Gynopomorphic pill hits the US campaign trail #waronwomen

This guerrilla campaign by Planned Parenthood is lots of fun.

“Pillamina” is a character dressed as a giant birth control pill package who will follow United States Republican 2012 Presidential candidate Mitt Romney on the campaign trail. Romney is on record criticizing President Obama’s legal requirement that all employers cover contraception services in their health insurance plans.

Denying birth control coverage (even while erectile dysfunction drugs often remain covered) is being framed on the right as a “freedom of religion” fight. On the left, it is seen as one more volley in the “War on Women” — the popular brand for continued limitations of women’s reproductive choice by the Republicans at all levels of government.

From Planned Parenthood’s Facebook Page:

A ton has happened in women’s history since birth control was approved in 1960. Just ask Pillamina – she was there! http://bit.ly/MdybhE

From the Supreme Court decision to overturn the ban on birth control in the states, to the passage of Title X, and the swearing in of Nancy Pelosi as the first female Speaker of the House, Pillamina has been around. Where else has she been?

What follows is a lighthearted slide show in which Pillamina is awkwardly photoshopped into historical context:

From Think Progress:

In a statement introducing Pillamina, Planned Parenthood Action Fund President Cecile Richards noted that her organization wants to emphasize the fact that birth control is “an economic issue for women — period. That’s something that President Obama clearly understands, and that Mitt Romney simply doesn’t.” Romney has said that he opposes requiring insurers to offer birth control coverage without additional co-pays.

[more after the break]

The Pillamina character was actually launched last year as a campaign to make birth control with no co-pay a reality under the new health care law. And she succeeded:

Theatrics like this (or like female Michigan legislators performing “The Vagina Monologues” with Eve Ensler on the steps of the legislature) are unlikely to influence their critics, who have religious and political conviction on their side. But old white men are not the target market here. The entire point of these exercises is to mobilize the woman vote through movements like Planned Parenthood’s own Women Are Watching.