(excerpted from Expatgirl, dailyKos)
Reproductive rights (i.e. control over our own bodies) are being eroded.
Reproductive rights are the foundational requirement for women being able to achieve economic equality with
men.
Access to affordable contraception is in the cross-hairs.
Access to some of the most effective forms of contraception is increasingly under threat.
Access to even basic healthcare is under threat.
Your employer has a right to get between you and your doctor when it comes to which health needs your insurance
will cover.
You are probably lying if you say you have been raped, but if you get pregnant via rape (which isn't really
possible)
your rapist can not only force you into childbirth, he can force you to deal with him forever through custody
battles and visitation.
You are held up as little more than a sex toy by the most powerful man in the country,
but labeled a slut if you engage in safe sex outside marriage by him and the rest of his party.
If you miscarry a pregnancy, you can be thrown in jail for murder.
If you show up at certain hospitals with life threatening complications from pregnancy you can be told "sorry,
we can't help you because we are pro-life"
... so you'll just have to suffer and maybe die. But that is just God's will.
If you die while pregnant, the state can keep your brain dead corpse
and it can be artificially kept functioning until the fetus comes to term even though it likely will not
survive.
And your already devastated family gets to pay for it.
And don't even get me started on equal pay or how the situation gets more complicated when racial issues
get thrown into the mix.
Or how all of the points above impact lower income women more than those of higher means.
In so many ways, to be a woman in current America is to be screwed. And not in a good, safe, enjoyable way.
Voting your "identity" is about voting your life. It is what impacts you most directly.
Anybody who says otherwise or insinuates that women's issues are secondary issues is full of it.
Women are not equal in America. But we can get there if we stand up and fight.
(excerpted from Expatgirl, dailyKos)