Young people are undecided and uninformed about the election next week, according to recent polls. Students also have a reputation for being aloof about elections, especially midterm elections. However, the race between Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) and Carly Fiorina (R) is a dead heat, meaning that if students turn out the vote they could make a huge difference in the outcome.
That’s why the Pro-Choice Students for Boxer are organizing on the UCSB campus. We wish to inform students of Fiorina’s extreme and troubling positions, and we are doing so by pointing out the differences between Fiorina and Boxer. Unlike Fiorina, Boxer supports legal abortion, the environment, LGBT equality and immigration.
Boxer is the candidate who cares about women’s reproductive health and rights. She has supported our right to a safe and legal abortion and has supported legislation for affordable and accessible birth control. Fiorina said she “absolutely would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade if the opportunity presented itself.” In many states, this would mean criminalizing women who have abortions, in effect pushing them back underground as they were before 1973. Fiorina is also in favor of repealing the health care law that will give women everywhere access to screening for cervical and breast cancer.
Boxer is also a friend of the environment, and was the Senate’s “most vocal advocate of curbing greenhouse gases,” according to the Los Angeles Times. Boxer’s plan includes creating clean energy jobs, helping the economy and the environment at the same time. She is against expanding drilling off the California coast, while Fiorina has said offshore drilling is “absolutely necessary.” Not even sure if climate change is real, Fiorina has a despicable record in advocating for the environment. Some of her biggest funders are oil companies who she supports in legislation such as Prop 23, which would repeal various environmental laws until unemployment hits 5.5 percent.
Fiorina believes in taking equality rights like marriage from the LGBT community. She voted for Prop 8, which made same-sex marriage illegal in California, and supports the Defense of Marriage Act, an amendment that would ban same-sex marriage. Boxer is an outspoken champion for the LGBT community who opposed Prop 8 and co-sponsored the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would protect gays against harassment in the workplace.
Boxer supports immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship. She co-sponsored the D.R.E.A.M. (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors) Act, to help alien students and military personnel become legal. Boxer is also against Arizona’s new anti-immigrant law, SB 1070. Fiorina claims that SB 1070 is “necessary.” She is in favor of temporary work programs, essentially allowing migrant workers to labor here and subsequently be shipped back to their countries.
Boxer has proven she is committed to equality, the environment and issues that are important to Californians. For students, she supported increasing the maximum Pell grant multiple times and supports the student borrower’s Bill of Rights, as well as student loan forgiveness for graduates who enter certain public service careers.
[media-credit id=20122 align=”alignnone” width=”173″][/media-credit] Students are rising up on the UCSB campus to warn voters that Fiorina is too extreme for California. The Pro-Choice Students for Boxer have their headquarters in the Arbor from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3 to 4 p.m. every day until Nov. 2. They will wear boxer shorts in support of Barbara Boxer each Tuesday. In memory of those who died of unsafe illegal abortions before Roe v. Wade, the group hung hundreds of wire hangers in the Arbor on Monday, which garnered much attention. To keep abortion legal, we must vote for Barbara Boxer. We refuse to go back to wire-hanger abortions. You can help by getting involved with the Pro-Choice Students for Boxer and contacting taylor.feministmajority@gmail.com.