Political Updates
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of 2011 This is the time of year when we reflect on the past year and look forward to the year ahead. The start of 2011 brought the inauguration of anti-choice Gov. Scott Walker and anti-choice majorities in both houses of our state legislature. The sea change meant that we spent the last year fighting some of the most aggressive anti-choice legislation ever seen in Wisconsin. This year, we have decided to finish the year by naming the good, the bad, and the ugly of 2011. So, here goes… The Good – Rallies and Recalls
Early in 2011, Gov. Walker announced his budget repair bill, stripping away all collective bargaining rights for public employees. Not satisfied that this attack went far enough, he executed the second part of his one-two punch by introducing a budget attacking working families with a heavy emphasis on dismantling women’s health programs. (Really, I’m getting to the “good” part.) In response to these egregious attacks, we worked with our We are Wisconsin partners to plan rallies that drew hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites to the Capitol to rally against Walker’s legislative assault on Wisconsin. We were there for days and weeks and months, alongside you, making our voices heard at the Capitol. Next came the recalls, where we replaced two anti-choice senators with strong pro-choice women. And now we have the opportunity to stop the legislative attacks on Wisconsin women by recalling Gov. Scott Walker. Already more than 500,000 signatures have been collected, and we look forward to continuing our efforts to ensure the recall effort is a success. The Bad – Andre Jacque and “Personhood”
Last month, Mississippi voters overwhelmingly voted against a “personhood” measure in their state. Wisconsin Rep. Andre Jacque clearly didn’t get the message that this kind of attack is out of touch with our priorities because he introduced a similar amendment right here in Wisconsin. His proposal to declare a fertilized egg to be a person with all of the rights outlined in our state constitution is so far overreaching that it would ban abortion with no exceptions and may ban many common forms of birth control. We begin 2012 prepared to fight back. We have already been in contact with our partners in other states who have successfully defeated personhood attempts. We are learning from their experiences and devising our own strategy to ensure successful defeat of personhood in Wisconsin. The Ugly – Gov. Scott Walker and his War on Wisconsin Women
With so many legislative attacks on women’s health, we had a lot of “ugly” from which to choose. From defunding Planned Parenthood to repealing the Healthy Youth Act, and from new restrictions on abortion care to banning a life-saving abortion procedure, anti-choice politicians have tried to place themselves in the middle of the relationship between a woman and her doctor more times than we can count. We struggled to choose one attack uglier than all the rest and finally realized that there is one man behind all of this ugliness. That man is Gov. Scott Walker. Elected on promises of improving the economy, Walker has instead launched an all-out War on Wisconsin Women. We cannot afford three more years of Gov. Walker’s brand of leadership. We move forward to 2012 with our sights set squarely on one target – the RECALL of Gov. Scott Walker. Now we look forward to 2012, prepared to build on the newfound strength of our movement to move us forward in our work to ensure every Wisconsin woman has access to the full range of reproductive health-care choices. | 
