Americans across the country were outraged when a panel that is part of Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services made outrageous new recommendations about breast cancer screenings for women. This morning, RNC Chairman Michael Steele and I sent a letter to President Obama expressing our outrage at the decision.

Using better evidence to inform doctors in their treatment decisions is important. However, this panel’s conclusions weren’t based on sound research, but instead on absurd value judgments which put women’s lives at risk.  Health care policy expert Linda Gorman sums up the bogus scientific analysis used by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force like this: “What are the costs that the Task Force measured against the benefit of a 15% reduction in mortality in order to come up with its ‘small net benefit?’  No one knows because they don’t say.”  This panel can be ignored today, but if Obama’s government run health care experiment passes, we’ll have to accept the ... more

As a breast cancer survivor, I was shocked when the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force made an outrageous announcement that women should start getting routine, annual mammograms at age 50, not 40. Several experts disagree:

“But the American Cancer Society, the American College of Radiology and other experts condemned the change, saying the benefits of routine mammography have been clearly demonstrated and play a key role in reducing the number of mastectomies and the death toll from one of the most common cancers. ‘Tens of thousands of lives are being saved by mammography screening, and these idiots want to do away with it,’ said Daniel B. Kopans, a radiology professor at Harvard Medical School. ‘It's crazy -- unethical, really.’”

While it’s only a “recommendation,” this should be a warning to all women as a preview of what’s to come if the Democrats pass their government-run health care experiment. Why? This federal panel is doing what’s called Comparative Effectiveness ... more

Last Saturday, nearly 500 Republican women from 16 western states gathered together in Denver for our RNC Regional Women’s Summit entitled "Women Winning the West."  These women, some of them new to politics, some local activists, and some elected officials, joined together to continue our drive to elect Republicans up and down the ballot in 2010. 

The women who attended the summit heard from a powerful panel of speakers, including pollster Linda Divall, U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski, Congresswoman Cynthia Lummis and former White House Press Secretary Dana Perino.  The attendees also spent time in workshop breakout sessions led by Perino, former John Thune campaign manager Dick Wadhams and RNC New Media Director Todd Herman. 

The purpose of the summit was to give women from across the western United States the opportunity to network together and share ideas and goals for the 2010 election cycle.  By the end of the day, we accomplished that and much more.  The energy during the ... more

In a deeply flawed article on Politico yesterday, Meredith Shiner and Glenn Thrush tried to use Dede Scozzaffava’s loss in New York as evidence that the GOP has a “women problem.”  They tried to make the connection that because conservatives worked against a female candidate’s campaign, then conservatives must necessarily be against women. 

Washington is famous for being filled with bad logic, but that might take the cake. 

To try to build their case, they highlighted quotes from Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL) who described the GOP as: “…a party that doesn’t respect women, a party that doesn’t believe women are equal to men.  I don’t think they attract women to their party.  I think they repulse women.”

Using arguments as poisonous as Wasserman-Schultz’ to bolster a thesis as wrong as the one Shiner and Thrush came up with amounts to journalistic malpractice. 

The GOP is filled with vibrant, conservative women.  Indeed, it was a conservative woman – Sarah Palin – who ... more

Please check out the Real Clear Politics blog entry linked here.  Even people like the director of Emily’s List, an organization which works to elect pro-choice Democratic women to office, are beginning to take note that women are moving back to the GOP. 

“Democratic women's groups are also pointing to the depressed turnout among women as a key factor, and are seeking to raise money. ‘Republicans made gains this week for one reason: we saw crucial groups of voters staying home or, worse yet, moving to the Republicans,’ EMILY's List president Ellen Malcolm wrote to supporters Thursday.”

While the movement of Independents received most of the media attention, Tuesday’s election again showed us the power of the women’s vote.   In Virginia, despite considerable negative advertising from Creigh Deeds aimed at women, Bob McDonnell turned a 7 point Obama advantage among women in 2008 into an 8 point advantage for himself.

In New Jersey, Chris Christie showed that Republicans can be ... more