'Independent' 'Women' Ad: We Know You Love Abortion, Grandma, But Don't You Love Bigotry More?

The Independent Women's Forum sure has a take.

A young woman sits on a couch next to her grandmother, looking at a picture of said grandmother at an abortion rights protest back in the 1970s.

"You must have been so upset at the Supreme Court decision," the granddaughter says. "Are you going to vote to protest it?"

"Every woman has the right to choose," says Grandma, ignoring the fact that women in 13 states no longer in fact have the right to choose, "but it isn't 1973 anymore."

"Back then there was no birth control, now there are all kinds," she continued, somehow forgetting that the FDA approved the Pill in 1960. "Women have a lot more choices than they did back then. And many states have already legalized abortion!"

"But this is such a big deal!" says the granddaughter.

“And you know what’s a bigger deal?” asks Grandma, "Unsafe communities, soaring prices and schools that don’t care about their kids or their parents.”

Grandma, you see, is very concerned about the same racist dogwhistles about "crime" that the Republican Party has trotted out every time they've been in danger of losing an election since the dawn of time, inflation that neither party — particularly the party that doesn't believe in price controls — can do anything about, and making sure that public schools don't interfere with parents' rights to raise their children to be ignorant bigots.

Also, Grandma must not have heard about Sen. Lindsey Graham's proposed nationwide abortion ban bill. Luckily, we are here to remind her.

 Lindsey Graham Has Flawless Plan To Step On Rake With National Abortion Ban! 

“But you fought so hard for abortion rights,” the granddaughter replies.

“And we’ll both keep fighting,” says Grandma. “But we must send a message on other issues hurting other people every day. And that’s what’s on my mind now.”

This is a scene that is currently playing out ... absolutely nowhere in the country right now. Well, except on the Facebook pages of women in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania — four states where the next election could very well determine whether or not abortion will be legal.

The cringey, low budget ad is brought to you by the Independent Women's Forum's 501(c)4 non-profit, Independent Women's Voices, led by Vicks Vaporub heiress Heather Higgins. For the unfamiliar, the IWF is a conservative Republican non-profit that pretends to be non-partisan (as does IWV). It initially grew out of "Women for Judge Thomas," a group of women who desperately wanted the world to know that they were very cool girls who would have been totally cool with Clarence Thomas putting pubic hairs on their Coke cans.

The IWF/IWV gals consider themselves "equity feminists." This means that while they agree that women should not specifically be denied any rights by the state — voting, for instance — sexism and sex-based discrimination are totally fine otherwise and no one should ever, ever question that or even think too deeply about it.

Christina Hoff-Sommers, Camille Paglia, Cathy Young, Wendy McElroy, and Katie Roiphe are all "equity feminists." Pretty much anyone who has come out with an "I'm A Feminist, But Aren't Rape Victims Kind Of Asking For It?" op-ed is an "equity feminist."

The video is only part of IWV's campaign to convince moderate and independent voters to vote Republican in the next election. In a memo titled "A WINNING STRATEGY," the group explains that their plan is to win these voters over by stoking fears about trans people and cancel culture and hoping that these trump any fears they might have about losing their reproductive rights. They fail to note that, short of mass murder, politicians actually have little to no ability to stop trans people from existing or force people to continue to associate with or patronize bigots.

The group's "Strategy Summary For Winning in 2022" also provides a spooky looking list of things it hopes to protect women from — like equal pay, the Violence Against Women Act, paid leave, childcare, and the right to not be forced by one's boss to attend non-work-related meetings about how unions are bad. Sure, these maysound like good things that are widely supported across the nation, but what happens when you list them next to a winged Grim Reaper, hmmm? That's pretty spooky, huh? Kinda makes you want to get paid less, be forced to come back to work the day after giving birth, and pay out the nose for childcare! Or trade your soul to be super good at an instrument or help your favorite baseball team beat the Yankees. One of those things, surely.

So far, the video itself does not seem to be going over too well. The statistics say it's been shown to 45-50,000 people on Facebook and it has so far generated 8 comments, nearly all of them from people who don't think abortion should be legal. It is hard to imagine, really, that this Grandma represents a vast contingent of people who support reproductive rights and who would be willing to give them up in order to pursue conservative priorities that either politicians can't actually do very much about anyway or oppose policies from which they would materially benefit. I'm sure they exist — there are certainly a lot of self-identified "feminists" out there who would probably trade their reproductive rights just to spite trans kids — but it's doubtful they exist in the numbers needed to make a difference in an election.

This does not seem like the greatest strategy to me, but hey, it can't hurt to be aware of it.

[ Washington Post ]

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