Allie Johnson
Women's health continues to be a major issue in Wisconsin's gubernatorial election given the ongoing gender gap.
The Marquette Law School poll released on Oct. 1 reaffirmed the existence of a large gender gap between the two candidates in Wisconsin's race for governor, with 54% of likely women voters supporting Democrat Mary Burke and 40% supporting Republican Gov. Scott Walker.
"There is something [Gov. Walker] is doing wrong that women do not appreciate," Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, told University of Wisconsin-Madison students at a campaign event Wednesday for Burke.
Richards attributed the 14% gap in female voting preferences to Walker's legislative record, which she says has had significant impacts for women, particularly in the area of health.
Richards, accompanied by state Rep. Chris Taylor, was on campus to speak to students about the women's issues at stake in the upcoming election.
"Our governor right now has signed more "anti-women" bills than another other governor in Wisconsin's history," Taylor said.
In the 2011-13 budget, Walker eliminated $1.1 million dollars in state funding for family planning services, leading to the closure of five Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin family planning clinics over the past two years.
Tayor cited this decision as one of the reasons Walker is polling lower among female voters. These funding cuts and clinic closures have meant the loss of access to low-cost and subsidized breast and cervical cancer screenings; testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases; and birth control, Taylor said.
Elly Pirman, a sophomore at UW who attended the event, says she thinks the gender gap in the governor's race is directly related to Walker's funding cuts.
"While I don't think he is necessarily thinking to himself, 'Wow I really want to attack women with my policies,’ he's pretty much done that," says Pirman, a Burke supporter.
This is the first year Hannah Mullen, a freshman at UW, is eligible to vote and she says she also plans to cast a ballot for Burke.
Mullen says Walker's efforts to take "private rights away from women," pushed her towards supporting Burke.
"To be honest, I think the women's rights movement has been portrayed in a way that makes women look like they are whining about something," Mullen says. "But really [women] just want the right to make their own decisions and [this] has sometimes been shown in a negative light by Gov. Walker."
Hayley Young, a senior and chair of College Democrats of UW-Madison, says many women have gotten the sense that Scott Walker does not support their interests. Men do not have to worry about these issues, she says.
Walker's attitude towards women's health is a motivating issue for young women, Richards said. No politician should be in the position to make these personal health care decisions for other people, she added.
Walker is putting his own politics ahead of women and their health, Taylor said.
"Women's health and future are on the line in this election," she said.
While women clearly favored Burke in the latest Marquette poll, the survey found an even large gender gap among male voters that swung Walker’s way. Among the men surveyed, 62% likely male voters supported Walker while 34% said they favored Burke.
At a campaign stop Wednesday in Sheboygan Wednesday, Walker was asked about lack of support he has among women. According to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report, the governor said he is in the same boat as other Republicans around the country.
"I think the bigger trend is not if I have a gender question, it's actually that she's off the chart from where a Democrat normally is, gender-wise, with male voters as opposed to female," Walker said.
