John Kasich’s Plan to Stop Sexual Assault: Blame Women Who Go to Parties

When asked what he would do as president to protect women from sexual assault, John Kasich advised that women should not “go to parties where there's a lot of alcohol.”

“John Kasich’s plan for combatting sexual assault as president is to blame women who go to parties. John Kasich’s pattern of dismissing the concerns of women is disturbing enough." —Dawn Laguens, Vice President of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund

As Governor, John Kasich has implemented policies that reflect his disregard for women:

• Enacted 18 measures that restrict women’s access to reproductive health care while nearly half the abortion providers in his state closed their doors
• Eliminated domestic violence prevention and a Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies program, simply because they were provided by Planned Parenthood
• Targeted Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) funds that allowed Planned Parenthood to provide comprehensive sexual health education and education on healthy relationships to women
• Enacted a measure that eliminated funding for rape crisis counselors that counseled women on their option to get abortion services.

More on John Kasich

Background: John Kasich has decimated women’s health care in Ohio

FACT: Governor Kasich signed a bill to defund Planned Parenthood in February. And he also cut funding for Planned Parenthood in Ohio in 2013. Planned Parenthood health centers served over 80,000 Ohio patients in 2013, providing contraceptive services to over 66,000 patients and STI tests to over 105,000 patients.

FACT: Governor Kasich is no moderate, he is an extreme abortion opponent.

• Politico: On abortion, Kasich is no moderate: “Laws signed by Kasich prohibit almost all abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, mandate ultrasounds before a woman can get an abortion and require abortion clinics to establish formal written agreements with local hospitals about emergency care — a provision that has been repeatedly modified to be even more restrictive and make it harder for clinics to comply.”

• Mother Jones: “How Ohio Gov. John Kasich Is Making Life Hell for Women Seeking Abortions”

• The Columbus Dispatch: “In 2011, Kasich signed into law a bill that banned late-term abortions. The law prohibits abortions after 20 weeks unless a doctor determines the fetus could not live outside the womb. He also has signed a measure requiring an ultrasound of anyone seeking an abortion. The Ohio Department of Health reports that the vast majority of the 23,216 abortions performed in Ohio in 2013 took place less than nine weeks into pregnancy. The state has said 173 abortions after 21 weeks were recorded in 2013….Gonidakis said he does not doubt that Kasich is with his group on the abortion issue, and he said that under Kasich as governor, the state has seen ‘historic lows in the number of abortions. Whether John Kasich makes it to the finish line in this race,” he said, ‘his body of work in Ohio on the pro-life movement speaks for itself.’”

FACT: Under Gov. Kasich’s administration, nearly half of Ohio’s abortion clinics closed.

• Mother Jones: During Kasich's time in office, the number of abortion providers in the state has dropped from 16 to eight.”

• Toledo Blade: “But the law had the effect of shutting down nearly half of Ohio’s abortion clinics, which is exactly what lawmakers intended it to do. Many abortion providers can’t get transfer agreements because hospitals face intense pressure from anti-abortion activists to deny them.”

• Think Progress: “In terms of the areas where high number of clinics have recently been shuttered, Ohio ranks second only to Texas. And Ohio isn’t stopping there. Aside from the proposed budget, lawmakers have also been advancing a 20-week abortion ban; the state senate approved that legislation just last week. For years, reproductive rights groups have been warning that Ohio is becoming one of the worst states for abortion access. At the end of last week, the Plain Dealer’s editorial board also sounded the alarm: “These draconian rules aimed at closing Ohio’s abortion clinics appear to be a thinly veiled effort to get before the U.S. Supreme Court a challenge to Roe v. Wade, the case that legalized abortion,” the newspaper wrote in reference to the proposed budget bill”.

FACT: Kasich wants to ban access to safe, legal abortion.

• When Kasich was asked about a provision in the 2013 budget bill he signed that prohibits rape crisis counselors from telling victims that abortion is an option he wouldn’t answer why he signed the provision into law. He said, “We certainly want to care. I actually believe in the exception of rape, incest, and life of the mother. Okay? But look, at the end of the day, I’m going to do what I think is a pro-life — you know, looking, being in a position of being pro-life. There’s nothing more I can say about it. I’ve said everything there is to say about it.”

• Governor Kasich’s spokesman confirmed that Kasich hopes Roe v. Wade is overturned: “Like all real pro-life advocates the governor hopes that Roe is overturned.”

• When John Kasich was asked if he were to become president if we would close down half the country’s abortion clinics like he did in Ohio, to which he responded “we’ll do our best.”

• After Governor Kasich signed four pieces of anti-abortion legislation into law in 2011, the president of Ohio Right to Life said: “Never in the history of the pro-life movement have we had so many legislative measures enacted in one year.” 

• Governor Kasich has said: “I’ve been pro-life all my career, so there’s — that’s just the way it is.”

Tell Out-of-Touch Politicians: We Won't Be Punished.

Kasich's "solution" to sexual assault is just one example of how politicians are continually punishing women.

Do you agree that punishing, shaming policies must be stopped? Then tell all the lawmakers and extremists who seek to intimidate, undermine, and punish women that we will NOT be punished!

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Tags: John Kasich, sexual assault