NOW leader raps president for stance on women’s issues

Kirsten Searer

Friday, July 16, 2004 | 9:03 a.m.

The National Organization for Women will hold its national conference at the Riviera this weekend, and the organization's president said the group hopes to focus on unmarried women who don't typically vote.

The Bush administration hasn't been friendly on women's issues, argues NOW President Kim Gandy.

"This is without a doubt the most hostile administration I have ever seen," she said.

The group will be focusing on getting unmarried women out to the polls, she said, noting that unmarried women represent the largest demographic group that isn't registered to vote and doesn't show up at the polls.

Studies show that they don't vote because they believe politicians don't listen to them and the big corporations control political money, she said.

"The realization that you are part of a very powerful voting block I think will turn more women out at the polls," she said.

Gandy has a list of complaints about the Bush administration: Wages have gone down and prices have gone up, and a disproportionate amount of women work in low-income jobs, she said.

Women who are struggling to find work are penalized by welfare reform rules that haven't been relaxed in light of the tough economy, she said. Women and children struggle to find health care, she said.

But her biggest gripes come in the Bush administration's push to cut funds that go to the United Nation's program for pregnant women. As a result, even basic birthing kits have been cut, she said.

"Tens of thousands of women and newborns are dying because they don't have the very basic resources," she said. "Sterile birthing kits cost nothing to produce. It's a plastic sheet, a sterile razor blade and an alcohol swab.

"It can mean the difference for a woman who's giving birth on the floor of a mud hut," she said. "It can mean the difference between living and dying for her and her baby."

The funds were cut when the U.S. government expressed concerns that the money was going toward coerced abortions in China, though the UN denied that assertion.

The organization has endorsed just two presidential candidates during its time, and Gandy stopped short of saying it would endorse Kerry.