Here's What You Need to Know About Reproductive Rights & the Presidential Election

With the presidential election within just a few months of now (or 154 days...but who's counting, right?), it's time to start thinking seriously about who you want to vote for. One way to start is by looking at the issues. We're here to bring you everything you need to know on what's important this election and where the presidential hopefuls stand on each topic.

First up are reproductive rights. Even if you think you've found yourself a candidate, it's time to look closely at their stances and figure out exactly who is best for you—especially when it comes to your body and your health. 

What Are Reproductive Rights?

Reproductive rights are basically human rights—according to Amnesty International, states have the responsibility to provide for the sexual and reproductive health needs and rights for citizens.

Reproductive rights have two main themes: Choice and Access.

Individuals and couples should have the right to choose when, how and whether they have children or do not have children.

They should also have the access to privacy, health centers, family support, medicine and knowledge. Amnesty International even posted an animation on reproductive rights to explain what the implications are when individuals do not get to choose when and how they have sex.

Where Does the U.S. Stand on Reproductive Rights?

Although the United States is a developed and progressive country, we're still fighting for reproductive rights. Feminist groups have indeed come a long way from the early 20^th century. However, there are still plenty of limitations on reproductive rights here in the U.S. Politicians, who are mostly white men, are finding their own ways to restrict women in their decisions on what to do with their own bodies.

Abortion

From 2011 to the end of 2015, states enacted no less than 288 abortion restrictions. A total of 57 restriction were put in place in 2015 alone.

In Texas, these laws have shut down all but a few clinics that can perform abortions. One study found that because of an inability to access safe abortions, 100,000 to 240,000 Texas women ages 18-49 have attempted to perform an abortion on themselves—which is extremely risky and can even be deadly.

Arkansas has also seriously limited abortion. The state requires two in-person trips to a clinic before a woman can obtain an abortion. The first trip is an anti-abortion counseling appointment. Let’s also not forget Utah Governor Gary Herbert, who vowed to cut funding to Planned Parenthood that was supposed to go toward STI testing.

Paid Family Leave

Nearly 25 percent of women go back to work within two weeks off having a baby, according to CNN. Why? They simply can’t afford to stay out on leave longer than that.

The United States is one of only three countries in the world with no federal paid-maternity-leave law—the other two are Papua New Guinea and Oman. While five states in the nation have enacted laws to provide some sort of paid family leave, much of the United States has not. States are starting to budge on the issue, but for now there’s still a lot of work to be done.  

Sexual Assault

According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, each year almost 300,000 women are victims of sexual assault. Eighty percent of the victims are under 30 years old. Even scarier—98 percent of rapists will never spend a day in jail or prison. 

Women in particular are at an extreme risk of sexual assault, sexual violence and rape. Ninety-one percent of all sexual assault victims are women. One in five women will be raped at some point in their lifetime in the U.S. This same statistic applies to universities, as well. While on campus, over 90 percent of rapes are never reported.

This is a huge part of reproductive rights. When a woman or a man cannot decide how and when they have sex, their human rights are impeded.

Birth Control

Birth control, or contraceptives, are pretty widely used in the U.S. More than 99 percent of women ages 15-44 have used at least one contraceptive method, while more than 60 percent are currently using birth control, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

Thanks to Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act, birth control must be entirely covered by insurance—therefore, those with insurance can obtain free birth control.

There are some states who have fought for “refusal clauses” or “conscience clauses” for pharmacists and doctors who think that contraceptives are against their religion. For example, the Catholic Church has taken a hard stance against unnatural family planning and abortion. The church believes that synthetic contraception is sinful and wrong. Ironically, only 2 percent of Catholic women have never used a contraceptive method. Regardless of religion and beliefs, women everywhere are embracing their sexuality and the increased choice they have in enjoying it without worrying about children. 

OK, So I Think I Understand Reproductive Rights. But Where Do the Candidates Stand?

Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are the only candidates left in the presidential race. Reproductive rights is an umbrella over many questions and concerns that can and will impact your life. In order to make an informed decision come November (or during your state’s primaries, if they haven’t happened yet), it's a good idea to take a look at the candidates’ stances on reproductive rights.

Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders, true to his left-wing liberalism, has stated that he wants to protect all reproductive rights. To begin with, his campaign has promised to expand Planned Parenthood, rather than defund it. This is because the clinic offers necessary healthcare services for millions of men and women. He also threw shade at politicians who have attempted to defund it.

“The current attempt to malign Planned Parenthood is part of a long-term smear campaign by people who want to deny women in this country the right to control their own bodies,” reads Sanders’ website.

Sanders assured his supporters that he would keep the government out of a woman’s decision to have an abortion. That choice should be between an individual and her doctor. He also plans to only nominate justices to the Supreme Court if they support abortion and reproductive rights fully.

Sanders’ website lays out clearly that he believes all women full access to birth control. Objections by employers to provide contraception to their employees are “unacceptable.”

As far as paid family leave goes, Sanders proposed at least 12 weeks each year for a family. He plans to fund this through a small payroll tax—0.4 percent shared by employer and employee—which is already floating around Congress through a bill called the Family Act. For good measure, he also threw in two weeks of paid vacation and one week of paid sick days for American workers.

“The Republicans talk a lot about ‘family values,’” reads Sanders' campaign website. “Well, it is not a family value to force the mother of a new born baby to go back to work a few days after she gives birth.”

Sanders also promised to expand services for survivors of domestic violence through the Violence Against Women Act and the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act.

Hillary Clinton

Hillary tends to be pretty similar to Bernie on the issue of reproductive rights. They both take a liberal, progressive stance on access to contraception, paid family leave, abortion access, health centers and sexual assault.

To begin with, Clinton’s campaign promises to guarantee up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave per year. She also wants to make sure that employers will ensure at least two-thirds wage replacement during this leave. As in, by staying home and caring for your family, all employers would need to pay you at least two-thirds of what you were already making.

She has also promised to make childcare more affordable for families. This, unlike Sanders’ plan, would be funded through a new tax on the rich.

Clinton focuses on sexual assault, especially in terms of on-campus rape and assault. She promised to ensure fair disciplinary proceedings on campus and in court for victims, to provide victim support, and to introduce prevention education programs on consent and bystander intervention in both college and high school.

Overall, Clinton takes a broad and somewhat vague stance on reproductive rights. She’s promised to “defend women’s health and reproductive rights against attacks.” Her website detailed that she plans to fight against the defunding of Planned Parenthood and to keep the Affordable Care Act intact.

As far as abortion goes, Clinton promised to keep a woman’s choice alive and well. Basically, she thinks women should decide for themselves what to do with their bodies and can choose to be pro-life or pro-choice. However, as soon as “the government gets involved and you say it is illegal and women and doctors are criminal, that is way too far.”

Donald Trump

Donald Trump has provided some of the more interesting moments in the presidential race. That does not just include his boisterous antics or his attacks on fellow candidates. He has also divided the Republican Party, beating out their more “establishment” candidates like Jeb Bush and John Kasich and pushing them past their pre-conceived ideas and stances.

One of these is on the topic of child care. Trump has actually pushed to improve work-life balance at the employers’ cost. He thinks that companies should begin to have affordable, on-site child care provided. “It’s not an expensive thing. I do it all over and I get great people because of it,” he said, according to TIME. However, he has not come up with a plan for paid family leave, besides mentioning that is a widely-discussed issue.

Following the line of the Republican party, Trump does not support abortion in the United States. He has also said some pretty terrible things about women who decide to get an abortion. “There has to be some form of punishment,” Trump answered to MSNBC’s Chris Matthews when posed with whether women should face criminal prosecution if they get an abortion.

However, within a day of that interview his campaign corrected his statement. Apparently, he meant to say that the doctors should be punished if abortion were made illegal, not the women. Which is completely aligned with the views of the larger Pro-Life movement.

This wasn’t the first time Trump changed his stance on abortion. In 1999 he claimed that he was “very pro-choice” during an NBC interview. As soon as he decided to run for president on the Republican ballot, he said that no one should even have the choice to have an abortion. On June 28, 2015, Trump also confused “pro-choice” with “pro-life” in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper. It seems as though he can’t exactly form an opinion on abortion when asked straight-up. He needs his campaign to do it through print for him.

His “official” stance is that abortion should be illegal except in cases of incest, rape and the life of the mother.