I'll tell you what your options are.
I'll tell you what your options are.
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has been busy trying to corner the market on right-wing conservatives in order to boost his bid for the Republican nomination. Perhaps unsurprisingly, abortion has become one of his favorite stepping stones to bolstering his conservative cred.
So if Walker manages to capture the GOP nomination and then comes looking for female votes in the general election, let's not forget the record he touted in his own words:
In my past four years as governor, we have made substantial progress in the fight for our pro-life values in Wisconsin. We defunded Planned Parenthood. We prohibited abortion from being covered by health plans in a health exchange. We passed legislation assuring the women and their unborn child are better protected under law – through placing stringent requirements on medical professionals and requiring the provision of thorough and vital information to the mother.
And here's what all that "progress" means: Five Planned Parenthood
clinics closed in Wisconsin in 2013/2014 as a direct result of Walker's funding cuts. Most of the services those clinics provided to some 3,000 patients were annual exams, breast cancer screenings, and STD and pregnancy testing. Some of those clinics provided no abortion services whatsoever. As for the law Walker signed banning insurers from offering abortion coverage—those are PRIVATE insurance plans that Wisconsin residents purchase with their own money.
And the legislation that "better protected" women and their unborn children actually forces women to undergo an ultrasound before having an abortion. The law goes so far as to require the ultrasound technician to highlight visible organs and features of the baby. Let's face it—government officials may as well be in the room administering the ultrasound themselves. Although Walker is pretty proud of this bill now, he didn't even have the guts to do a public signing of the legislation back in 2013.
In the same letter where Walker outlined all the "progress" he was making for women above, he also pledged to sign a 20-week abortion ban bill should it reach his desk—which was a complete 180 from the message he relayed to voters during his re-election campaign in 2014.
This is the Scott Walker to remember, no matter what he says on the campaign trail at any given moment. If you believe women should have access to a full range of healthcare options without being shamed or interfered with by the government, remember that Scott Walker will stop at nothing to strip women of those options.
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