As the presidential race comes down to the wire, both candidates seem to have recognized just how important it is to win the female vote. But do women realize just how crucial their votes are?
In the 2000 election, 22 million of the 45 million unmarried women in the U.S. between the ages of 18 and 64 did not vote. “Less than a third of all young people aged 18-24 voted in the 2000 election. Women vote in larger numbers than men, but among women, young women aged 18-24 are the least likely to vote,” Elizabeth Brookbank, Feminist Majority Foundation campus organizer said. The Democratic candidate, Al Gore, had the support of the majority of females who voted in 2000, but he likely would have had a clean victory if more women had cast ballots.
Next Tuesday, some eight million more women than men are expected to vote. With women making up 65 percent of undecided voters, organizations such as the National Organization for Women and the FMF have been actively educating young women about issues concerning women’s rights in the upcoming election. As a woman, it is more important than ever to vote.
“W” is Not for Women
Evelyn Becker, of NARAL Pro-Choice America, called President Bush “the most anti-choice president in history.” He has made countless legislative and doctrinal efforts to shift the minimal funds allotted to comprehensive sex education programs to abstinence-only programs. These actions could raise the abortion rate for young women because of their lack of education on sexual health and contraceptive options.
The “morning after pill,” an emergency contraceptive, has also caught the ire of the Bush administration. The Food and Drug Administration Advisory Committees on Reproductive Health Drugs and Nonprescription Drugs overwhelmingly recommended it to be made available over-the-counter in 2003, but due to political pressure from the far right, the drug remains available by prescription only.
Bush has also gradually reduced funds to organizations such as Planned Parenthood, a nationwide resource for family planning. Similarly, he has instituted a global gag rule which prevents USAID from supporting family-planning health clinics overseas unless they agree not to use their personal resources to provide abortions and abortion counseling.
In 2003 Bush signed the “Partial Birth Abortion” law, which banned late-term abortions regardless of possible health risks to the mother. It has since been found unconstitutional by federal district courts in New York, Nebraska and California. Should this law be federally-contested, it would go to the Supreme Court.
“Right now we have a 5-4 majority on the Supreme Court which is anti-women’s rights, anti-minority and anti-reproductive rights,” Kim Grandy, President of NOW said. “We have a chance to change that before they push us back to the 1950’s.”
Should Bush be re-elected, there is a good chance that in the next four years he will appoint at least one more Supreme Court Justice. The retirement of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor alone could lead to a dramatic erosion of reproductive rights, affirmative action and gay rights, since she has been one of the deciding liberal voters on the Supreme Court. The movement to sustain Roe v. Wade squeaked by with a frighteningly close 5-4 vote in its recent retrial by the Supreme Court. Abortion, if brought under a more conservative Supreme Court, could possibly be made illegal.
Galvanizing the Vote
President of GU H*ya’s for Choice Kristina Gupta (COL, ‘05) said that while many women are aware of the threat to reproductive freedom should Bush be re-elected, they are not sufficiently concerned. “Women that aren’t involved in the movement don’t necessarily realize that there is a very real possibility that Roe could be overturned in the next four years,” she said.
On the national level, Becker of the FMF echoed Gupta’s concerns about the lack of awareness regarding voting to preserve a woman’s right to choose.
“The difference is our mother’s and grandmother’s generations had to fight for the right,” she said. “We have a generation of women who take for granted that this right is always going to be there. Get out and vote. It absolutely matters, every single vote matters. Educate yourself about what the issues are and vote. Make your voice heard.”
Ashley Ahearn is a senior in the College. She urges you to listen to P. Diddy and either vote or die.
