What We're Reading This Morning -- May 3
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Good morning everyone! Yesterday, Newt Gingrich dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed fellow anti-women’s health candidate Mitt Romney. Today, Michele Bachmann is set to add her name to the list of Romney endorsers. As all our “favorite” chumps coalesce around the presumptive Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, he continues to struggle with women voters. Here’s what we’re reading this morning…
Prominent Catholic bishop admits that their anti-women’s health, anti-birth control policies may not be in line with members of the Church. “Dolan Admits Catholics Don’t Agree With Church’s Birth Control Prohibition” – “Catholic bishops have loudly opposed the Obama administration’s plan to expand contraception access, despite the fact that a majority of Catholics disagree with the church’s position. New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan even has claimed that expanding access to birth control would spread ’secularism.’ But in an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Jansing, Dolan conceded that most Catholics reject the Church’s prohibition on birth control and likely support the administration’s compromise:
CHRIS JANSING (MSNBC HOST): Do you think Catholics will vote on the birth control issue, for example?
DOLAN: No, I don’t think they’d do that. [...] You are right, and many people are right, when they say bishops, I don’t know if you’ve got your people with you on the specific issue of contraception.
It’s no surprise Mitt Romney has a problem with women, but the poll numbers look even starker among unmarried women. “Mitt Romney’s Problem With Unmarried Women Voters Could Sink Him”—“In the weeks after an NBC News poll showed Mitt Romney losing women voters to President Obama by 20 points, an alarmed Romney began to put women out front in his campaign. Ann Romney stepped forward as his chief surrogate, women were placed behind him at events to show a female-friendly audience, and when Governor Romney began to refer to an entrepreneur in his stump speech, he pointedly referred to the business leader as a ‘she.’ But all of those theatrics may have been crafted to solve a problem that does not exist, because Mitt Romney does not have a woman problem, per se. In the latest Gallup tracking polls, he is winning among married women by 9 points over President Obama. Married women like his policies, they like his values, and they seem to relate to the father of five and longtime married man. But when unmarried women are polled, they go for Obama by a 28-point margin, making a 37-point marriage gap that could spell the end of Romney’s presidential ambitions unless he can win over more unmarried women or increase turnout among men and married women enough to blunt the impact of that gap.”
An anti-women’s health bill heads to Kansas Governor Sam Brownback’s desk. “Kansas Senate passes abortion bill, sending it to Brownback”—“A bill giving more legal protection to Kansas health care providers who refuse to participate in abortions was on its way Wednesday to Gov. Sam Brownback, despite concerns it would limit access to birth control and allow some professionals to block life-saving care. The Senate approved the ’conscience’ measure 23-16. The House passed the bill last month, and Brownback, a Republican who strongly opposes abortion, is expected to sign it. The new law would take effect July 1. Abortion opponents argued that the legislation merely updates decades-old state laws preventing doctors and hospitals from being forced to participate in abortions or sterilizations. They said changes are needed because women seeking abortions can now use drugs to induce them, and health care professionals who oppose abortion shouldn't face the threat of losing their jobs or being sued if they follow their consciences.”
