March 22, 2012; Source: International Business Times

A MoveOn.org ad released last week featuring quotations from assorted Republican figures is gaining media attention for addressing the issue of women’s rights in the current election season. After quoting well known Republican figures such as radio host Rush Limbaugh and presidential candidate Rick Santorum, the ad ends with this message: “The GOP must have a serious problem with women, and until the Republicans get over their issues, we women have got a serious problem with the Republican Party.” Watch the video here:

MoveOn.org has also released a list of the “Top 10 Shocking Attacks from the GOP’s War on Women” that includes proposals such as changing the definition of rape to cutting all federal funding from Planned Parenthood health centers. MoveOn.org Organizing Director Lenore Palladino has stated, “Women across the country are outraged when they hear about the GOP’s full-fledged attack on women’s rights. That’s why we’re showing the millions of women voters what the Republican agenda means for them.”

Critics of this new ad accuse MoveOn of taking Republican quotations out of context. Speaking with Bill O’Reilly on Fox News, Fox News host Gretchen Carlson said that Rick Santorum’s featured quotation in the video—“A woman impregnated through rape should accept that horribly created gift, the gift of human life. Accept what God has given you and make the best of a bad situation”—was in reference to what he would do if his own daughter was impregnated through rape. Carlson said Santorum doesn’t think rape victims should be prohibited from having an abortion. Also speaking with O’Reilly, Republican pundit Margaret Hoover said that, as a Republican, she doesn’t like the ad, but noted that she thinks it is “hard-hitting” and “highly effective,” concluding, “If they make this about social issues, we are going to lose.”

The GOP has released a retaliation ad titled “Obama’s War on Women” that accuses the Obama White House of being a “boy’s club” and leans heavily on comedian Bill Maher’s use of the “c-word;” Maher has donated to Obama’s Super PAC. Watch the video here:

Do you think MoveOn’s campaign is just another election-year partisan political attack, or is it representative of a real loss of support for the Republican Party among female voters in the wake of several proposals that many see as hostile towards women? –Aine Creedon