President George H. W. Bush on women's issues - sofeminine.co.uk

President George H. W. Bush on women?s issues US?President - January 20, 1989 ? January 20, 1993

President H. W. Bush came into office with a clear and emphatic opposition to abortion rights.

His administration filed amicus briefs to the Supreme Court in relevant cases such as Webster v. Reproductive Health Services and Hodgson v. Minnesota, but despite the efforts of Reagan appointee Justice Antonin Scalia, the court upheld the precedent of Roe v. Wade, which first established the legality of abortion.

Conservatives saw Bush?s new appointments as opportunities to shift the court further to the right and eventually overturn Roe v. Wade, and Bush got his first opportunity when liberal Justice William J. Brennan, Jr vacated his seat. But Bush wanted to avoid a protracted nomination battle, and so he chose David Souter, a Court of Appeals judge with a moderate record.

Any hopes that Souter would buttress the conservative flank of the Supreme Court were ultimately dashed when he sided with the pro-choice bloc in Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

Indeed, Souter gradually moved even further left than Clinton appointees Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Aligning himself more closely with the court?s most progressive justice, John Paul Stevens.

The legacy of the Souter appointment did not endear President H. W. Bush to the right wing of the Republican Party. And yet while President Bush alienated the pro-life camp, he didn?t do himself any favors with women voters when he made his second Supreme Court appointment: Clarence Thomas.

The sexual harassment claims from Anita Hill, and the Bush Administration?s decision to stand by their nominee despite them, hardened the views of many moderate women voters against the President.

On the issue of abortion, one-term President George H. W. Bush would learn the perils of trying to walk the middle of the ideological road. Bush encountered similar pitfalls in other areas important to women voters, such as healthcare.

Interestingly enough, the notion of the individual mandate found support within the first Bush administration.

Bush toyed with the idea that all citizens should have to get at minimum catastrophic health insurance, and that reforms would be made to both the tax system and insurance market to offer less well-off citizens to get more affordable options.

Clearly the climate has shifted in the Republican Party since that time, as vehement right-wing response to Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney?s plan, as well as ?Obamacare,? has made opposition to an individual mandate a litmus test for conservatives.

Today, the healthcare stance of President George H. W. Bush would be vilified by many of the same politicians and right-wing institutions that supported him in the early 90s. The first Bush administration did establish some important milestones. One of these was a record number of appointments of women to top posts in the federal government.

The most high-profile of these was the appointment of Elizabeth H. Dole to Secretary of Labor. At the same time, certain economic policy positions taken by the administration surely disappointed working-class women, such as his veto of an increase in the minimum wage.

He sent out Secretary Dole to argue such an increase would make t more difficult for American business to hire more employees, yet when President Bill Clinton increased the minimum wage in 1996 and 1997, the employment rate among low-wage workers, particularly single mothers, saw dramatic increases.

Source: http://www.sofeminine.co.uk/key-debates/george-h-w-bush-womens-issues-n109382.html

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