Nearly 15,000 Sign Up to Tell Gov. Walker and Big Business Lobby: “Respect Wisconsin Women”

MADISON, Wis. — Nearly 15,000 individuals have voiced their opposition to the anti-woman agenda of Gov. Walker and the state big business lobby, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, signing an online petition telling them to, “Respect Wisconsin Women.” EMILY’s List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, and One Wisconsin Now sponsored the effort.

EMILY’s List Communications Director Jess McIntosh commented, “Scott Walker is one of the best known GOP bad guys for good reason – his extreme agenda is only matched by his underhanded tactics. Wisconsin women deserve better than a governor who will sell them out with middle-of-the-night legislative tricks. If the Tea Party wave hadn’t swept him into office in 2010, Wisconsin families wouldn’t have to deal with his out-of-touch agenda. It’s past time we sweep out his failed, anti-women policies.”

Gov. Walker’s extremist, anti-woman agenda stumbled this week when fellow anti-choice Tea Partier Ken Cuccinelli lost his bid for Virginia Governor, even with Walker travelling there to personally campaign on his behalf.

In Wisconsin, as Governor, Walker has signed the repeal of the state law requiring women be paid the same as men for doing the same work, cut funding for women seeking cancer screenings, birth control and health exams and enacted a new law mandating women undergo an invasive medical exam before being allowed to access legal health care procedures.

Walker has also endorsed extremist bills currently moving through the state legislature that could allow relatives objecting to a woman’s personal reproductive health care decision to sue providers and put employers in the position of making decisions about their employees access to birth control.

Besides endorsing much of Walker’s anti-woman agenda, the state big business lobby, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce recently bankrolled a $1 million pro-Walker ad campaign to try to boost his sagging state popularity resulting from the failure of his extremist polices.

One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross concluded, “Gov. Walker’s failed economic policies and extremism, scandals and jet-setting in pursuit of higher office have been a disaster for Wisconsin in general and women in particular. We’d all be better of if Gov. Walker and his special interest cronies put away their campaign checkbooks, stopped courting the Tea Party in pursuit of higher office and instead just started respecting Wisconsin women.”