Stand up for what you believe in!

 

Background

Women's rights are human rights, and we shouldn't even have to be pointing out that women also have these rights if it were not for the history of discrimination against women by men. Both personally and professionally, Patrick R. McElhiney has always treated women with respect—through personal friendships, through academic mentoring, through gainful employment, and through ideological inspiration; it is not the type of record that is developed overnight. Patrick feels that even though progress has been made on equal rights for women in the United States, there is still a lot of work to do towards improving the recognition and adherence to human rights, for women and men equally, domestically and overseas.

We must come together as one mind to combat discrimination that exists in our schools, in our workplaces, in our government, out in public and in our homes. We must not allow people with views of sexism, racism, and xenophobia to be in positions of power; in order to enforce this, we must elect leadership that can change history for the betterment of all human beings—after all, it is our right, as defined in the U.S. Constitution, that allows us to govern responsibly and effectively in a political environment that hasn't always been welcoming to women, which is why we need to change the outlook on women's rights in politics.

Patrick worked diligently to try to elect Hillary Rodham Clinton (HRC), even before she shattered the glass ceiling, and he believes wholeheartedly that there will be many women elected to the office of President of the United States in the future, within our lifetime. This competition, from a woman who is likely to be more qualified, more experienced, and more worthy of holding the title, may be the most profound thing Patrick will ever be faced with in his political career; the only way any candidate for the Presidency has a chance of winning the White House is through a solid understanding and unbiased approach to all thee issues—- with a personal connection to the American People.

 

Advice to Men

Women are smart and intelligent, and women must be respected as equals in the workplace, without aggressive sexual behaviors of men interfering with their work. When a woman is interested in a man, he will know, otherwise, don't bother the woman because she's always working on advancing her life and her career. Don't send a woman personal emails to her professional email address to ask her out on a date, because others may be reading the emails. Don't ask a woman for her phone number, or her email address, unless if it is for professional reasons - otherwise, she will provide it to you, if she's interested in any type of personal contact. Don't chit chat with other men about women, because it comes off as offensive towards the woman. Just focus on your work and make money, and then figure out who you want to settle down with, later. Don't try to start a family without having the money to support your children. You'll just be ruining your family time with your spouse and children, when you have to cancel a Disneyland trip, and instead pay your electric bill on time.

 

Value women equally!

 

Equal Opportunity Employment

Every organization should be comprised of a diverse and talented set of employees, in accordance with Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) laws and regulations. Many companies still hold women back from management positions, and even the women that do make it into those positions get paid less than their male counterparts. We cannot allow large businesses to succeed without women operating next to men at all levels of the company, and companies that hold women back on purpose should be fined by the Federal Government, to force the companies to promote more women with an invisible hand.

The social injustice that occurs when women can't find good paying jobs in the company that they want to work for is unfair to families, that end up bringing home less pay because of discrimination, leading to the father of the family having to pay more out of his paycheck for his wife's expenses. With government entities including the U.S. Congress having more and more women working in their ranks with each new term, companies that discriminate against women are behind in the times.

Even with the recent progress that has been made, women still comprise much less of a percentage of higher paying positions than men—women that are just as qualified to serve in those positions as their male counterparts. For every dollar than a man makes, a woman in an equal position should be offered the same equal dollar, assuming she has an equal equivalence of work experience and/or academic achievements in her career.

It is outright wrong for organizations to be male-dominated, and come up with lame excuses like 'Hmm.... well, there are not enough talented female candidates to hire'. It should be made illegal for organizations to take advantage of women by paying them less, and it takes place not only by paying the women less than their male counterparts, but also by inadequate promotion, and by conducting other organizational activities that are biased on the basis of sex.

Women play an important role in our future as a nation, and as human beings; it is a great injustice to reward women less than men because of gender discrimination, while their respective contributions to the organization are at least equal, and sometimes greater. In many cases, women do a better job than their male counterparts—yet they are still paid less, and companies that take a part in such discriminatory activities should be sued on behalf of all women.

We need more class action suits representing women's rights to flood courtrooms across the nation, and we need Congress to act on an Equal Pay for Women bill.

 

Equal Rights are Human Rights!

