Letter: Bush subverts women’s rights

Monday, Feb. 9, 2004 | 9:04 a.m.

Women and lower- to middle-income families have a lot at stake in the November elections. I have found several reasons that women and families should pay attention to what is in the Bush agenda.

Bush is pushing a so-called "Family Time Flexibility Act" that allows employers to deny paid overtime and force compensatory time off, not at time and a half, but straight-time equivalents.

Bush has placed a doctor who says "Christ heals women's illnesses through prayer" onto the FDA's Administrative Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee.

Bush prohibits women serving in the military from safe abortion procedures, even though they pay for them themselves.

Bush has appointed a director of the Federal Housing Finance Board who claims, "Women are no longer affected by discrimination in the workplace."

Bush appointed an ultra-conservative woman to the National Advisory Committee on Violence Against Women who has posted on a website the following: "The battered women's movement has outlived it usefulness."

Bush is actively engaged in targeting three Democratic woman senators heavily engaged in women's issues. They are: Washington Sen. Patty Murray, California Sen. Barbara Boxer and Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski.

Were I a woman, I would be careful for whom I vote in November.

JAMES J. POUPARD