MoveOn launched a powerful new ad starring Lisa Edelstein of the Emmy & Golden Globe award-winning TV show “House” as a rebuttal to the GOP’s all-out assault on women’s health. The response has been incredible, with everyone from the NY Times to Salon praising the ad for it’s bold and chilling message: that blocking women’s access to vital services means taking women back to the back alley. Many people aren’t aware of all the Republicans are doing to block vital services for women. Below you’ll find MoveOn’s Top 10 Ways Republicans Have Attacked Women, plus a link to Salon’s coverage of the ad.

Salon: A “House” Actress’s Chilling Pro-Choice Ad
In a new campaign, Lisa Edelstein illustrates the stark price of cutting back abortion rights
http://www.salon.com/news/abortion/index.html?story=%2Fent%2Ffeature%2F2011%2F02%2F16%2Flisa_edelstein_justin_bieber_abortion

10 Ways Republicans Have Attacked Women This Year
1) Congressional Republicans are pushing a bill that would not only drastically reduce women’s access to affordable abortion care, but would actually redefine rape when it comes to federal spending. After a major backlash, they promised to remove the provision. But they haven’t yet. Shocker.
2) A state legislator in Georgia proposed to change the official legal term for victims of rape, stalking and domestic violence to “accuser.” But victims of other less gendered crimes, like burglary, would remain “victims.”
3) In South Dakota, Republican lawmakers proposed a bill that could make it legal to murder a doctor who provides abortion care. (Yep, for real.)
4) In Congress, Republicans are debating a bill that would let hospitals allow a woman to die rather than perform an abortion necessary to save her life.
5) The official Republican budget proposal calls for cutting $758 million of food and basic health care aid to low-income pregnant women, infants and new mothers–and another $50 million from a program that helps over two million women and 27 million kids. 6) Republicans in Maryland showed their true colors when voting to cut all county funding for Head Start (pre-school for low-income kids). During debate, two (male) lawmakers noted that women should really be home with the kids, not out working. So no need for preschool.
7) At the same time, Congressional Republicans have proposed a $1 billion cut in Head Start–which will cause 368,000 children to lose their access to preschool nationwide. Wonder how they feel about women working…
8) And finally, Republicans will vote any day now on a bill to cut $327 million of funding from women’s health clinics that provide services like cancer screenings, birth control, and gynecological exams…
9) …and in that same bill, are pushing an amendment that would cut all federal funding from Planned Parenthood health centers, one of this country’s most trusted women’s health clinics…
10) And if that wasn’t enough, a Republican congressman, Dan Burton, wants to use federal money to help wild horses get contraception–at exactly the same time Republicans are pushing to cut all funds for the only federal family planning program for humans. Yes. Seriously.

Sources:
1. “Making Credit Safer: The Case for Regulation,” Harvard Magazine, June 2008
http://harvardmagazine.com/2008/05/making-credit-safer-html

2. “GOP Tried To Block Elizabeth Warren From Heading Agency She Proposed,” Huffington Post, October 27, 2009
http://dev.moveon.org:12500/r?r=90368

3. Elizabeth Warren Wikipedia Entry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Warren

4. “Elizabeth Warren is Bostonian of the Year,” The Boston Globe, December 20, 2009
http://dev.moveon.org:12500/r?r=90369

5. “How HAMP Makes Elizabeth Warren The Only Choice For Consumer Protection,” The New Deal 2.0, July 22, 2010
http://dev.moveon.org:12500/r?r=90370

Got a New Sheriff, Main Street Brigade

“Elizabeth Warren is Bostonian of the Year,” The Boston Globe, December 20, 2009
http://dev.moveon.org:12500/r?r=90369

“Jon Stewart to Elizabeth Warren: Let’s Make Out,” Talking Points Memo, January 27, 2010
http://dev.moveon.org:12500/r?r=90371