Young GOP Challenges Party re: Morning After Pill

[winnied]

www.buzzfeed.com/zekejmiller/meet-the-22-year-old-young-republican-who-challeng

Meet The 22-Year Old Young Republican Who Challenged Her Party On The Morning After Pill

"TAMPA, Florida — When delegates to the Republican National Convention gathered in a hotel room yesterday to finalize the party's unbending opposition to abortion, the youngest member of the platform committee was the one who raised the loudest objections.

Jackie Curtiss, 22, is hardly a squishy Northeastern moderate. She's a political science and business major at the University of Montevallo, outside Birmingham, Alabama, and staunchly anti-abortion. She arrived at the convention as a delegate for conservative champion Rick Santorum. But she's also on the leading edge of what she sees as a generational divide inside her party, with even younger social conservatives reckoning with a different society than their parents'.

“I’m a little disappointed that the Republican Party didn’t take into account that with college educated women, they support Barack Obama 63-32 percent,” Curtiss told reporters after the platform committee adjourned. “Some of these issues are the reason for that.”

Curtiss made waves in the committee when she objected to an amendment to the platform banning medication "that terminates human life after conception." The amendment was aimed at RU-486 and other so-called “abortion pills," but Curtiss warned that it could potentially include the “morning after pill.” With a national controversy swirling around Rep. Todd Akin's skepticism that rape could cause pregnancy, Curtiss — the only person to even refer to the embattled congressman — said the platform needed to make it clear that the party is welcoming to women.

“I think it’s a huge issue. I think you can tell that by all the Republican candidates coming out in opposition to him,” she said. “We don’t need to get hung up on him, but we also don’t need to support policies that mirror his.”

Nevertheless, the amendment passed and found its way into the party’s 2012 manifesto.

The same was true for abstinence-only education. Curtiss was joined by a handful of delegates in opposing the language which was being inserted into the platform. She also said she backs an exception to the abortion ban for rape victims, but did not offer an amendment on that pont.

“I’m from Alabama — we have abstinence-only education, we also have one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the country,” Curtiss said. “While I support abstinence and I think it’s something to teach our kids, I also am realistic and understand a majority of our kids are not waiting until marriage to have sex.”

Curtiss is the youngest delegate to the platform committee by nearly a decade. She said she feels some responsibility to advocate for the concerns of young Republicans who care more about jobs and the economy than social issues. (She's a committed party activist: She is the National Committeewoman for the Young Republican Federation of Alabama and a member of the Finance Committee for the Young Republican National Federation.)

“While they are socially conservative and want to have that in the platform, they don’t want that to be the main focus,” Curtiss said of young Republicans. “They want jobs, the economy to be the main focus. And I feel like we kind of got away from that in the last committee.”

Curtiss said she’s hopeful that the GOP will come around next cycle.

“I think it’s a generational thing,” she said. “I’m 22, I was the youngest person on the platform committee by 10 years. It’ll come around, and I hope it does. I’m for limited government and hopefully we can move forward on some of these issues that I think my generation, we don’t want to get stuck in — how we teach sex education, we don’t want to get caught up in people’s bodies. We are pro-life, and we don’t want to compromise our principles, we do want to be more realistic as a party."

The senior Republicans who ran the committee, however, gave no ground, and said they thought the GOP had adequately addressed the younger Republicans' concerns.

“We had a lot of young people here as delegates. And they had input and they were part of the process," said Sen. John Hoeven, the platform committee co-chair. "And I think if you talked to them, they went away feeling that they had a big say and a big part in the document that was crafted.”"



Clearly most people here won't agree with their stance on the pro-life/pro-choice debate but I found the article interesting.

[Deleted]

Dare to dream, young lady. Dare to dream.

In all seriousness, I hope she's right and that the GOP stops pushing the social issues down our throats. But I'm not as idealistic as she is and I'm not holding my breath. I'm sure the GOP relies on these issues to get out huge swaths of it base. I look at my MIL every election. She has consistently voted against her best interests...solely because of social issues. (To be fair, I understand that goes both ways).

