Get the Facts on Paul Ryan’s “War Against Women”
In the recent weeks, I have seen a large number of my friends link to a graphic of “Paul Ryan’s War Against Women”. (Depicted below and here.) It is frustrating because this graphic is deeply flawed and unfairly distorts Paul Ryan’s record. The group that put out the graphic, a radical feminist group, is relying on the fact that young Americans aren’t educated and don’t know the issues. Conservatives, arm yourself with the facts below so that you can easily out-debate a liberal.
1. The Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is incredibly misrepresented in the image’s description. The Act does not give fair pay for equal work. Instead, the bill’s purpose is to extend the period of time that women are able to file a claim of wage discrimination. Before this act, anyone facing discrimination had the ability to file within 6 months of the incident. This time frame is for practicality and fairness, not because Paul Ryan doesn’t “think women deserve to earn the same pay as men for the same work”. In the present economy, the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act actually hurts women’s job prospects. Companies are discouraged from hiring women because women employees become a greater liability- companies know that in twenty years’ time, they may be sued by these former employees and have to pay large sums of money. Men become more appealing to hire because they do not present this liability. To accuse Paul Ryan of being anti-woman based on his opposition of an unfair time frame is both extreme and unsubstantiated.
2. Paul Ryan is pro-life, there is no doubt about that. However, this image claims that being pro-life is synonymous with being anti-woman. For this image to declare that Paul Ryan “would even rather let a woman die than allow her to have an abortion” is misleading; Paul Ryan’s record includes voting in favor of legislation that allows women to get an abortion in the case of life endangerment, rape, or incest. The allegation that “He’s supported a bill to allow hospitals to refuse to provide abortion care to a woman, even if she could die without it” is also misleading. It refers to the “Protect Life Act,” H.R. 358, which allows for Catholic hospitals to maintain their religious freedom by not forcing them to perform abortions. (The Church is strongly morally opposed abortion.) It is an act that seeks to protect religious freedom, not ban all hospitals from performing abortion no matter the circumstance.
3. Paul Ryan does wish to de-fund Planned Parenthood. It is speculated to be a deeply corrupt organization that tax payers are being forced to fund, even if they are morally opposed to its work. To quote the Luce Policy Institute, “the government’s role should be to help make health insurance high-quality and affordable by encouraging free market competition among insurance providers.” There is nothing “free-market” about Planned Parenthood.
4. The statement “Happy about free birth control? Rep. Ryan sure isn’t.” is another extreme and misguided statement. Birth control is never free, someone always pays for it. Before, it was the individual who actually used it. Now, it is the tax payers. Ask yourself why a seventy year old man should be forced by the government to give up his hard-earned income to pay for a college woman’s birth control and you will understand Ryan’s opposition to government-subsidized birth control. In response to the allegation that “he adamantly opposed to the health care law’s requirement that insurance companies cover birth control”, this is another issue of freedom of religion being spun by feminists to be a woman’s-issue. Ryan is not opposed to insurance companies covering birth control of their own choice, but he believes that no one should be forced to pay for something if they are morally opposed to its function. This is an issue of liberty, not being anti-woman.
5. The author of this misleading claim is basing it on Ryan’s co-sponsorship of H.R. 212, a human rights bill that would give rights to embryos. This is again an issue of government-subsidization, what government should pay for, and what it shouldn’t pay for. Ryan believes that taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to fund something they are morally opposed to.
