Check out a few Facebookpages these days, and you’ll findan abundance of exasperation.There is the “Angry ConservativeWomen” page, which insists: “Theonly war on women (and on free-dom) is being waged BY THELEFT!” Then there’s “One MillionPissed Off Women,” which warns:“We have HAD IT. ... We are nolonger willing to be compromisedor thrown under the bus.”

It all follows four months ofheadline-making salvos that, tosome women at least, have begunto feel like a bombardment ofsorts. Think: Susan G. Komenending cancer-screening grants toPlanned Parenthood (quicklyreversed). And disputes over lawsdesigned to protect womenagainst wage discrimination (Wis-consin Gov. Scott Walker lastmonth signed a repeal of hisstate’s equal pay law, while a U.S.Senate candidate in Michigancalled a federal equal pay law a“nuisance.”)

And there’s the fight over abor-tion. After Republicans made his-toric gains during the tea party-driven “red tide” of 2010, abor-tion was back on legislative agen-das with a vengeance. In 2011, 24states enacted a record 92 provi-sions restricting access to abortionservices in some way, accordingto the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion rights organization thattracks such proposals.

This year, dozens more provi-sions were introduced in state leg-islatures nationwide. A measure inSouth Carolina, for example,would eliminate a woman’s abili-ty to get an abortion through thestate health plan if she’s a victimof rape or incest. Georgia and Ari-zona have banned most abortionsafter 20 weeks of pregnancy; Utahincreased to 72 hours the waitingperiod required before an abor-tion; Mississippi now requiresdoctors performing abortions at aclinic to be a certified OB-GYNwith admitting privileges at alocal hospital.

Not all these actions havereceived as much attention – orinspired as much controversy and

derision – as the Virginia proposalto mandate a transvaginal ultra-sound before an abortion. Hun-dreds of women converged on thestate Capitol in Richmond; JonStewart said the bill required a“TSA pat-down inside their vagi-na.” The governor eventuallysigned a pared-down law requiringabdominal ultrasounds instead.

There was also the battle overwhether religious-affiliatedemployers should have to coverbirth control in insurance plans.When law student Sandra Fluke,prevented from testifying beforeCongress on the issue, spokeinstead to a Democratic panel toadvocate payments for contracep-tives, Rush Limbaugh set off afirestorm by calling her a “slut.”

Karen Teegarden saw the con-gressional hearing from whichFluke was excluded, and she sawthe all-male witness table. Withindays, this 56-year-old wife, moth-er and marketing specialist fromBirmingham, Mich., had launchedUniteWomen.org. Its missionstatement: “Help defend women’s

rights and pursuit of equality.”Using social media and the

Internet, Teegarden’s group orga-nized protests in cities across thecountry on April 28. All told, hun-dreds marched in places likePhoenix, where coat hangers wereon display featuring a plea: “KeepAbortion Safe & Legal.” AndAustin, where a Democratic staterepresentative took to the micro-phone to quote a famous phrase:“Heed our warning. Hell has nofury like a woman scorned.” AndOhio, where women at the stateCapitol hoisted signs that read:“ ‘Sluts’ Over Nuts” and “MyVagina. My Choice.”

The rallies came a day afterGOP Speaker John Boehner tookto the floor of the U.S. House tolambast Democrats for politicizingissues that he said should transcendpartisan politics. He brought up the“so-called war on women,” callingit something “entirely created bymy colleagues across the aisle forpolitical gain.”

“Give me a break,” Boehnerroared as his fellow Republicans

cheered.Teegarden, a supporter of Pres-

ident Barack Obama, said: “If youdon’t want to call it a war, that’sfine. We are fighting something.It’s not just us having ‘emotions.’We are fighting very specific leg-islation.”

It’s worth considering the land-scape in which all of this is hap-pening.

This year is the 20th anniver-sary of what became known as the“Year of the Woman,” an electionyear in which the number ofwomen serving in the U.S. Senatetripled and in the U.S. House wentfrom 28 to 47. Many of thosenewly elected women were drivento run after watching the 1991hearings in which an all-maleSenate Judiciary Committee ques-tioned Anita Hill about sexualharassment claims against then-Supreme Court nominee ClarenceThomas.

Political consultant MaryHughes sees parallels betweenthen and now.

“There were a number of things

percolating in 1991 and 1992, justas I think there has been a numberof things percolating last year andthis year ... that made it appearthat women needed to do more ontheir own behalf. There are similarindignities,” said Hughes, whodirects The 2012 Project, a non-partisan campaign to increase thenumber of women running foroffice.

The project’s website features avideo with these stark statistics:“While women make up 51 per-cent of the population, 83 percentof members of the U.S. Congressand 76 percent of state legislators... are men. And of the 50 gover-nors in the United States, only sixare women.”

“Don’t get mad. Get elected,”reads the organization’s motto.

Conservative women, mean-while, are battling what they see asDemocratic pandering that paintsall women with the same brush.The conservative group Smart GirlPolitics last month launched a“They Don’t Speak for Us” cam-paign that includes a video focus-ing on unemployment rates and thecost of gas and groceries.

