If there ever was an example of why young women needed to vote, it could be found in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, passed prior to the Democrats taking back the majority in Congress. This Act included a provision that has been detrimental to women's health. It ended the ability of pharmaceutical companies to sell contraceptives at very reduced cost to college clinics and other clinics that were used by low-income women. As such, since the enactment of this provision, the price for birth control sold at these clinics has risen astronomically.

Fortunately, Democrats in both the House and Senate have introduced legislation to reverse this insidious attempt by the former Republican Congress to control the reproductive health of young women. The "Prevention Through Affordable Access Act" (H.R.4054 and S.2347) will restore the ability of pharmaceutical companies to sell contraceptives to clinics at a discount, thereby giving young women the opportunity again to protect their health.

The Bush Administration and Republicans in Congress have been systematically limiting women's rights to privacy and self determination by slipping in restrictions such as this one to the Deficit Reduction Act, in addition to enactment of the Global Gag Rule which prohibits distribution of family planning funds to clinics located outside the United States that provide abortion services.

Many other examples of women's rights being obstructed or denied by the Bush Administration and Congressional Republicans have been written about in previous blog entries, and should convince every woman about the importance of her vote. In particular, by voting for a Democratic President, we will not have to fear that the hard fought freedoms secured by our fore mothers will be in jeopardy any longer.

By voting Democratic we will see appointees to the Supreme Court and Federal Courts that will respect precedent and hold steady to the rights recognized in Roe v. Wade. We will see rulings that do not dismantle laws designed to protect us from pay discrimination and we will reverse the harm done by the recent Supreme Court decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company.

Young women have the power to change the disastrous course charted by the Bush Administration simply by voting. By doing so, young women empower not only themselves, but the generations that follow them into the heart of the 21st Century.