[MrsAxilla]

What is Akin's position on Plan B? It's medicine's way of "shutting all that down" to avoid pregnancy.

[winnied]

Most young republicans I know are similar to this young woman. Most are also pro-gay marriage.

[MrsDL]

Aug 22, 2012 14:58:22 GMT -5 winnied said:

Most young republicans I know are similar to this young woman. Most are also pro-gay marriage.

yes - the GOP needs more people like her. Like pp said - dare to dream. Maybe when the old guys die off they'll be more of them.

That said, big eyeroll at the "I wish the GOP would stop pushing social issues down our throat." Dems most certainly do this too - but if you're a dem, that platform's social issues go down nice and easy because you agree with them. It's all about perspective.

[mcgee]

The Republican party definitely needs more young voices, especially if they're willing to drag the party away from the far religious right and toward positions that are both factually accurate and more inclusive of the opinions of the majority of Americans. Good for her for being a part of the process and trying to promote change from within. I hope other young people in the party see her as an example to follow.

[Deleted]

Aug 22, 2012 16:29:10 GMT -5 @mx said:

We watched the health subcommittee of the GOP do their parliamentary procedure thing last night. It was shocking how much they focused on abortion (and that the only people really speaking on amendments related to abortion were women). I was happy to see this woman speak up, as well as the man from Nevada who spoke up in defense of marriage equality. The best part was when the "experts" in the room were voted down (in one case a state attorney general pointing our that the amendment proposed was not accurate per the law it referenced and was told "we don't need your legalese." And then two doctors who pointed out that not treating teens for STIs without their parents permission could have potentially serious negative public health consequences were dramatically outvoted).

What qualifies as teen? In Ontario its 14 - so if you are under 14, your doc would need your parents permission, but over 14 you don't.
At least, it used to be that way. I assume it still is.

[cattledogkisses]

Aug 22, 2012 18:38:50 GMT -5 @lauriergirl28 said:

Aug 22, 2012 16:29:10 GMT -5 @mx said:

We watched the health subcommittee of the GOP do their parliamentary procedure thing last night. It was shocking how much they focused on abortion (and that the only people really speaking on amendments related to abortion were women). I was happy to see this woman speak up, as well as the man from Nevada who spoke up in defense of marriage equality. The best part was when the "experts" in the room were voted down (in one case a state attorney general pointing our that the amendment proposed was not accurate per the law it referenced and was told "we don't need your legalese." And then two doctors who pointed out that not treating teens for STIs without their parents permission could have potentially serious negative public health consequences were dramatically outvoted).

What qualifies as teen? In Ontario its 14 - so if you are under 14, your doc would need your parents permission, but over 14 you don't.
At least, it used to be that way. I assume it still is.

In the US I would assume this references anyone under 18.

It's interesting to me that most of the Rs I know who are my age (20s) don't toe the party line with regards to social issues. I can definitely see the generational divide. The optimist in me hopes that as the older Rs die off the young 'uns will eventually shift the party toward a more moderate stance on social issues, but that's probably overly optimistic.

[basilosaurus]

I find it pretty sobering that the so-called moderate voice, one that they ignored, is staunchly anti-abortion. Is it not possible to have any pro-choice Rs anymore?

Yeah, sure, she wants those issues to take a back seat, but wouldn't that make her apathetically anti-abortion?

[basilosaurus]

Aug 22, 2012 18:38:50 GMT -5 @lauriergirl28 said:

Aug 22, 2012 16:29:10 GMT -5 @mx said:

What qualifies as teen? In Ontario its 14 - so if you are under 14, your doc would need your parents permission, but over 14 you don't.
At least, it used to be that way. I assume it still is.

Actually, it depends on the state. I believe most states allow teen girls of a certain age to not have parental consent for issues concerning STIs, BCPs, and abortion.

However, it varies. For instance, in Texas, any minor (ie under 18) needs parental consent to get birth control if a clinic receives state funding. But all states allow minors to get STI testing (some require you to be at least 14), but may also allow for parental notification of results. HIV testing usually has separate consent laws.

And then abortion, that's all over with whether consent or notification is mandated and at what age.