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Christie wins: It's a Sad Day for New Jersey Women
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Republican Governor-elect Chris Christie at his acceptance speech in Parsippany, NJ.
I felt special these past few weeks because after all the beef I get from being from New Jersey, after how much everyone else in the country makes fun of New Jersey, we were in the national spotlight these past few weeks before the election. President Barack Obama even came to Fairleigh Dickinson, which is near my house, as well as visiting Newark and other cities to help Democratic Governor Jon Corzine in his re-election campaign. Obama even created an entire webpage just for the New Jersey election.
And now I'll have to fear that my rights as a women and my reproductive health are in jeopardy every day once Republican Governor-elect Chris Christie takes office. You think I'm exaggerating? I've already discussed where Christie stands on many issues concerning women, but let's revisit the topic in light of the recent results.
Christie will not mandate insurance companies to cover mammograms. To me this says, Christie does not care if women are able to afford to prevent breast cancer, one of the most easily treatable cancers when caught early. Don't be fooled by his sob story about his mother having breast cancer and how much he cares about women's health. Of course he cares about his mother's health. That's a completely different statement from "He cares about all women's health." He says he supports early detection for breast cancer, but he leaves out, "If you can afford it without your health insurance." Newsflash, Chris Christie: Not everyone can afford it.
Christie wants to decrease abortions by increasing restrictions on women's rights. He says on his own website that he wants to enact parental consent laws (which work wonderfully when you have a loving, functional family, but could backfire horribly if you have an abusive father and/or go to an unlicensed, illegal abortion provider), and 24-hour waiting periods (because it's not like you went through all the trouble to decide to have an abortion, make the appointment, secretly take a day off of work and actually go to said appointment, now you need to go back home and "think about it," because women obviously can't think for themselves). There is no mention of comprehensive sex education, affordability and accessibility of birth control, ya know... practical solutions to reducing the number of abortions by reducing the number of unintended pregnancies.
Christie wants to get rid of the paid family leave program that Corzine put in place. I'm happy for Christie that he was able to marry a woman who chose to be a stay-at-home mom and raised four seemingly healthy, wonderful children. Newsflash, Chris Christie: Not every family can afford to live off of one income. Not every family can afford to take 6 weeks off work to have a baby or care for a sick family member (and let's be honest, it's usually women who do so). Most families rely on 2 incomes, and when women make 80 cents to $1 for men, we're already at an unfair advantage.
Same-sex marriage would get passed if Corzine were re-elected, but not now. Corzine has openly said that he wants to pass a marriage equality bill in New Jersey. Christie has openly said that he opposes same-sex marriage. I think that issues of gender equality are very closely linked with that of equality regarding sexuality, so this issue is still key to women's rights in my book. Not to mention the lesbian women who it directly affects. Thanks, Chris Christie, for openly denying an essential human right to a group of people just because you don't like queers. Guess what? We don't like you either.
It's obvious that Chris Christie is out of touch with reality. Living in the same town of Mendham that he does, I can see first hand that most of the people in this area do not represent your typical New Jersian, nor your typical American. They represtent the top percentage of the state and country to which Christie wants to give tax cuts to: the people who don't need it. They also live in their upper-middle-class suburban bubbles and have no idea how the rest of the country lives, nor do they care. If this is the class that the majority of New Jersians want our governor to cater to, then I say we are screwed.
