Jeb Bush and Christie Spout Anti-Woman Rhetoric at Wing Nut Gathering

The willingness of would be Republican presidential nominees to prostitute themselves to the Christofascists continues unabated.   And these political whores have shown that they are prepared to trash smart, independent women in the quest to win the votes of misogynists in the GOP base.   Joining such ranks are Jeb "Jebbie" Bush and Chris Christie who made statements that would make the always delusional Phyllis Schlafly proud.   Think Progress looks at the unseemly self-prostitution at the wing nut gathering this week sponsored by Faith & Freedom Coalition and Concerned Bitches Women for America.   The GOP war on women is nowhere close to being over.  Here are highlights:

“It was right here in this room that we celebrated the burial of the Equal Rights Amendment,” conservative Phyllis Schlafly, who led the fight against the constitutional amendment in the 1970s, told a cheering crowd in Washington, D.C. on Friday.

Schlafly has continued her anti-feminism, anti-women’s choice messaging. She has remained in the spotlight by making incendiary remarks, like that women should be paid less than men so they can find husbands. And at the conservative conference co-hosted by the Faith & Freedom Coalition and Concerned Women for America this week, her anti-choice rhetoric was echoed by many of the Republican candidates vying for the presidency in 2016. 

Many of the candidates who spoke discussed their faith and their traditional family values to justify their anti-choice, anti-equality platforms. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who declared his candidacy earlier this week, listed off his anti-choice credentials, including the fact that he signed into law a partial-birth abortion ban and pushed through a constitutional amendment requiring that parents be given notice when their minor daughters seek an abortion. 

Bush also lent his support as governor to “crisis pregnancy centers,” right-wing organizations often posing as women’s health clinics with an explicit anti-choice agenda that use misleading information and deceptive tactics to try to dissuade women from choosing an abortion.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is likely to announce his campaign within the month, also drew loud applause from the conservative audience when he discussed his cuts to Planned Parenthood funding. 

“When [the Democratic legislature] sends me Planned Parenthood funding year after year after year and I am the first governor to veto Planned Parenthood funding out of the budget, there is no room for compromise there,” he said. 

In 2010, Christie eliminated all family planning funding in New Jersey, cutting off $7.5 million that used to support 58 clinics. The action has had drastic effects on the state and its ability to meet the need for family planning services ever since — nine health centers have been forced to close and impoverished residents have suffered.

The biggest irony is that if these Republicans and the Christofascists really wanted to cut the number of abortions, as Europe has shown, the way to do it is through comprehensive, science based sex education in schools and a ready availability of contraception.  The "godly folk," of course strenuously oppose sex ed and contraception, and in the process make the number of abortions higher than they need be.