Statement of Eleanor Smeal, for the Feminist Majority Political Action Committee on the Selection of Sarah Palin as Republican Vice Presidential Candidate

John McCain just doesn’t get it. He doesn’t understand women voters and especially Hillary voters.

Sarah Palin is no Hillary Clinton. You can’t attract Hillary voters and women voters with a woman opposed to what Hillary stands for. Sarah Palin strongly opposes women’s abortion and family planning rights. She is a proponent of teaching creationism in schools, a global warming skeptic, and an opponent on key environmental issues, such as protecting the polar bear in Alaska and she is for oil and natural gas drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Sarah Palin stands with John McCain, who is opposed to affirmative action for women in public employment, public education and public contracting, is opposed to legislation fighting wage discrimination for women (the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act), is opposed to the Violence Against Women Act, authored by Senator Joe Biden, and has a zero rating with women’s rights groups.

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