Pants on Fire # 16: Romney and Women

The Lies:  

Presidential candidate Mitt Romney cares about women and has proactively hired women in 2002, for example, when he was governor of Massachusetts. 

In fact, he said in the Oct. 16 debate, "We took a concerted effort to go out and find women who had backgrounds that could be qualified to become members of our cabinet. I went to a number of women's groups and said, 'Can you help us find folks?' And they brought us whole binders full of women."

Also, he thinks all women should have access to birth control without interference from government bureaucracy or employers. 

The Truths:

The organization that gave Mitt Romney the "binders full of women" that he used to find women to employ in his governorship begs politely to disagree. The day after the debate,  Jesse Mermell, who ran the group that compiled those binders, told reporters, "To be perfectly clear, Mitt Romney did not request those resumes. After the election, our group approached the Romney transition team with the resumes, or the so-called 'binders full of women.'"

Also, Mitt Romney may think women should be able to use birth control, but according to other parts of his campaign's policies and the official Republican Party's platform, they'll have to pay for it themselves.

Gov. Romney has wavered about birth control and other women's health issues, including a woman's right to choose. His running mate, Paul Ryan, has said he personally would like to make it impossible for women to obtain an abortion for any reason whatsoever, including rape, incest, and the mother's health (all of which reasons Madame L thinks should be good enough and should be up to a woman to decide).

In addition, Gov. Romney has promised that, if he is elected, he will repeal "Obamacare" and do away with Planned Parenthood, the organization that many women rely on not only for birth control but also for well-checkups for overall health and cancer screenings.

Madame L just doesn't understand how Mitt Romney can claim to care about women and their jobs and their health when every one of his policies regarding women would be detrimental to them.