barnes said in 2012:
“Abortion is never an option. At that point, if God has chosen to bless this person with a life, you don’t kill it.”
28. God even planned your rape, explained failed GOP candidate for Senate Sharron Angle in 2010:
“There is a plan and a purpose, a value to every life no matter what it’s location, age, gender or disability. So whenever we talk about government and government’s role, government’s role is to protect life and that’s what our Founding Father said, that we have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
29. In fact, Kansas state Rep. Pete DeGraaf said in 2011 that womenshould probably just go ahead and plan to be raped:
“We do need to plan ahead, don’t we, in life?” DeGraaf asked as he supported a piece of anti-choice legislation that would ban insurance companies from including abortion in their general health plans, except when the mother’s life is threatened (no rape or incest exceptions) in 2011. “I have spare tire on my car,” he mansplained. “I also have life insurance. I have a lot of things that I plan ahead for.”
30. Men, after all, have the right to rape women as long as those dirty harlots are allowed to have abortions, according Maine state Rep. Lawrence Lockman in 1995:
“If a woman has [the right to an abortion], why shouldn’t a man be free to use his superior strength to force himself on a woman? At least the rapist’s pursuit of sexual freedom doesn’t [in most cases] result in anyone’s death.”
31. Besides, if a man rapes a woman and a baby is produced, the woman should feel blessed because of the “gift” God and her rapist gave her, according to 2016 presidential candidate Rick Santorum:
“I think the right approach is to accept this horribly created — in the sense of rape — but nevertheless a gift in a very broken way, the gift of human life, and accept what God has given to you… rape victims should make the best of a bad situation.”
32. When it comes down to abortion, a woman does not have the right to her own life, former Republican Rep. Joe Walsh said in 2012:
“Understand though, that when we talk about exceptions, we talk about rape, incest, health of a woman, life of a woman. Life of the woman is not an exception.”
33. Former Tea Party candidate for Senate and OB-GYN Greg Brannon mansplained that pregnant women are just “little girls” who don’t understand their own bodies like he does:
Brannon described rape crisis centers’ clients as “little girls [who] don’t understand what’s going on to their bodies.”
34. Did you know that rape exceptions are “little gotcha amendments?”Kansas state Senate Majority Leader Terry Bruce does!:
“These amendments are little gotcha amendments. I’m getting a little irritated at it.”
35. Women who are raped should consider that, while rape is bad, the child might be absolutely beautiful, West Virginia Delegate Brian Kurcaba said in 2015:
“Obviously rape is awful,” but “What is beautiful is the child that could come from this.”
36. Rape isn’t just for unmarried harlots, though. It’s also for husbands, who Utah state Rep. Brian Greene says should be able to rape their wives while they are unconscious. It’s not their first date, after all:
“If an individual has sex with their wife while she is unconscious…a prosecutor could then charge that spouse with rape, theoretically. That makes sense in a first-date scenario, but to me, not where people have a history of years of sexual activity.”
37. In 2005, conservative commentator William J. Bennett explained that women could decrease the crime rate through abortion — if they aborted black babies:
“If you wanted to reduce crime, you could — if that were your sole purpose — you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down.”
38. Women shouldn’t vote, according to conservative Ann Coulter:
“If we took away women’s right to vote, we’d never have to worry about another Democrat president. It’s kind of a pipe dream, it’s a personal fantasy of mine, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. And it is a good way of making the point that women are voting so stupidly, at least single women.”
39. You can’t be raped if you’re married, according to 2016 GOP candidate Donald Trump:
“You cannot rape your spouse. And there’s very clear case law.”
40. According to right-wing Evangelical “Christian” Pat Robertson, the fight for women’s rights has nothing to do with women — it’s a socialist plot to destroy the family and kill children, among other things:
“The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.”
41. Life might actually begin before conception, so sayeth former Arizona Governor Jan Brewer when she signed a bill that said as much:
The bill defined gestational age as “calculated from the first day of the last menstrual period of the pregnant woman” — two weeks prior to conception.
42. But it’s OK — 2016 Republican candidate Ben Carson says we should “re-educate” women so they don’t get too uppity about abortion:
“What we need to do is re-educate the women to understand that they are the defenders of these babies.”
43. With all this talk about “re-education,” it wouldn’t be right to skip pointing out that Mike Huckabee — who wants to be President — thinkswomen who have abortions are just like a million bagillion Hitlers:
“If you felt something incredibly powerful at Auschwitz and Birkenau over the 11 million killed worldwide and the 1.5 million killed on those grounds, cannot we feel something extraordinary about 55 million murdered in our own country in the wombs of their mothers?”
44. Abortion is so horrible that women who are in the process of making the difficult decision to have one should be ‘read their rights’ like criminals according to 2016 GOP contender Piyush Jindal:
“When officers arrest criminals today, they are read their rights. Now if we’re giving criminals their basic rights and they have to be informed of those rights, it seems to me only common sense we would have to do the same thing for women before they make the choice about whether to get an abortion.”
45. But do women know, anyway — besides laying back and spreading their legs?
In August 2015, Republican Perryville, MO school board member Mark Germaud shut down (or he thought he did, anyway) fellow member Kathy Carron by letting her know her place — which is apparently the bedroom: “Kathy, you are just a woman, the only thing you know is laying on your back with your legs in the air splayed.”
This is just a small sampling of the horrific remarks Republicans have made regarding women. It’s no surprise, of course, that women are more likely to be Democrats than Republicans. In April, Pew Research Center revealed that women tend to lean Democratic by an overwhelming 52-36 percent. But to those 36 percent of women who insist on voting against their own interest:Learn more about the candidates to whom you are considering lending your support.
Republicans may have “binders full of women,” but Democrats have the best interests of women at heart. One of the first bills President Obama signed into law, for example, was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, which allows women to fight back if they are being discriminated against in their pay. The Affordable Care Act provides women preventative care, prevents insurance companies from considering womanhood a pre-existing condition and, last year, President Obama signed two executive orders aimed at narrowing the wage gap between men and women in every area in which he had the power to do so.
The GOP, of course, has fought tooth and nail against pay equality, against a woman’s right to choose whether or not she wants to have a child, and against women’s rights in general. Remember this in 2016 when you go to the polls.
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