The Republican Party has been hard at work in 2011 and even early 2012 in passing legislation and promoting ideas that are bad for women and diminish basic human rights.

With the primary election under way, candidates like Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum are competing for the position to run against President Barack Obama in November and take down one of the biggest proponents of women’s rights the White House has seen yet.

These three men also seem to be in a competition to see who can unravel America’s laws protecting the advancement and progress of females. It’s important for female voters on campus to be aware of how the GOP candidates are dangerous for women and understand the ways in which oppression and sexism occur even in modern day politics.

Late last year, Mississippi considered passing legislation that would amend the state constitution — commonly known as the ‘personhood’ amendment — to define a person as ‘every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning, or the functional equivalent thereof.’ This broad language in the definition would allow the government to ban all abortions and potentially even outlaw stem cell research and in vitro fertilization.

Even though Mississippi ultimately rejected the amendment, Gingrich is advocating for a national version of this legislation. In addition to women still having to struggle for the right to choose how to handle their own pregnancies and life decisions, the ‘personhood’ amendment requires females to fight for the right to utilize in vitro practices, which should be a private decision and not one made by the government.

Not only is Gingrich a poor judge of legislation, but CNN reported he offered his second wife a choice of an open marriage or a divorce when he revealed to her he was having an affair with the woman he later made his third wife. That’s not the healthy kind of an open marriage. A candidate that supports this kind of oppression and discrimination doesn’t deserve votes from any young woman or supporter of women’s rights.

Gingrich isn’t the only candidate running with restrictive abortion views. When Santorum was recently asked how he’d react if his daughter was raped, he responded: ‘I would do what every father must do. Counsel your daughter to do the right thing. You can make the argument that if she doesn’t have this baby, if she kills her child, that too could ruin her life. This it not an easy choice. I understand that. As horrible as the way that son or daughter was created, it still is her child.’

Though Santorum is willing to risk his own daughter’s well-being and choice, Romney also doesn’t have a clean track record when it comes to female politics. His recently released tax record clearly locates him in the top 0.0025 percent of U.S. earners, placing him out of touch with the majority of Americans’ realities. The Daily Beast reported that ‘as a Mormon bishop, Romney displayed a genuine ardor for controlling women’s childbearing choices’ by nearly harassing women not to get abortions.

It’s difficult to consider supporting the GOP as a young woman on a college campus when their policies and ideals don’t align with the basic rights I should be granted.

The Republican candidates in the primary election should rethink the ways in which they represent, or fail to represent, female voters in their speeches, supported legislation and actions. When it comes to rallying behind women and supporting gender progress in the United States, these three candidates have a lot of catching up to do.

Krystie Yandoli is a senior women and gender studies and English and textual studies major. Her column appears every Wednesday. She can be reached at [email protected] or followed on Twitter at @KrystieLYandoli. 

Published on January 31, 2012 at 12:00 pm