Power

Susan B. Anthony List Continues Supporting Women in Politics by Scheduling Another Male Keynote

The leading anti-choice women in politics group has never asked a woman to keynote their annual gala.

(Politico)

The Susan B. Anthony List claims (sometimes) that their goal is to get anti-choice women into office. Yet as their endorsements often prove, as long as there is a Republican to support and a Democratic woman to oppose, they are more than willing to back male candidates in high profile races.

Is it any wonder then that in announcing the headliner for their 2013 annual gala, they’ve chosen anti-choice, anti-woman Congressman Paul Ryan?

Ryan’s keynote solidifies a record of never having had a female speaker headlining the event of an organization that supposedly supports women candidates. In the past five years of the gala, speakers have been Senator Marco Rubio, former Congressman and now Indiana Governor Mike Pence, former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, actor and former Congressman Fred Thompson, and Rick Santorum, former Senator and failed presidential candidate.

To be fair, the pool of nationally-known Republican women politicians opposing abortion isn’t deep. The group also didn’t have many endorsed winners to choose from, either. Still, there are some definite possibilities, such as Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), or Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla) all of whom have been at the forefront of pushing anti-choice federal legislation. In fact, Blackburn has even recently reintroduced the former Pence bill to defund Planned Parenthood, a bill that helped give Pence his national following.

So why no female keynote?

As Amanda Marcotte wrote eariler, as a group that says it supports women, the evidence is pretty doubtful. With a track record like theirs, that they would have yet another male politician headline their gala isn’t shocking in the least.