Hey, Mitt, Don't Tell Me You Love Women!

Open Letter To the Republican Party and their fearless leader, Willard Mitt Romney:

DON'T TELL ME YOU LOVE WOMEN WHEN:

• You say you want women to have jobs, but will not stand up for equal pay. If you cared a whit, Mitt, you would be outraged that women only earn 77 cents for every dollar that men make. You would say that it is wrong and that you would advocate for change. Instead, you have been silent. 77 cents on the dollar? Do you have any idea how much money that adds up to? What we could do for our families with that money? This is an economic issue!

DON'T TELL ME YOU LOVE WOMEN WHEN:

• Your party voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and you refuse to say whether you support it or are opposed to it. If you "love" women, how can you be against allowing women to sue for wage discrimination? Why is it so hard for you to answer the question, Mitt? Afraid the truth won't set you free? This is an economic issue!

DON'T TELL ME YOU LOVE WOMEN WHEN:

• You and your party are opposed to any minimum wage protections at all. You and your party are so concerned with protecting the "free market" and believe that the minimum wage gets in the way of that. You know that most of the minimum wage jobs are held by women, but hey, Mitt, let's get rid of that pesky minimum wage. Let your corporate buddies pay us coolie wages and we should be thankful that we have jobs, right? Don't protect women, but guard those corporations with your life! This is an economic issue!

DON'T TELL ME YOU LOVE WOMEN WHEN:

• You and your party have the balls to tell women that legislators will make our health care decisions for us. What? Grey-haired,old men are wiser and more intelligent about us and our health needs? We are too stupid or untrustworthy to make our own decisions about our own health needs? Health is an economic issue!

DON'T TELL ME YOU LOVE WOMEN WHEN:

• You plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act. That law makes it illegal for insurance companies to say that being a woman is a pre-existing condition. Allowing an insurance company to charge me more for insurance because I am a woman? This is an economic issue!
• The Affordable Care Act allows me and all women to get diagnostic services without a co-pay. If I need a mammogram, a breast ultrasound, a pap smear, a colonoscopy, they are covered. Take that law away and it costs me more money to guard my health. This is an economic issue!
• The Affordable Care Act closes the Medicare doughnut hole, saving all seniors money, including seniors who happen to be women. This is an economic issue!
• You have plans to get rid of Planned Parenthood, Mitt? You and your party are trying, don't even deny it! Millions of American women use the services of Planned Parenthood every year. They can't afford anything else. The services provided are the only way that these women can find out they have cancer, get contraception, treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, etc. and you're gonna get rid of it? Guess what, Mitt and friends? If I get sick from cancer, I can't work. I might die. If I get pregnant when my family can barely afford to live now, I will miss work. If I go untreated with a sexually transmitted disease, I can spread it. These are economic issues!

DON'T TELL ME YOU LOVE WOMEN WHEN:

• You and your party decide that you know what rape is and what kind of rape qualifies as rape. If I say I have been raped, must I really draw you and Congress a diagram? I have to prove the crime in court; I shouldn't have to prove it to Congress! Your vice-presidential running mate, Paul Ryan was a sponsor of HR 3. He had the nerve to stand by a bill that said that unless a woman physically fights off her attacker, it is not forcible rape, therefore, not really rape. If I die during a rape, does it then qualify as real?

DON'T TELL ME YOU LOVE WOMEN WHEN:

• You and your party support the Blunt Amendment, which would allow my boss to deny me insurance-covered contraception because he is "morally" opposed to it. Yes, Mitt, I read it. My boss gets to tell me no contraception included in my insurance coverage, but he still gets to have his Viagara covered. I am sure you already know this, but by the way, Mitt, that "man" medicine costs $10 to $15 per little blue pill.

DON'T TELL ME YOU LOVE WOMEN WHEN:

• You and your GOP friends include the Personhood Amendment in your party platform. That will outlaw all abortions, with no exceptions. It will also outlaw many forms of birth control and IVF, which is something your own kid used to have a baby. Speaking of your own kid, part of the IVF contract included the right to terminate the pregnancy that resulted. Abortion okay for your own, but no one else? Don't even tell me that you believe in exceptions to abortion. I read your party platform...

Mitt, I could go on and on, but what's the use? Misogynists don't care about women and you are a misogynist. You and your party say you love women because you want something. It is very simple. "I'll say I love you and I care about you, and then you will give me your vote."

My mother was not always politically correct, but she got her point across. When I was a teenager, she always said: "Jillian, don't ever fall for a guy's line. When it's up, he'll say he loves you. Give him what he wants and he probably won't say the same thing when it goes down."

She didn't even know that all those years ago, she was teaching me about guys like you...

Sincerely,

Jillian Barclay