A few days ago, Obama kicked off the start of his
presidential campaign in Columbus, Ohio by mentioning his opinion on the hot
issue of women’s reproductive health that’s been stirring the voters and the
press. In a New York Times article,
he is quoted as having said, “I want women to control their own health choices.” Obama’s comment triggered a flurry of
responses, but the more productive among those were an evaluation of how the perception of women’s
reproductive health as an issue is influencing recent polls.
Although women’s reproductive health in it of itself is an
interesting enough topic, when viewed under the framework of the presidential
elections that are coming up and recent poll trends, it provides interesting insight into voters’
behaviors.
Recent polls show Obama has no
significant gender gap among his supporters while Mitt
Romney faces a huge gender gap with “far
less support among women than men.” During the primaries, Romney had to woo the staunch conservatives who were clearly against abortions and contraceptives. However, once the primaries are over, the gender gap among Romney's supporters are emerging as a problem as it creates tension between getting the conservative vote and the women's vote.
Nancy Folbre, an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts,
Amherst, explains that it is probably because women have gained more economic
independence but are paid less, and with increasing changes in demographics of
non-married or divorced females, the cost of abortion and contraceptives impact
them directly, creating an incentive to vote.
In fact, female voters have been leaning towards the Democratic Party since
the 1980s for the party’s tendency to advocate increased public expenditures to
education, Medicare and Social Security.
In this instance, the retrospective voting model seems best to explain
women’s voting trends because it’s still about the economy with a female
perspective.
Of course, these are general comments from looking at female
voting trends – it is important to acknowledge there are a number of
differences within this demographic. For
example, votes between women who are full-time mothers versus mothers who go
out and work are split. Still, it is
important to acknowledge that women’s reproductive health issue (or the
perception of it) might become more of a political strategy to pay lip service
to and gain votes than be taken seriously.
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