PENNSYLVANIA — Last week, Governor John Kasich insinuated that college women shouldn’t “go to parties where there’s a lot of alcohol” if they want to feel safer from sexual violence, harassment, and rape on college campuses, choosing to blame survivors instead of offering a real solution to one of the most important problems on college campuses. This language dovetails with his record defunding Planned Parenthood as Governor of Ohio; half of the state’s abortion clinics have stopped providing abortion services.
“Governor Kasich’s record proves that he is just as extreme as Donald Trump,” said Sinceré Harris, executive director of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party. “Trump might say crazy things, but Kasich has actually acted on those dangerous positions. Both in his comments and actions as a Governor, he is actively contributing to a victim-blaming, hostile culture from the Republican Party that makes women, particularly the victims of sexual and domestic violence, feel unsafe.”
Kasich has signed legislation in Ohio that banned abortions after 20 weeks, without exceptions for health or life of the mother. And he voted repeatedly against guaranteeing abortion funds in the cases of rape and incest as a Member of Congress.
Kasich has also made a series of inflammatory statements about women throughout his time on the campaign trail. He stated that women “left their kitchens” to participate in the political process at a collegiate town hall in Virginia. At another event, he asked a woman if she had ever been on a diet.
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