Opportunities achieved through activism have provided better lives for women. During the time period when strong women fought for our right to vote, many oppressed women did not participate. Achieving the right to vote in 1920 through enactment of the 19^th Amendment, opened the path for all women to have their voices heard.

Today every woman can take action by voting.

Women’s votes in the November 2016 presidential election are needed to elect Hillary Rodham Clinton. Hillary is a women’s rights and human rights advocate. Her expertise in international affairs far exceeds all other candidates. A vote for Hillary is a vote for middle class America and against corporate greed.

Influential and inspirational women who make the world a better place are not always exalted leaders. They may be young or old, rich or poor. Malala Yousafzai inspired the world with her fight for human rights and education for women, after being shot on her school bus by a Pakistani gunman. She is the youngest Nobel Prize laureate, ever, and has a long life ahead to make changes and elevate the status of women around the world.

Many influential women go unrecognized in the world today and in the United States of America. The current political and health environment has made women’s health choices difficult, particularly the poor. Birth control, actually the lack of birth control, has been in the news, but not nearly on public television as much as Viagra and Cialis ads.

Why is it insurances and politicians are in favor of and authorize payment for erection dysfunction drugs but not birth control? Aren’t they both personal health options?

Betty Kuffel, MD FACP