Mike Pence has women problems
By: Teresa Albano
Tags: Politics, Society, Women, Womens Rights, Election 2020

Photo by History in HD on Unsplash

An unexpected “tell” about the depths of Vice President Mike Pence’s anti-woman decay came about an hour into the debate.

Before then, Pence interrupted his opponent, Sen. Kamala Harris, multiple times and filibustered the debate moderator, USA Today’s Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page, by ignoring time limit rules. Every woman watching this behavior recognized their own experiences with men interrupting and talking over them, which is why Sen. Harris’ firm, no nonsense “I’m speaking” comeback resonated widely.

While this display of “mansplaining” was beyond frustrating, (I yelled at the television twice and tweeted multiple times my thoughts about Pence’s disrespect) it was somewhat par for the Republican course. His crime-boss partner, Donald Trump, did much worse to Vice President Joe Biden and moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News.

What surprised me, in addition to The Fly, was his statement about Judge Amy Coney Barrett:

“[S]he’s a brilliant woman, and she will bring a lifetime of experience and a sizeable American family to the Supreme Court of the United States…”

I immediately wondered, “Is there no childcare for justices? Why does she have to bring her “sizeable American family” to the Supreme Court? Comedian Sarah Cooper tweeted, “I guess one of Pence’s criteria for female Supreme Court judges is fertility.” Yet, I don’t think this remark has come under a lot of scrutiny.

What did he mean? It was an odd remark, and he said it oddly. With gusto and a touch of glee. Considering he comes across as a pretty placid guy, the way in which he said it made an impression. It gave me pause about Pence and the entire Trump-Republican establishment’s deep-seated retrograde attitudes towards women. The comment seemed pregnant with meaning, especially with Pence’s backward attitudes toward working mothers and child care. Pence’s record as radio personality, congressman, governor of Indiana and vice president is full of statements, votes, policies and actions that target women and LGBTQ people for disenfranchisement, attempting to make us second-class citizens.

Pence’s debate comment on Coney Barrett and her family came in the context of a very pointed question about abortion and overturning Roe v Wade, which he dodged answering. Pence, who grew up Catholic and became “born-again” as a young adult, seemed, in his smarmy way, referring to a Catholic trope by emphasizing Coney Barrett’s “sizeable” family. Coney Barrett is Catholic, and reportedly, a member of an ultra-conservative Catholic community called People of Praise. Was this a cynical ploy to appeal to Catholic voters? Trump won the Catholic vote in 2016, but there is much dissatisfaction with Trump in 2020 among Catholics. Joe Biden, who is Catholic, appears to have peeled away that support.

But the comment also came in a bigger context of the 2020 elections, the massive gender gap between Trump and Biden among women, and Pence’s dodge on overturning Roe v. Wade and implementing a ban on abortion. It also came just a week or so before Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s and his gruesome GOP zombie cohort’s brazen attempts to force down the throats of the American people a Trump nominee for a lifetime appointment on the highest court of the land. By not answering the question, and instead placing an emphasis on Coney Barrett, Pence just followed the Republican playbook: evade, deny, lie and stonewall. Trump did the same in his debate with Biden when he said, “Roe is not on the ballot.”

Like Pence, Coney Barrett holds widely-known conservative views on birth control and the Affordable Care Act, Roe v. Wade and abortion, same-sex marriage and LGBTQ rights. Many are also concerned about her out-of-the-mainstream views and legal opinions may also extend to putting limits on in vitro fertilization (IVF), stem cell research, potentially elevating embryos and fetuses to personhood with the same rights as born people.

She also held a clerkship with one of SCOTUS’ most conservative justices, Antonin Scalia, and says she shares the same “judicial philosophy” as he. That could also put the Obergefell v. Hodges same-sex marriage decision in danger of being overturned. Pence’s comment brought to mind the administration’s promises to ultra-conservative billionaires and evangelicals to overturn the ACA, Roe v. Wade and same-sex marriage, by reifying the image of the family as Coney Barrett’s: white, heterosexual, with many children and the mother fully in charge of them all.

Pence’s comment seemed to signal that Roe v Wade is a linchpin in the decades-long attempt, by the Republican-led coalition of far-right, extremist groups and billionaires, to roll back democratic rights and gains women have made. First they come for abortion, then they come for birth control, then they come for science-based health care, family planning and research. They also come for women’s personhood, roles and the definition of family, all in the name of theocracy not democracy.

(And if that’s not enough, as Harris said at the debate, “If you have a preexisting condition — heart disease, diabetes, breast cancer — they’re coming for you…”)

If Pence is proud to be “pro- [fetus] life,” why not come clean and say they want to ban abortion? Why bury it in a pivot? Maybe it’s because the majority of Americans, Catholic voters included, support Roe v. Wade and other hard-won rights that conservatives want to do away with, such as access to birth control, same-sex marriage, and the Affordable Care Act. U.S. Catholics are racially and ethnically diverse, and politically split fairly evenly between Democrat and Republican. Yet, a majority, especially Catholic women, support keeping abortion legal.

The day after the debate, news broke that 13 men were arrested for plotting to kidnap and possibly kill the governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer. Misogyny and terrorism, unleashed by the Trump administration, on frightening display. Between the president’s tweets and speeches there is enough evidence to show his disdain for living up to America’s promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

But with Pence, his contempt is quieter. Under the radar. It’s in comments like bringing “a sizeable American family” to the Supreme Court. Pence is the sheen guy. He gives this administration the patina of respectability. Or as NY Times columnist Timothy Egan said, “Pence is not just the great enabler of Trump’s awfulness, but the man who puts a godly sheen on it. In that sense, he’s more dangerous, and arguably more evil, than Trump.”