Monday, October 26, 2009
Women have good reason to choose Deeds
From the RoundTable blog
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Freeda Lynne Cathcart
Cathcart, of Roanoke, is a former president of the Roanoke Chapter of the National Organization for Women and founder of Mothers United for Midwifery.
Women support Creigh Deeds for governor because Creigh Deeds supports women. This month, the Virginia National Organization for Women PAC endorsed Deeds for governor.
I met state Sen. Deeds about 10 years ago when a group of us were seeking help to legalize midwifery in Virginia. We didn't have money or a lobbyist, but Deeds took the time to listen to our concerns and used bipartisanship to legalize Certified Professional Midwives. Since CPMs became legal, the infant mortality rate in Virginia has declined by more than 10 percent. Deeds' leadership helped mothers have access to quality health care and saved the lives of babies.
I met Deeds' wife recently and told her how much I appreciated her husband's help and how it was making a difference in the health and welfare of families in our state. It didn't surprise her. She told me that often someone comes up to tell her how Deeds helped them solve a problem they were having.
One time, Deeds spent half a day walking with a man around his farm to learn about how the environment was affecting his land and how the government could help him preserve it. The Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters have also endorsed Deeds.
It's easy to understand why women wouldn't support his opponent, Bob McDonnell. McDonnell voted in 2001 against equal pay for women. My four sons are all certified soccer referees. They think that the girl referees should be paid the same as they are and that it would be unfair to pay a girl less. My kids understand that women deserve to be paid equally for equal work. Why doesn't McDonnell?
Many people have expressed concern about McDonnell's thesis, but it's his record that demonstrates his commitment to the opinions in his thesis. His thesis argues that the state has a right to interfere with people's sex lives and then he voted in 2003 to allow health care professionals to refuse to dispense birth control. That vote supported his thesis' suggestion that the state should ban all forms of birth control for married and unmarried couples.
What does Deeds' record demonstrate about his values? Deeds has worked to reduce violence against women. He was a leader in 1991 to create and strengthen the sex offender registry and he wrote Virginia's Megan's Law to put the list of sexual predators on the Internet. He also helped establish Virginia's Amber Alert program and fought for an increase of $1 million for Alicia's Law, to find and prosecute child predators.
What can we expect from Gov. Deeds? Deeds has pledged to work to close the income gap between men and women (Virginia women earn 77 cents to a man's dollar and women of color earn far less). He has proposed specific plans to improve conditions for low-income women, including an outreach campaign to enroll all eligible children and pregnant women in the Family Access to Medical Security, or FAMIS, program.
Your vote for Deeds on Nov. 3 will improve the lives of Virginians.
