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Can Congress Protect All Women? I-VAWA Is Gaining Backers
A strong liberal and a feminist, Illinois Democrat Jan Schakowsky worked hard to win bipartisan backing for the International Women Against Violence Act. It was touch and go until Thursday morning, when just hours before she was scheduled to introduce the bill on the House floor, two upstate New York Republicans, Reps. Richard Hanna and Chris Gibson, agreed to sign on to the legislation known as I-VAWA, which Schakowsky says “would make ending violence against women a pillar in foreign policy… to be considered in all things that we do.”
Schakowsky calls Hillary Clinton as secretary of State “a major force in making sure the mindfulness about women was there,” but says statutes are needed to make permanent the Office for Global Women’s Issues in the State Department, led by an ambassador-at-large, and to create a senior coordinator for gender equality and women’s empowerment at the U.S. Agency for International Development.
In a political climate where the votes of women are prized, you’d think I-VAWA would be a no-brainer. Crafted in part to meet Republican demands, the bill calls for no new federal money. Still, it raises alarm bells. “One of the things Republicans are hesitant about is seeing health and women in the same sentence,” Schakowsky told The Daily Beast in an interview Wednesday evening in her office. “They think it’s about reproductive rights and abortion. Most are not even supportive of contraceptives abroad, which is astounding,” she added.
Another buzzword that arouses GOP suspicions: empowerment. “I was once told that meant empowering women to have abortions,” says the aide who was working on securing Republican backing.
Schakowsky recalls that when she entered Congress in 1999, there was an active bipartisan pro-choice caucus. Now only one of those Republicans is left—New York’s Hanna—yet she remains convinced that the recent raft of antiabortion measures around the country and in Congress represent a “last gasp” by the GOP. “I honestly think this is desperation, that they have lost the war on these social issues.”
Schakowsky calls Hillary Clinton as secretary of State “a major force in making sure the mindfulness about women was there,” but says statutes are needed to make permanent the Office for Global Women’s Issues in the State Department, led by an ambassador-at-large, and to create a senior coordinator for gender equality and women’s empowerment at the U.S. Agency for International Development.
In a political climate where the votes of women are prized, you’d think I-VAWA would be a no-brainer. Crafted in part to meet Republican demands, the bill calls for no new federal money. Still, it raises alarm bells. “One of the things Republicans are hesitant about is seeing health and women in the same sentence,” Schakowsky told The Daily Beast in an interview Wednesday evening in her office. “They think it’s about reproductive rights and abortion. Most are not even supportive of contraceptives abroad, which is astounding,” she added.
Another buzzword that arouses GOP suspicions: empowerment. “I was once told that meant empowering women to have abortions,” says the aide who was working on securing Republican backing.
Schakowsky recalls that when she entered Congress in 1999, there was an active bipartisan pro-choice caucus. Now only one of those Republicans is left—New York’s Hanna—yet she remains convinced that the recent raft of antiabortion measures around the country and in Congress represent a “last gasp” by the GOP. “I honestly think this is desperation, that they have lost the war on these social issues.”
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/11/22/can-congress-protect-all-women-i-vawa-is-gaining-backers.html
Republicans are such vile, horrific disgusting assholes. Probably sit around and watch rape porn.
