Pence Likely to Worsen Trump's Problems with Gays, Women and Minorities

As noted in prior posts, Mike Pence is an anti-gay ideologue who happily signed Indiana's license to discriminate law surrounded by a group of anti-gay extremists and religious fanatics.  But LGBT voters are not the only ones who ought to be terrified by Pence as Donald Trump's vice presidential running mate. Women and minorities ought to be similarly disturbed if not out right terrified.  Pence is a determined opponent of women's rights and would close down Planned Parenthood and thereby live countless poor women with no source of need healthcare treatment and cancer screening options. It goes without saying that Pence is a darling of the anti-democracy theocrats who want to exempt Christofascists from the laws governing the rest of us.  A piece in the Washington Post looks at how Pence will likely aggravate Trump's problem with women voters.  A similar piece in The Nation describes Pense as a smooth talking "legitimate rape" Todd Akin.  Here are highlights from the Post article:

Donald Trump has already had problems making inroads with female, gay and minority voters. His vice-presidential pick, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, could make things even worse.

Pence, the Republican governor of Indiana, has endorsed conservative legislation on abortion, gay rights and immigration both in his home state and while in Congress, where he was consistently ranked as one of the most right-leaning members of the House. He attempted to shut down the government over Planned Parenthood funding, supported a measure that made English the nation’s official language and signed one of the nation’s strictest abortion laws earlier this year.

Pence is almost certain to appeal to socially conservative and evangelical voters . . . . By picking Pence, Trump added his inverse to the ticket: a social-issues warrior with a long, very conservative track record.

Democrats (including presumptive presidential nominee Hillary Clinton), women’s health advocates and gay rights groups wasted no time pouncing on Pence, whom they described as extreme, anti-woman and anti-gay. . . . . “Donald Trump just sent a message to the women of America: Your health and your lives are not important.” 

A Washington Post-ABC News poll last month found that 77 percent of women had an unfavorable impression of Trump, including 65 percent who saw him in a “strongly unfavorable” light. Trump’s negative ratings among women are more than 20 percentage points higher than the ratings 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney received at any point in that campaign.
 Earlier this year, Pence signed one of the nation’s furthest-reaching abortion laws, which bans abortions of fetuses diagnosed with Down syndrome or any other disability or because of their race, sex or ancestry. The measure subjects abortion providers to disciplinary sanctions and civil liability for wrongful death for performing an abortion for any of the reasons stated in the law. . . . “This law attempted to do exactly what Supreme Court precedent said could not be done: invade a woman’s privacy rights by preventing her from deciding whether to obtain a pre-viability abortion,” Ken Falk, the legal director of the Indiana ACLU, said.

Representatives for Trump did not respond to requests for comment. . . . The choice of Pence was praised by antiabortion advocates.