It is rather telling that Mitt Romney’s official website contains pages on his guns rights standpoints, but absolutely nothing on women’s rights issues.  You have to be going out of your way to not include a plank on one of the most controversial issues this election cycle on your official website.

President Obama has taken steps to ensure that birth control will be fully covered by insurance plans.

This has met opposition from the Republican Party for moral reasons, assuming that birth control is only ever prescribed to prevent birth.

Many women have found numerous other benefits for birth control, including managing menstrual cycles, endometriosis and polycystic acne.  In addition, the Republican Party has levied criticism on insurance paying for a pill that is associated with having sex, but has yet to criticize Viagra for being covered under insurance.

Romney also supports a law where he would not support abortion in cases of rape and incest.  With all of the uninformed pseudoscience from the Republican Party this year, like “rape victims can’t get pregnant” or “there is no medical case for terminating pregnancies to save a woman’s life,” I’m not prone to think that this is due to anything except ignorance of the sometimes necessary nature of abortion.

Romney patronized half of this country in last week’s debate when he said that women need flexible hours so they can get home and make dinner, as if dinner is a role that is assigned specifically to women.

This statement implies that men aren’t parents, and men don’t benefit from flexible hours in the same manner as women, because women have to take care of “women things.”  I don’t feel comfortable with a president assigning gender roles to every person in this country, especially antiquated ones.

The Republican Party has a trend of making obviously detrimental decisions for women, without consulting them.

Instead of providing women with equal footing in this country, they are continually patronized and ignored by a party that claims to be for “the American people” and “the folks.”

The Republican Party needs to start including women in their definition of “the American people” sometime before Nov. 6 if they wish to have a chance this cycle.

Geoff Lowry, College Democrats of Towson

The issues concerning a woman’s health are important in regards to a women’s needs being addressed with the same importance as a man’s needs.

The issue comes down to core Republican and Democratic beliefs: either the voter is pro-life or pro-choice. In addition, there is an issue of self-paid birth control or government-paid birth control.

In regards to pro-life, Romney believes the life starts in the womb and taking out that life would be essentially killing what life should have happened. Well Romney is against birth control and condoms right? This common misconception about Romney is upsetting because birth control and condoms prevent the need for abortion to even occur.

The Democrats believe that women have the right to abort a child because it is a violation of their body to be forced to keep a life that they did not ask for. Romney understands the issues with rape cases and has specific regards in how to deal with how he would allow the abortion in rape cases.

The fact of the matter is this: Roe vs. Wade will always remain.

To accomplish anything reasonable and fair in politics there needs to be some sort of compromise. I believe there should be a specific stage on when a person is allowed to abort a baby.

The abortion of a fully developed baby is a serious human right issue that should never be violated. If the mother cannot take care of the child then the child should be put up for adoption.

Doesn’t the child live a horrible life then as a foster child?

Foster children are specific with each case, but a life lived is better than a life murdered. It is important that the child is seen as equal to the mother because the mother and child are both a part of life.

Secondly, in regards to birth control, Romney believes women should pay for their own birth control. Democrats believe the government should pay for women’s birth control. Women are given the responsibility to carry a child thus they should be responsible for making sure they are either ready or not ready to carry one by paying for their own birth control.

Many people struggle with money and cannot afford birth control right? Correct.

Using condoms correctly can protect women against getting pregnant and also from getting STDS. It is believed that if the government pays for birth control then the use of condoms would not be as prevalent and perhaps the rate of STDs would increase.

Still Democrats want government paid birth control because they see it in the perspective that the government is taking women needs into account. Either position has its pros and cons.

Most importantly is for you to really think about the issues of pro-life and pro-choice and when you think a life begins.

Thus, the question is not who addresses women’s health the best because addressing does not mean implementing.

Also, neither Romney’s nor Obama’s policies will be best for most women unless there is a compromise.

Rachel Eldringhoff, Towson College Republicans