Thanks for nothing, ladies
UPDATE: I mistakenly identified only nine women members of Congress that voted against the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. The number is actually TEN. Thanks to Kathy Kramer in the comments who pointed out my oversight.
The U.S. House of Representatives today passed the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 (VAWA) which had lapsed in 2011. Renewal of the VAWA was repeatedly voted down by Republicans for nearly two years. The version the House passed today was a comprehensive bill that extended protections to Native American women, lesbians & gays, and immigrants. It was passed after a watered-down Republican version was rejected. Because the bill they passed had already passed the Senate, it now goes to President Obama for his signature.
When the bill passed the Senate, every single woman in the Senate voted for it. However, among the 138 House members who voted against it today, all whom were Republicans, there were nine TEN women who joined them.
Here’s the list of female members of Congress who voted against protecting women from domestic violence and other forms of violence against women:
- Michele Bachman (MN-06)
- Diane Black (TN-06)
- Marsha Blackburn (TN-07)
- Renee Ellmers (NC-02)
- Virginia Foxx (NC-05)
- Vicky Hartlzer (MO-04)
- Cynthia Lummis (WY)
- Kristi Noem (SD)
- Martha Roby (AL-02)
- Ann Wagner (MO-02)
Let’s give these brave women a hand shall we? Rather than making sure that women in this country are protected from violence, they stayed loyal to the hateful ideology of the Republican Party, did their part in the Republican War on Women and tried to ensure that those protections would never come to be.
It’s word I’m using a lot today but I feel compelled to use it again: shameful.
P.S., my own anti-woman Congressman Tim Walberg (MI-07) joined his colleagues in voting against this important legislation. The rest of the list is HERE.
[Images by Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog]
