Former Florida governor and Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush recently claimed that he doesn’t believe America “need(s) half a billion dollars for women’s health issues.”
The comment came in the midst of an interview at the Southern Baptists Convention about his decision to support the federal defunding of Planned Parenthood that has kept news
organizations busy for the past few weeks.
What must have seemed like a cursory remark to him has set the feminist world ablaze.
Women everywhere felt hurt and offended by the comment.
Even Carly Fiorina, a female Republican presidential candidate, said she thought the comment was unwarranted and predicted the Democratic candidates would surely take the sound bite bait.
“And it is foolish to say that women’s health isn’t a priority,” Fiorina said. “Of course it’s a priority. We can talk later about how and where that money gets spent. But it is Democrats who want to talk about women’s health when they talk about Planned Parenthood.”
Bush wasn’t looking too bad to Republican voters until this Sunday.
Fox News published their own poll from this weekend that revealed Bush was fourth in the polls. Trump has swept public opinion in the GOP once again as the front-runner.
Whether it’s this comment or something else that’s spurred Republicans to distance themselves from Bush is a mystery.
But by voicing this extremely ambivalent response to women’s health issues, he has essentially said to his potential female voters, “I mean, like, eh.”
It’s one thing not to support women’s rights to choose what to do with their bodies, especially when it’s as life-changing as harboring a child, but it’s completely different to tell them none of their health concerns are important enough to spend more than $3 per person on.
It took no time after the comment aired before Hillary Clinton tweeted to Bush’s Twitter “You are absolutely, unequivocally wrong.”
Bernie Sanders jumped on the chance to point out Bush’s discourtesy and to draw more attention back to his petition to give women paid maternity leave and access to adequate healthcare through Planned Parenthood.
Sanders has repeatedly voted no against restrictions on abortion during his time in Congress.
With quick moves from the other side of the aisle, Bush cannot simply rely on Donald Trump’s boorish, foot-in-mouth comments to make him look better by comparison.
He has to watch what he says so as not to alienate large demographics, including half of the U. S.
population.
Otherwise, he’s no better than Trump.
meickhof@indiana.edu
