The Violence Against Women Act, which has enjoyed widespread, bipartisan support since its inception in the mid-1990s, is up for renewal. However, gender politics are fueling a heated debate in the Senate.
President Barack Obama and leading Democrats, in an effort to protect their leads among female voters, have used proposed Republican policies related to family planning and abortions to portray the GOP as waging a war against women ahead of the November general election, Republicans said.
Senate Democrats have proposed provisions to better protect Native American women, ban the discrimination of gay, lesbian, transgendered and bisexual victims of domestic violence and provide more visas to abused immigrants, but Republicans have said the changes are designed to set them up and distract from other issues, such as the economy, according to the Associated Press.
Sen. John McCain, R-Airz., took to the Senate floor April 26 to explain his stance on gender politics.
"This supposed war on women, or the use of similarly outlandish rhetoric … has two purposes, and both are political," McCain said. "The first, purely political, is to distract people from real issues that matter and the second is to give talking heads something to sputter about when they appear on national television."
McCain pointed out that both women and men have made great strides under the leadership of both parties. He cited secretaries of state and Supreme Court justices as two examples.
"The truth is, both parties have presided over achievements and increases for women," he said. "Both parties have made progress toward insuring both male and female have the ability to succeed as far as their talents allow them."
The House GOP has drawn up its own proposal that would provide the same level of funding to domestic violence programs, but would redirect money for sexual assault investigations, increase maximum penalties under stalking laws and direct more money for testing kits. The GOP proposal also calls for audits of recipients of domestic violence funds, in addition to capping salaries and administrative costs of related services within the Department of Justice. The GOP proposal is void of any protections for immigrants, Native Americans and the LGBT community.
McCain said the notion that one party speaks for all women is "ridiculous."
"It would be absurd for me to speak for all veterans and wrong of me to suggest that if a colleague who isn't a veteran on some issue, he or she must be against all of our veterans," McCain said.
He went on to say that men and women are smart enough to know when one party is trying to use an issue to divide the country and detract from more important issues.
"Americans don't need another hollow slogan or a call to division and partisanship," he said. "Americans of both genders are concerned about finding and keeping a good job … about the direction of our economy. Women and men are concerned about mounting debt—their own and the nation's."
The Senate has enough support to pass its version of the renewal without the threat of Republican filibuster. The bill is on track to pass as early as Thursday evening.
All content © Copyright 2000 - 2013 WorldNow and WVNS. All Rights Reserved.
