Who Calls the Shots on a Woman's Right to Choose?

While I realize abortion is not THE primary concern nationally, it is important to women, myself included and it is important in the battleground aka "swing" states.  

On October 22, Gallup reported, "Abortion was the top issue named by women voters in 12 key swing states as 'the most important issue.p for women in this election,' according to a recent USA Today/Gallup poll. By contrast, 1% of women and less than 1% of men, nationally, consider it the most important problem facing the nation."

Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/matt-hadro/2012/10/23/new-gallup-poll-shreds-cnns-speculation-women-abortion-and-gop#ixzz2AEKFzeFJ

Abortion rights, a woman's right to choose, the Roe v Wade decision by the U.S. Supreme Court don't seem to matter to the men running for office.  Paul Ryan is pro-Life, conceding only to Mitt Romney's less radical position because Romney, not Ryan, is the Presidential candidate. If Ryan becomes president, all bets are off.  After the Biden/Ryan debate, the Washington Post had this to say: 

But the position Ryan articulated Thursday — “the policy of a Romney administration will be to oppose abortions with the exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother” — is different from Ryan’s earlier position of no abortions, except possibly in cases where mother’s life was endangered.

Todd Akin...hoo boy, we know his story. He's reduced his lead in the state of Missouri to a virtual tie with incumbent Claire McCaskill.

And then there's THIS guy.    

Candidate Romney was for him before he was against him.  Sound familiar?

G-L-O-R-I-A

Anybody watch the HBO special "Gloria, In Her Own Words"?   It's a portrayal of Gloria Steinem as a feeling thinking woman who became the iconic public face of the Women's Movement.  The narration is hers.  It's intimate.  The details, in some of her stories, are ordinary and relatable.  For example, she developed her trademark hair coloring of streaky highlighted hair because she loved Audrey Hepburn's hair in "Breakfast at Tiffany's."  She said she identified with Holly Golightly.  (really?)

She believed her looks to be an advantage in the women's movement but she did not want them to get in the way of her seriousness.  Makes sense.  She was the antithesis of how women in the early days of the movement were portrayed in the press.   Many people, women included,  thought of womens' libbers as unattractive, man-hating, angry broads out to destroy the family unit and AMERICA.  Sound familiar?

The Woman's Movement was condemned for having an agenda.  It was a tall order.  Steinem, along with the foremost forward thinking women of her day rallied, marched and worked to ratify the  Equal Rights Amendment and Roe v Wade.  Roe v Wade passed in 1973.  The ERA still hasn't been ratified in all 50 states and it's been in play since 1923.

What particularly stood out in this memoir was the vitriol she faced; how maligned she was and still is.  There is video of a shrill, hateful exchange from a woman caller to "The Larry King Show".  There was an incident of public flogging when some pornographer had a graffiti like portrait of her painted on the wall of her office building.  She's naked, her labia exposed, with hairy penises surrounding her.  She is overwhelmed.  She cries.  She's vulnerable.

Her experiences informed her views, her journalistic talent led her to explore and test those views with her readers.  As founder of Ms. Magazine in 1972, she started the first women's magazine written and published by women for women.  Dismissed and discounted as a flash in the pan, Ms. Magazine is still going strong today.  As is Gloria.