Warren attacks Brown on women's issues

WWLP TV

Updated: Aug 22, 2012 7:09 PM

BOSTON, Mass. (WWLP) — U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren says a vote to re-elect her opponent Scott Brown is a vote for the Republican party, a party she says could take over the U.S. Senate and drive an agenda against women’s issues 

Warren sharpened her attacks this week, linking Brown to comments made by Missouri Congressman Todd Akin, who said during a television interview that pregnancies don’t result from “legitimate rape.”

“The Republicans would like to pretend that what Representative Akin did was just a surprise, a one time thing completely encapsulated, and it is not. It is part of a larger Republican agenda,” said Warren.  “Scott Brown has been in the middle of that.”

Perhaps then it’s no coincidence that Brown has issued a letter to GOP leaders, asking them to relax their anti-abortion positions.  He’s also making visits to women-owned businesses, telling them that Warren is distorting his views.

“I’m a Scott Brown Republican, the same Republican I was last time and have a voting record now to back it up,” said Brown.  “I’m a pro-choice Republican, I have a house full of women and for [Warren] to distort my record, quite frankly it’s not unexpected, I get it.”

Brown has voted in favor of the Violence Against Women Act and to preserve funding for Planned Parenthood, which provides abortion services.  But Warren points to times when he voted along party lines against giving women access to equal pay and contraception.

“So Scott Brown just can’t back off, have it both ways, to vote against equal pay for equal work, to co-sponsor an amendment to block access to birth control, to support the Republican presidential and vice-presidential nominees,” said Warren.

The latest Public Policy Polling shows Brown with a 5-point lead over Warren, 49 to 44 percent, but it also shows that Warren has an 8-point lead among women.

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