This post in is response to NARAL‘s Blog For Choice Day question: What will you do to help elect pro-choice candidates in 2012?
Hopefully it’s no surprise that I’ve chosen to participate in NARAL’s Blog For Choice Day. It is especially important to me this year to raise my voice with others, sharing what we will do to help elect pro-choice candidates in 2012.
I’ve previously written about the Republican candidates, and why I am so, so fearful of any of them having a shot at the presidency of our country. Women’s health is truly at stake in this election both at the national and state levels. We need to ensure that we elect representatives that will have our best interests at heart.
What will I be doing to help ensure pro-chose candidates are elected? I will keep on talking about the issues. I will talk about them until I’m blue in the face and people are sick of hearing about them. And then I’ll talk some more.
If we stay silent and just cross our fingers, hoping that somebody else will pick up the slack, or that our favored candidate will somehow magically win, well…then we shouldn’t be disappointed when it all falls apart around us. Instead – talk about what issues are important to you, and find out which ones are important to the candidates running.
Make sure to find out what positions are up for election your state. Find our who is running and check out their voting records. Promises and pretty commercials are nice, but solid voting records will give a realistic look of who you’re voting for.
For example, just the other day, the Obama administration announced that religiously affiliated hospitals or universities MUST have their health insurance plans cover birth control with no co-pays for female employees. Despite many folks lobbying against the bill, trying to create wide exemptions, the Obama administration stepped up to the plate, protecting this important access to birth control. I want to see more of this type of action in Congress!
For me, a candidate who listens to his and her constituents, and votes on their behalf is more important than hollow promises that go unfulfilled. With recent polls showing more people considering themselves pro-choice than pro-life, politicians have a duty to represent these view in Congress.
Even if you personally don’t agree with abortion, please allow other women the chance to choose. Ensure this by electing representatives who will protect that right. I will do everything I can to know the platforms my local candidates are running on, and will support them up until voting day.
What will YOU be doing to help elect pro-choice candidates in 2012?
The Mamafesto 
It’s our duty and privilege, each of us, to learn be informed voters. We must research the issues and the candidates that affect us and vote accordingly. We should NEVER rely on the hateful and often less than truthful (and expensive) commercials that we see on television or simply do as we’re told by a preacher on Sunday morning.