A woman and a voter but not a woman voter

By Mary C. Tillotson

So, the elections happened.

In Virginia, where I live, the governor's race ended up being extremely close, with both major-party candidates getting less than 50 percent of the vote. Maybe I'm a bad person, but I never get super emotionally invested in these things. I did my research, and I voted, and if I find out the results Wednesday instead of late Tuesday, that's fine with me.

The Democratic candidate, Terry McAuliffe won the election, and before you can say "human dignity," my Twitter feed started filling up with comments about how female body parts actually won the election, and now are safe because McAuliffe will be in office. And how the Republican candidate, Ken Cuccinelli, failed miserably because he's anti-woman.

Let's ignore for a minute that on the same day in New Jersey, the male pro-life candidate got more women votes than the female Democrat opponent. (More on that here.) But of course that doesn't matter because women don't count as women if they vote pro-life. (Let's also ignore that mathematical inaccuracy of saying all or nearly all women are pro-choice. Check out the last pair of graphs at Gallup.)

I'm not a Republican, but I generally vote that way; I'm not into third-party voting and the Republican candidate usually has less horrible ideas. And I'm sick of being lumped in with the single-issue "women voters" who are more likely to refer to themselves as a body part than a whole person.

I am a woman, and I am a voter, but apparently I'm not a "woman voter."

Image by lumaxart.

I'm against abortion because I believe innocent human life deserves protection. I understand the connection between sex and children, and for the kids' sake I believe sex belongs only in a context where mature adults are committed to each other for life and committed to welcome, love, educate, and otherwise raise any children they may conceive. (I mean marriage.)

I'm in favor of small government, free markets, school choice, and religious freedom. And it gets worse: I'm Catholic, and I love it. The Catholic view of women (it's not one of inferiority) resonates deeply with me; it's so beautiful and amazing that I want it for everyone.

On top of that, I have more than one body part. I have a brain that allows me to consider multiple issues, like how certain policies will affect people outside a particular special interest group. I have a heart with which I care deeply about my family, my faith, and vulnerable people like unborn children and abused women.

I care about things like whether I can find a job and whether I can find an affordable health insurance policy that covers my actual needs and why about 15 percent of the money I work for supports inefficient and morally objectionable programs and whether dumb foreign policy will kick off World War III. I want to have kids, and I care about the world they will grow up in.

But because I'm a woman, none of that is supposed to matter to me. All I'm supposed to care about is a body part that self-respecting women carry discreetly.

I find this insulting and degrading.

Why don't more women?