All the girls stomp your feet like this

In the hopes that a few college age girls check out my blog today after being named the Daily Cardinal blog of the week, I want to urge them to use their power to vote on an issue that will impact their future.

The election this fall for governor and attorney general could not be more important to the ability of young women to control their reproductive health. Having the right to control your reproductive health means being able to run your career the way you want and compete with the men in your field.

If Congressman Mark Green gets elected governor and J.B. Van Hollen gets elected Attorney General of our state, the ability of young women to control their future will go out the window.

The Republicans could not have fielded more extreme candidates when it comes to a woman's right to control their reproductive health. J.B. Van Hollen is endorsed by Pro-Life Wisconsin, which means he doesn't support abortion in ANY circumstance. Not if you are raped, not if in the case of incest, and not even if your life is in danger by going through childbirth.

Congressman Mark Green isn't much better. He doesn't support a woman's right to a safe and legal abortion in the case of rape or incest either. He also doesn't think health care companies should be required to pay for birth control, but doesn't mind if Viagra is given out like candy.

And neither candidate believes woman should have easy access to emergency contraception to stop an unplanned pregnancy. They think a young woman in college should have her career blown off the tracks because a condom breaks. The man in this situation gets to walk away if he wants and it won't hold his career back at all. Access to emergency contraception would make this situation far more fair, but Green and Van Hollen think a couple of cells in women's body are more important than a future career.

If a young woman in college happens to get pregnant from a gang rape like the one that happened to a woman recently behind a dumpster near the UW-Madison campus, tough. Congressman Green and J.B. Van Hollen don't think it should be easy for her to take precautions against getting pregnant by taking emergency contraception.

Neither Congresman Green or J.B. Van Hollen ever had to worry about a pregnancy while they were in college and what it could do to their future. And if college women don't come out and vote for Governor Doyle and Kathleen Falk for Attorney General this fall, neither will the women currently in college.

Congressman Green and J.B. Van Hollen will make the decision for them.