Abortion rights didn't lose in election: Column

The 2014 midterm elections are over and anti-choice Republicans now have the majority in the U.S. House, the Senate and expanded power in state legislatures across the country. Regardless of which candidates won the day, the voters who went to the polls have once again shown politicians that when it comes to personal decisions about pregnancy, health, and family, they strongly favor of access to legal and affordable birth control and abortion.

While Republican candidates pulled off many close races, those campaigns were won not because of the candidates' stances on abortion and contraception, but in spite of them. In fact, as anti-choice politicians such as Colorado Republican Cory Garner (R-CO) and Virginia Republican Ed Gillespie struggled against their pro-choice rivals, birth control was one of the few places where they moderated their stances to make gains with voters. A number of high profile Republicans decided to grasp (albeit disingenuously) at over-the-counter birth control as their policy lifesaver, hoping that they could use that as a buffer against claims that they were anti-women's health.

Cory Gardner distanced himself from his previous position on "Personhood" amendments — extreme measures that would ban all abortion, restrict use of emergency contraception and birth control like the Pill and IUDs — to make himself palatable to women voters. Iowa's Joni Ernst claimed that she would "protect their (women's) right to birth control" though she supported the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby decision that allows employers to refuse to cover it.

Our nation may remain divided on who we want representing us in office, but when it comes to who should decide when and if each of us should become a parent, Americans remain remarkably unified. Voters in Colorado again refused to pass a bill that would jeopardize access to safe and legal abortion in the state, even when anti-abortion activists attempted to confuse them into thinking the amendment was only a fetal homicide bill with no effect on abortion or birth control.

These maneuvers by conservatives to distance themselves from extreme anti-abortion, anti-woman policies, while appealing to voters on other popular priorities, are no surprise. Every four years, women, young people and voters of color increase their share of the electorate. These constituencies firmly support basic rights like the right to healthcare and the right to end a pregnancy. Politicians who want to win and hold seats ignore these demographic realities at their peril.

As we head into the 2015 legislative session, it is imperative that our new and returning elected officials remember who voted you into office and why we did it. We did not vote for you to restrict abortion, to make it harder to get birth control, or to tell us whether we should become a parent. That includes a majority of Hispanics who overwhelmingly support reproductive rights, even if some of our church leaders disagree. We elected you to represent us, and we expect you to do as you promised.

When the vote was strictly about abortion, we as a country said "no" to politicians meddling in our personal decisions. Remember that when you sit down to cast your own votes on the bills that come to your desk, or we will hold you accountable in 2016.

Kimberly Inez McGuire is the director of public affairs at the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health.

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