There was a time when contraception was illegal in America. There was a time women couldn’t vote. There was a time women had no legal rights to their own children. There was a time women were barred from college. And there was a time when the “rule of thumb” said a husband couldn’t beat his wife with a switch larger than his own thumb.

Young women today laugh at those “old days,” thinking they could never come back. They should stop laughing and pay attention.

They should all read Margaret Atwood’s futuristic novel, “The Handmaid’s Tale,” published in 1986. It is about the “Republic of Gilead”–when the religious right take over America. The first thing they took away was women’s right to money. Then, their right to hold property. Then their right to hold jobs. And as we enter the novel, women are completely subservient to men and solely used to bear children. (Summaries are available online, just google the title.)

It’s a powerful and frightening novel, and I have thought of it so often as I listen to the barbaric and fanatical words I’ve been hearing in this political campaign.

Just as horrifying is this: women who tell me that Republicans won’t REALLY make good on their promises to strip women of their rights to make their own health decisions; that the platform and the utterances from dozens of Republican candidates don’t indicate that women’s rights would be pushed way, way back if they gained control of Washington.

Republicans deny they have a war on women, like they’re spouting the old line: “who do you believe, me or your lying eyes?”

Our lying eyes are seeing Republican candidates spouting “legitimate rape,” and “God’s will” for a pregancy from rape, and a political party intent on ending legal abortions in this nation. We’ve already seen bills introduced that would threaten a woman’s right to contraception, state laws that mandate vaginal probes (GOVERNMENT-ORDERED VAGINAL PROBES!!!) and moves to allow employers to deny health insurance to women who use contraception. Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney has flatly declared—one of the only measures he hasn’t flip-flopped on during the campaign—that he will end all federal funding for Planned Parenthood, and for millions of women, that means an end to accessible medical care.

Add to that assault, Republican opposition to equal pay for equal work. The very first bill President Obama signed was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009—a bill strenuously opposed by Republicans. In the Senate, all but three Republicans voted against it, but it passed with unanimous Democratic support by 61-36. In the house, it passed 247-171—among those voting “no” is the man who is now Romney’s choice for vice president, Paul Ryan. Romney himself has never clearly said he supports equal pay for equal work—how hard are those words to utter; how hard is that concept to believe?

Anybody else seeing a pattern mere? Just google “war on women” and it will set your hair on fire. Any American woman—or any American man who respects a woman—can’t ignore these threats and can’t hope that Republicans will have a massive “change of heart” if they get elected.

I won’t go backwards. I will fight these cretins every step of the way. I will fight, not just for myself, but for my goddaughter Tina, and little Franny and for every woman and girl in the nation. And I beg every other woman to fight, for themselves, their daughters and granddaughters and great-granddaughters.

As you vote, think about what kind of America you want for women.
And read “The Handmaid’s Tale.”