I have been battling with problems in front of the pc as well as behind the screen, but I will try to post links by and by.

For now an article on the issue in general, from The Guardian UK by a journalist with a leg in both US and UK:

The Republican party declares war on women

"Forget the economy: this election is becoming a referendum on women's bodies"

[I]"With the notable exception of Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, a moderate who announced last week that she'd had enough of the ugliness and would not seek re-election,"

" an Indiana legislator pitched a hissy fit over the girl scouts, the US version of the girl guides, accusing them of promoting lesbianism and feminism and, worst of all, working hand in glove with Planned Parenthood."

"Forget the economy: this election is becoming a referendum on women's bodies,"

"Republicans in Congress have launched a dubious investigation of Planned Parenthood, the century-old women's health organization, and tried to take away its funding. "

"The Senate narrowly defeated an amendment that would have allowed employers to deny insurance coverage for anything the employer found morally or religiously objectionable: contraception, certainly, but perhaps also lung cancer treatment ("you should have stopped smoking"), HIV/Aids testing ("homosexuality is an abomination"), and pre-natal care for single women ("nice girls get themselves a husband before they get themselves a baby")."

" A couple of weeks ago, California Representative Darrell Issa convened an all-male panel on birth control. He claimed that the issue was not women's health, but "religious freedom" (Representative Nancy Pelosi sighed:"I may at some point be moved to explain biology to my colleagues")."

"Therefore, he [Darrel Issa] refused to allow Sandra Fluke, a young law student and an admitted female, to speak (pdf)."

"Democrats later held their own hearing at which Fluke testified that while Georgetown, the Roman Catholic-run university she attends, provides some health insurance, it does not include contraception – and the pill can cost $1,000 per year. Women take contraception for a variety of medical reasons, not only to prevent pregnancy: Fluke recounted the story of a friend, a fellow student, who needed the pill to treat cysts. She couldn't afford it, got sick and had to have an ovary removed."

"Fluke's reward for speaking truth to power? A public trashing. Rush Limbaugh – if not the de facto leader of the Republican party, then surely the clearest expression of its "id" – called her a prostitute and demanded that she post video of her sexual encounters on the internet. After several days of outrage and the loss of some important advertisers on his radio show, Limbaugh issued something approximating an apology. But the conservative blogosphere, the radio provocateurs and Fox News continue to attack Fluke as a Democratic "plant", a "FemiNazi" activist, and, of course, a harlot." "

"Santorum's vision of America is a hybrid Puritan and Catholic theocracy. He constantly rants against Obama's promotion of "secularism", and says the idea of an "absolute" separation of church and state makes him want to throw up."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...eswar-on-women

The author of the article:
Diane Roberts
Profile

Diane Roberts is a writer and broadcaster. A native Floridian, she was educated at Oxford where she was a Marshall scholar. She broadcasts regularly for the BBC and National Public Radio in America, and writes for newspapers such as the Washington Post, the New York Times and the St Petersburg Times. She is also professor of literature and writing at Florida State University and the author of four books, the most recent of which is Dream State, a political history of Florida.


Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine:

"In announcing her plans, Snowe, 65, emphasized that she is in good health and was prepared for the campaign ahead. But she said she was swayed by the increasing polarization in Washington.

“Unfortunately, I do not realistically expect the partisanship of recent years in the Senate to change over the short term,” Snowe said in a statement. “So at this stage of my tenure in public service, I have concluded that I am not prepared to commit myself to an additional six years in the Senate, which is what a fourth term would entail.”"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...WkgR_blog.html

More later.