Women Won’t Let Richardson and Wehby Get Away with It

By Alicia Temple of Portland, Oregon. Alicia is the Program Manager for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon.

Gubernatorial candidate and State Representative Dennis Richardson claims abortion shouldn’t be a state issue. Senate candidate Monica Wehby claims abortion shouldn’t be a federal issue. Yet neither one has affirmed that a woman has a constitutional right to make personal medical decisions without the interference of politicians. Why should Oregon women trust them?

Let’s be clear: These Republicans have carved out a convenient position that allows them to play both sides of a serious issue. Regardless of what Richardson and Wehby might say on the campaign trail, reproductive freedom is under attack on the state level and on the federal level. Across the country, states have enacted more abortion restrictions in the past three years than in the previous decade. At the same time, Congress has prioritized a dangerous, unconstitutional abortion ban despite a veto threat from President Obama. And now they’re coming after birth control, which has widespread medical and economic benefits for women.

So we have to ask: Are Richardson and Wehby simply ignorant about this unprecedented effort to roll back the clock on women? Or are they deliberately pretending that it doesn’t exist?

Richardson must recognize that he has a terrible voting record for women’s health, because he’s already running from his past. According to an April news report, “Richardson said he…considers abortion law to be a federal issue, not one he’d deal with as governor.” He told The Oregonian: “My positions on social issues are my own. As governor, I will keep my oath to enforce the laws that are on the books.”

Actions speak louder than words:

• In 1990, Richardson wrote in a letter to The Oregonian, “A woman relinquishes her unfettered right to control her own body when her actions cause the conception of a baby.”
• In 2005, Richardson introduced a fetal “personhood” bill.
• In 2006, Richardson was chief sponsor of Ballot Measure 43, which would have endangered young women’s health by requiring parental notification prior to an abortion.
• In 2007, Richardson was one of only nine House members to vote against a bill requiring insurance companies to cover birth control and requiring hospitals to offer emergency contraceptives to women after a sexual assault.
• In 2009, Richardson was one of only 19 votes against medically accurate, age-appropriate sexual health education.
• In 2013, Richardson accepted a $20,000 donation to push the radical agenda of Oregon Right to Life, which includes restricting birth control and banning safe, legal abortion – even in cases of rape and incest.

Meanwhile, Senate hopeful Monica Wehby is also hoping to obscure her out-of-touch views on women’s rights. According to The Baker City Herald, she claimed at a candidate forum in January, “I believe [abortion] is a personal decision between a woman and her family, not a woman and the federal government.”

Despite her desperate attempt to appear moderate, Wehby is campaigning on a platform that is clearly wrong for Oregon women:

• Wehby opposes the Affordable Care Act, the greatest advancement for women’s health in decades. About 360,000 Oregon women are now eligible for lifesaving preventive care without co-pays; women can no longer be charged more than men for health care; and women can no longer be denied coverage for pre-existing conditions like breast cancer, domestic violence and even pregnancy.
• Wehby supports the U.S. Supreme Court decision in favor of the bosses at Hobby Lobby who want to interfere with their employees’ access to birth control. Paying out of pocket for birth control would cost a typical woman $66,000 over her lifetime.
• Wehby opposes the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would close loopholes in employment discrimination law so that women receive equal pay for equal work. The gender wage gap costs a typical woman $431,000 in lost wages over her lifetime.
• Wehby opposes increasing the federal minimum wage, which would be a major step toward eliminating health disparities and increasing economic opportunities. Women make up nearly two-thirds of minimum wage workers, the vast majority of whom receive no paid sick days.
• Wehby was “mentored” by Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn, who believes abortion providers should be executed. She is also aligned with women’s health opponents Mitch McConnell, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. One of her surrogates, Tea Party radical Ben Carson, has even suggested that Wehby is only pretending to be pro-choice just to get elected.

Clearly, Richardson and Wehby have taken a page from the national Republican playbook in trying to erase the “war on women” from memory. Just listen to former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, whose offensive remarks are the political equivalent of the playground taunt “I know you are, but what am I?” In January he told the Republican National Committee: “The Republicans don’t have a war ON women, they have a war FOR women…. Democrats want to insult the women of America by making them believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing them a prescription each month for birth control because they cannot control their libido.”

The 2012 election was driven by a historic gender gap, and this year promises to be no different. Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon will work tirelessly through November to educate voters about where candidates stand on the medical and economic issues that will affect their families. We will defend women’s health champions like Governor John Kitzhaber and Senator Jeff Merkley. And we will fight back against corporations coming between a woman and her doctor.

Oregon women have had enough of politicians who want to treat us like second-class citizens. We are watching and we are voting in 2014.

Aug. 01, 2014 Posted in guest column.