The "WAr On Women??"

[leo9]

I am as pro-choice as they come...but I still believe this so called War on Women is a fabrication for political gain.

Well, yes, but by whom and for whose gain?

In the same way that the creationist issue is not fundamentally about Darwin, but about the religious right dictating what can be taught in schools (like sex ed,) and gay marriage is just the latest target in the war over what sexual behaviour is allowed, so the ongoing pressure on ordinary people's rights is currently focussed on women's rights in the belief that it's a soft target (because it can be presented to the base as liberals versus ordinary God-fearing folks.)

"War on women" is perhaps not as technically correct as "political agenda to reverse a range of legal protections of women's rights, women's health issues and reproductive freedom," but as soundbites go, it's close enough.

"Ordinary people's rights" because these changes in the law never touch the political class. They don't need their contraception covered by insurance any more than they need Medicare or Obamacare, they can always get a discreet abortion for their daughters, and battered wives' protection is all about whose legal firm can beat up whose. This is about keeping the little people in their place, male and female; women's rights are just the current target.

[Thorne]

This is about keeping the little people in their place, male and female; women's rights are just the current target.

Well said, Leo. It reminds me of a line from the movie, Titanic: When informed that half the people on the ship were going to die, Cal Hockley muttered, "Not the better half!" What we're seeing from our supposed representatives in Government, from local to federal levels, is an attempt to make certain that the "lower classes" don't overreach themselves and impinge upon the rights of the elite. Women are bearing the brunt of this attack now, but it won't be long before the rest of us come under attack as well.