Sandra Fluke: "Women's Issues" Not Just About Reproductive Rights

Both major political parties are determined to win over women voters, but as the Republican National Convention participants deal with hurricane conditions in Tampa this week, the Democrats are starting a storm of their own, launching a new program highlighting the ways they say the GOP has fallen short with women.

Dubbed "Romney/Ryan: Wrong for Women," the week-long series of events sports a roster of high-profile female politicians, a former Bain Capital employee, White House Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett, and women's health activist Sandra Fluke, who was branded a "slut" by Rush Limbaugh after she was barred from testifying before a congressional committee about birth control access earlier this year.

The Democratic push is about more than just reproductive health issues, Fluke told Yahoo! Shine in an exclusive interview on Monday.

"I think it's much more than reproductive health issues," Fluke says. "That is very critical for women, and we've heard a lot about that. But it goes beyond that."

"I think that women are half this country, and we are more than half of the voters in this country," she adds. "Every election should be addressing the issues that are important to us."

Though President Barack Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law and proclaimed August 26 to be Women's Equality Day, Fluke says that equal pay, access to social services, and the renewal of the Violence Against Women act are at risk under the Republican presidential ticket.

The Lilly Ledbetter Act "just fixed the problem that the Supreme Court had created, but didn't address why women are making 77 percent of what men make," Fluke says. "We can't afford to take a pay cut just because we're women. This is a time that women need every dollar that we have worked for an we have earned."

Still, the GOP's anti-abortion platform, contraception issues, and Republican remarks about rape have dominated the political landscape instead, at both the state and federal level.

In the past week, Texas moved with its plan to defund Planned Parenthood, cutting off primary health services for hundreds of thousands of women. In Arizona, a new law defines a pregnancy as beginning two weeks before conception. And, close on the heels of Rep. Todd Akin's controversial remarks about "legitimate rape," Republican Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan gave an interview in Virginia in which he said that rape is simply "another method of conception."

That kind of news has been difficult for many women, especially victims of rape and domestic abuse, to digest, but "I do think that it's a good thing Rep. Akin's comments have brought these issues to light," Fluke says. "A lot of people don't have time to follow the election news… they might not realize that things like the Arizona bill are happening."

Presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Monday said that the Democratic attacks in general have had an impact on his likability.

"There are plenty of weaknesses that I have, and I acknowledge that," Romney told USA Today. "But the attacks that have come have been so misguided, have been so far off target, have been so dishonest, that they surprised me. I thought they might go after me on things that were accurate that I've done wrong, instead of absurd things."

The Republican party has been trying to woo women voters as well. Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchins penned an op-ed on CNN stating that allegations about the GOP being "unfriendly to women" are "baseless" and calling the economy "a women's issue." On Saturday in Ohio, Romney reached out to whom who are small business owners saying, "I want you to be successful. Our campaign is about making it easier for entrepreneurs, women and men, to start businesses and to grow businesses." But, for the most part, they have avoided talking about reproductive health, Ryan's budget proposal, and fair pay policies about which many women are also concerned.

"They're really not just women's issues. They're health issues, they're economic issues, they're family issues because they affect the rest of the family," Fluke says. "It's much bigger than 'women's issues,' and I'm concerned that the label is a way of pushing them aside and saying 'This is what a special interest group is concerned about'. We're not a special interest group."

A longtime activist even before she stepped into the political spotlight in February, Fluke says running for political office herself is not out of the question.

"I'm not someone who loves the political fight, or loves the policy debate just for the sake of the argument or the debate. I care about these issues because of the people around me," she says. "I will consider [running for office] at some point, because I think we all need to be considering it. More women need to be stepping up to that point."

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