It's no secret the GOP is super-scared of the fierce frontrunner force that is Hillary Clinton. But now, Republicans may have struck upon a solution to the crisis: a female veep nominee!
The buzz is that conservatives are circling in on New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte as a potential VP candidate for 2016, and the reasons are mostly sound: she has experience, she's smart and her beliefs regarding the likes of gay marriage and gun rights are in line with those of the base. But what really has the party chomping at the bit is the fact that she's a woman, which could help "court the women's vote" at a juncture when the GOP desperately needs some credibility among women (e.g., saying things like "God intends for rape to happen" and "some girls rape easy" is not the best path to courting the female vote. Who knew?!).
The potential for a qualified female VP candidate to take on a qualified female presidential candidate is, in theory, pretty cool. Except for one glaring problem: Ayotte's positions on women's issues kind of suck.
In particular, Ayotte has a long history of being not only a pro-lifer (that's to be expected), but of actively opposing abortion rights, even in extreme cases. In 2006, in the chillingly named case Ayotte vs. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, she went all the way to the Supreme Court to argue that not only should minors have to get parental permission before getting an abortion (again, to be expected), but that even if not getting the abortion would put minors' health in danger, they should still be denied the procedure (the only exception: if not getting an abortion would prove fatal).
Ayotte lost and won, sort of. The court decided states have the right to mandate parental permission, but noted "A State may not restrict access to abortions that are 'necessary, in appropriate medical judgment for preservation of the life or health of the mother.'"
Despite not really winning, Ayotte made her "victory" against Planned Parenthood a cornerstone of her campaign, even eliciting the praise of (remember her?) Sarah Palin, who remarked:
It’s my honor to endorse a Granite State ‘mama grizzly’ who has broken barriers, fought off and locked up criminals, and battled all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to protect the rights of New Hampshire parents –- and won!
Ayotte also neglected to mention that in 2009, as the state attorney general, she ultimately settled with Planned Parenthood for $300,000 following years of continued legal wrangling in the lower courts. That piece of info apparently didn't fit so tidily into her pandering "I beat evil Planned Parenthood!" narrative.
Oh, and also, she has come out in support of entirely defunding Planned Parenthood.
Does Ayotte have the credentials to be a veep? Seems so. Does she have experience? Yeah. But courting the women's vote takes more than just throwing a woman at us. It takes giving us a woman who actually supports female rights. If the GOP can learn that—and, you know, stop with the rape stuff—us ladies may just start taking the party seriously.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