ShePAC, a political actioncommittee working on behalf ofconservative women candidates,promises in another ad that “2012won’t be a war on women, it willbe a war by women.”

For better or worse, the debateover gender politics has launcheda new national dialogue thatreaches beyond the campaign trailand cable networks. To see it, sim-ply look to Colorado – and a sin-gle day in the trenches.

•••At the Equal Pay Day rally,

Wanda Ramey recalled growingup in the 1960s – hearing aboutfriends who’d received illegalabortions, witnessing the battlefor an Equal Rights Amendmentand, later, waging her own battlesas a woman in a mostly malework environment.

“Back in the 1960s, we foughthard. And we didn’t have Face-book. We didn’t have the Internet,”said Ramey, who supports Obama.“We’re older now and we have the

time to research, and we’re notgoing to be led around anymore.”

As the equal pay protesters dis-persed, a man orating about reli-gion soon took to the pavement ofthe university commons. Whenmarketing major Sasha Luinstrastopped to watch, she remarkedthat “I should get out there andpreach.” A male student standingnext to her replied: “What are yougoing to preach about? Makeup?”Luinstra didn’t bother responding.

It’s those kinds of comments,along with the many differentstatements about women that shehas heard so far this campaignseason, that both rile and bafflethe 21-year-old.

How, for example, can Ameri-cans in 2012 still be debating thevirtues of stay-at-home moms vs.those who work? To Luinstra, it’sa non-issue. She recalls her graph-ic designer mom in tears when shewould drop her at day care. Hermother eventually quit and stayedhome full time, and instilled in herdaughter the idea that “I’m free tomake any choice I want.”

Luinstra feels the same princi-ple should apply to abortion. Shehas friends who are now parentsbut who have also terminated theirpregnancies, and said she’s grate-ful those women could choose forthemselves what path to take.

Over the summer, she plans tovolunteer for Students for Obama.“He backs up my values,” she saidof the president.

By evening, as a group called9to5 gathered at a local bar to dis-cuss women’s wage issues, anoth-er 30 or so men and women –members of the Denver chapter ofthe Coalition for a ConservativeMajority – convened at the HotelVQ for a panel discussion by fiveRepublican women about the so-called war on women.

These women – a lawyer, a for-mer options trader, a business-woman who tracks governmentspending, a stay-at-home momwho started a conservative advo-cacy group and a legislative aidewhose mother is a state lawmaker– discussed how conservativescould work to reach out to femalevoters, especially the indepen-dents who are key in Colorado.

Several suggested a move awayfrom the debate over contracep-tion – whether it’s framed as areproductive rights or a religiousfreedom issue.

“Gas or groceries. That’s thereal war on women,” said LoriHorn, 50, who co-founded thegroup R Block Party. “We have tofeed our families. We have todecide whether we need to forgo afew things because we need to putgas in our cars. So take that con-traception argument away fromthem, and come up with some ...different words about what the realwar on women looks like for us.”

For Horn, a mother of two girls,discussions about contraceptionhave become “noise,” a distrac-tion that could prove harmful tothe Republican candidates shesupports.

“I’m all for birth control. I useit,” she said in an interview. “Jobsand the economy, creating thesecurity that families and singlewomen need, that’s the mostimportant thing. I’m a powerfulwoman. ... I can take care of thoseother issues.”

Moderating the panel, lawyerLinda Hoover cited a March USAToday/Gallup poll of swing states,including Colorado, that showedwomen favoring Obama overRomney by 18 percentage points.

“It’s absolutely frightening howquickly, once they launched that(war) narrative ... the polling datachanged. I’m hoping it was ashort-term bounce, but let’s notassume that,” said Hoover, 60,who has been working voter reg-istration booths to do her part inenticing more women voters.

The women gathered on thisnight may know better than mostthe power of the gender vote.They saw it in action in 2010when, despite sweeping GOP vic-tories elsewhere, a Democratedged out a tea party-backed can-didate in Colorado’s U.S. Senaterace. Republican Ken Buck wastargeted as “anti-woman” inadvertisements and mailers – firstfor joking that voters should pickhim over a female GOP primaryopponent “because I don’t wearhigh heels” and then for favoringa constitutional ban on abortion.(He had also opposed exceptionsin cases of rape or incest.) In theend, exit polls showed thatwomen voters went for the Demo-crat by 17 percentage points.

That gender gap can make asignificant difference in presiden-tial elections as well. According tothe Center for American Womenand Politics at Rutgers, the num-ber of female voters has exceededthe number of male voters inevery presidential election since1964. And, in every presidentialelection since 1980, a gender gaphas been apparent – with a greaterproportion of women choosingthe Democratic candidate over theRepublican.

Come November, said Rutgersprofessor Carroll, “it’s very likelythat women’s votes – whetherthey go strongly for Obama orwhether Romney’s able to mini-mize the gender gap – will makethe difference.”

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From Page 1CAbortion returned to legislative agendas after tea party-driven GOP gains in 2010

Ed Andrieski/APWanda Ramey holds some of her political posters Monday in Denver.