Obama at Head of Women's Issue Class

In terms of women's issues, it seems to be consensus that Obama has pretty much killed during his first 100 days (enter Steve and twin turds, Travis and OB Unsurper jumping on my use of the word kill here). Emily Douglas at RH Reality Check provides the most comprehensive break down that I've seen so far with her piece "RJ100: Reproductive Justice and Obama's First 100 Days." Here's a breakdown if you don't have time to read the article in its entirety:

Main accomplishments: signed Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, established the White House Council on Women and Girls, repealed the Global Gag Rule, restored international family planning aid, moved to rescind the Bush health care refusal rule, and appointed outstanding women's advocates Hillary Clinton and Hilda Solis to his cabinet.

The Report Card:

Access to Contraception: A-
Sexuality Education and Teen Pregnancy Prevention: C
Women's Economic Equity: A+
Global Reproductive Health: A+
Domestic AIDS Response: B
Global AIDS Policy: I
Global Women's Rights: A+

And calls for continued progress include access to EC for women in the military, total axe of abstinence-only sex education funding, and national AIDS strategy.


And in true That Girl fashion, I have to bring up just one itsy bitsy little point of criticism...

Though I've generally been beside myself with joy watching Obama in action over these past few months and swoon over his verbiage, I gotta say last night press conference? Not so much. Obama's answer to the question on FOCA (The Freedom of Choice Act) really failed to excite me. He sounded more like a "No on 6" machine than himself. It was also a pretty mixed message. What the hell was going on there?!

Ed Henry?

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President. In a couple of weeks, you're going to be giving the commencement at Notre Dame. And, as you know, this has caused a lot of controversy among Catholics who are opposed to your position on abortion.

As a candidate, you vowed that one of the very things you wanted to do was sign the Freedom of Choice Act, which, as you know, would eliminate federal, state and local restrictions on abortion. And at one point in the campaign when asked about abortion and life, you said that it was above -- quote, "above my pay grade."

Now that you've been president for 100 days, obviously, your pay grade is a little higher than when you were a senator.

(LAUGHTER)

Do you still hope that Congress quickly sends you the Freedom of Choice Act so you can sign it?

OBAMA: You know, the -- my view on -- on abortion, I think, has been very consistent. I think abortion is a moral issue and an ethical issue.

I think that those who are pro-choice make a mistake when they -- if they suggest -- and I don't want to create straw men here, but I think there are some who suggest that this is simply an issue about women's freedom and that there's no other considerations. I think, look, this is an issue that people have to wrestle with and families and individual women have to wrestle with.

OBAMA: The reason I'm pro-choice is because I don't think women take that -- that position casually. I think that they struggle with these decisions each and every day. And I think they are in a better position to make these decisions ultimately than members of Congress or a president of the United States, in consultation with their families, with their doctors, with their doctors, with their clergy.

So -- so that has been my consistent position. The other thing that I said consistently during the campaign is I would like to reduce the number of unwanted presidencies that result in women feeling compelled to get an abortion, or at least considering getting an abortion, particularly if we can reduce the number of teen pregnancies, which has started to spike up again.

And so I've got a task force within the Domestic Policy Council in the West Wing of the White House that is working with groups both in the pro-choice camp and in the pro-life camp, to see if we can arrive at some consensus on that.

Now, the Freedom of Choice Act is not highest legislative priority. I believe that women should have the right to choose. But I think that the most important thing we can do to tamp down some of the anger surrounding this issue is to focus on those areas that we can agree on. And that's -- that's where I'm going to focus.

The full transcript of the press conference can be found here.