At Utah Capitol, Hundreds Denounce ‘War on Women’
Here’s the trouble with many of the nation’s recent legislative initiatives targeting the “tiny and intimate details” of women’s private lives: They are the spawn of male lawmakers rather than the fruits of healthy discourse, according to protesters gathered Saturday at the Utah Capitol to denounce what they say amounts to a “war on women.”
The proponents of so-called “personhood” measures and other bills restricting access to reproductive health services never bother to ask female constituents what they think, activists told the few hundred in attendance.
“If you had more women in the legislatures, we wouldn’t have these bad laws,” said Pete Ashdown, a former Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, throwing shoutouts to female legislative candidates in the crowd on the Capitol steps. “I believe we can turn this around. We’ve got to get more women in charge.”
One of those women whom the Salt Lake City Internet entrepreneur would put in charge is Billie Gay Larson, president of the Utah Women’s Democratic Club.
She accused the Republican Party, the Utah Legislature and the state’s congressional delegation of kowtowing to “right-wing fanatics,” such as the Eagle Forum, which she called an “American West version of the Taliban.”