Joan Walsh at Salon.com just added weight to the growing furor over Gov. Scott Walker's sudden attempt to whitewash his anti-woman politics. On the campaign trail and in his TV ads, Walker is lately pretending to be a champion of women and women's rights, as we here at Uppity have documented previously. In her latest column on three GOP governors who are "goons" trying to hide their anti-woman record, Walsh leads off with Wisconsin's very own, suddenly not-so-fearless leader:
When we last checked in on Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, he was playing down his problems with women voters and boasting of his strong support among men. Somebody must have read his poll numbers a little more closely, because on Tuesday Walker came out with an ad that brazenly lies about his stance on abortion.
The guy who signed anti-choice legislation mandating an ultrasound and sharply regulating clinics looked straight into a camera and said he did it “to increase safety and to provide more information for a woman considering her options.” That’s not all. Walker had the audacity to claim, “The bill leaves the final decision to a woman and her doctor.”
... Walker is just plain creepy. In his new ad, the dull-eyed governor ... tries to feign concern for women who are seeking abortion. It’s a contrast with the way he glibly dismissed imposing the ultrasound requirement last year, telling reporters, “I don’t have any problem with ultrasound. I think most people think ultrasounds are just fine.”
Of course Walker’s not talking about a medically necessary, jelly-on-the-belly ultrasound that most people welcome to either diagnose disease or check on the health of a fetus. This is at best a coercive procedure and at worst, requires a transvaginal wand, in the case of early-term abortion. (Perhaps Walker should mandate that men seeking Viagra undergo a trans-urethral ultrasound.)
Fact is, Walker's a pro-lifer who's against abortion for any reason, even in cases of rape or incest. He's said so, on camera. Forced ultrasounds and regulations designed to get around the Supreme Court abortion-rights ruling and kill abortion clinics? They represent "unintimidated" Scott Walker trying to intimidate women who seek to make what clearly ought to be entirely personal health choices.
Walker's negligent approach to women's issues also apparently drove him to run another new campaign ad taking credit for toughened laws against domestic abuse of women -- laws initiated and pushed by state Democrats before he ever took office.
The man has a problem, women voters are noticing, polls are reflecting their disdain, and so Walker is trying in the closing days of the fall campaign to shift gears in a hurry to fuzz things up. Given all that he's done to diss women since taking the state's top office four years ago, who possibly could have foreseen an anti-Walker backlash from women voters? Not Walker or his ideological campaign team, at least not until now.
