DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Pennsylvania's Rep. Allyson Schwartz spent the day with Philadelphia women discussing the issues that matter to female voters and the recent attempts by Republicans to undermine women's rights. There was plenty to talk about—just this morning, RNC chair Reince Priebus dismissed the GOP's attacks on women's health and women's rights as "a fiction," comparing it to a "war on caterpillars."
The chair kicked off the afternoon by joining a roundtable of women activists, where she told them just how much their voices and their volunteering matter in this election. Pennsylvania will once again be a critical state in this election, and with an 18-point gender gap nationally, the women's vote could decide the result.With Republicans running on a platform that threatens Planned Parenthood and a woman's access to affordable health care, it's up to women voters and organizers, like the ones gathered in Philadelphia this afternoon, to "make it clear what we think of a candidate like Mitt Romney who embraces policies like that."
And that's exactly what they did when the group headed across the street to Philadelphia's Love Park. Flanked by dozens of women—and a few men—clutching "Keep your Mitt(s) off birth control" and wearing pink "I support Planned Parenthood" T-shirts, the two congresswomen publicly called out Romney and Priebus for threatening to defund Planned Parenthood, campaigning on repealing the Affordable Care Act, and suggesting that all of these offenses are "a fiction."
"With all the challenges facing women from all walks of life in this country, the last thing we need is an antagonist in the White House," said Chair Wasserman Schultz.
What we need instead, she said, is "someone who is committed to helping women shatter that ceiling once and for all—and that is exactly the kind of change we've seen with President Obama in the White House."
Consider this: The first piece of legislation the President signed into law was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act. President Obama created a White House Council on Women and Girls, issued more than $3 billion in grants to women-owned small businesses through the Recovery Act, nominated two women to the highest court, and steadfastly defends a woman's right to make decisions about her own body.
The contrast could not be more stark. And as Romney and the Republican Party keep going after women's rights, Chair Wasserman Schultz, Rep. Schwartz, and the women who stood up in Philadelphia today have made it clear: These attacks won't go unanswered.