 

Equal Opportunity Academia

Education should include instruction about human rights, non-discrimination, ethics and gender equality, because it is the knowledge about these values that allow people from all backgrounds to work and alongside each other without the inequalities that have plagued women throughout history. In recent decades, there has been an increase of attention given to raising student awareness to the importance of gender equality; however, there are still problems that exist in our schools, including the repression of women due to sexual harassment by men, gender segregation, stereotypes, and the proclivity of the sexual assault of women by men on our college campuses.

Young men can sometimes feel sexually intimidated by the presence of women in the classroom, while in reality the classroom should be respected just like the workplace, where sex and personal relationships are irrelevant, and sexual harassment is illegal. You can't risk the image of impropriety among your peers—not just because it's wrong, but also because you have goals in mind for your future career that most people never even consider.

Patrick developed his own academia policies that he has adhered to while attending college, to ensure that he treats all other people with respect and dignity, including women. This has allowed Patrick to work closely with fellow students from all different backgrounds, to ensure that he is learning not only what is important in his field of study, but also what is important to his classmates through diversity.

Women should be afforded the same opportunities as men when it comes to higher education, especially in STEM fields of study, which includes engineering, science, and mathematics. There is evidence of discrimination towards financing and other qualifying factors that would otherwise allow more women to study in these financially rewarding career fields.

Women should be able to study whatever they want in school, and they should be able to excel to any level of expertise that they wish. College campuses should be as diverse as society—women should not be cast into academic environments where they are disrespected in any way. 

 

Take on the fights that other people don't! 

 

Improved Freedoms

Patrick R. McElhiney believes that women need to be free from violence and threats in their lives. Violence against women includes not just physical, but also sexual, psychological, and/or economic harm which causes suffering to women, including but not limited to threats of such acts, coercion, or arbitrary deprivation of liberty—regardless of whether it occurs in public or in private life. There are currently 25 million women around the world currently enslaved into sex work, in nations such as North Korea, China, Cuba, and Saudi Arabia; this is an example of how the human rights of women are being violated through their lack of freedom, not to mention everything else that is traumatic that goes along with being enslaved.

McElhiney believes that there should be new hate crimes legislation protecting women, that allows police to strongly enforce the laws against domestic violence abusers, violent rapists, and human traffickers. He believes that women deserve to live fruitful lives in the safety of a State that supports all women's rights and provides freedom from all forms of violence, including freedom from forced pregnancy, forced abortions, the lack of abortion rights, and slavery.

McElhiney also believes that the illegal posting of pornography, such as that taken under duress or in secrecy from the individual, should constitute a felony, because it can ruin the life of the victim in the ability to gain employment and have a normal life. Patrick believes that this type of crime is especially heinous in nature. There need to be stronger Federal laws making it illegal to use hidden cameras to record people unsuspectingly, even for security purposes — recording women for malicious purposes while they are undressing, or having sex, or giving birth, or while they are in the bathroom should be a felony.

He also believes that administrators at college campuses that protect men from prosecution of these types of crimes, or violent crimes against women, including but not limited to sexual assault and rape, should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. There have been too many cases of colleges covering up to protect athletes and well-known individuals from their sexual and violent crimes against women early on, and these individuals should not be allowed to get out into the world after they have made bad choices to ruin someone else's life. The “Boys will boys...” excuse will no longer work when McElhiney is elected to public office.

 

Bring women together!

 

Banning Immoral and Unlawful Marriages

All women should be able to choose who they want to marry when they have come to a legal age. Marriage should not be allowed under the age of 18 for civilians, unless if at least one of the individuals of the marriage would be in combat prior to both turning 18, in which case the minor of the two should be at least 16 years old, both individuals must have all the parents on both sides, and the soldier must have their military branch's approval for the marriage prior to it being certified as legal to proceed forward.

Marriages should not be allowed to occur under the law when they are between children, forced marriages, consanguineous marriages, or arranged marriages. The problem with current laws at the state level in many of the states is that not all relationships or marriages that are immoral are unlawful. Laws need to be changed at the state and Federal levels to protect the rights of women and men.

 

Respect their rights!

 

No Means No

A person has the right to choose at any moment whether he or she wants to or doesn't want to have sex, and the counterpart in that decision needs to respect the no's before the yes's. Each individual should only do what they want to do when it comes to sex. Any individual has the option to change their mind at any time. No individual should ever be forced or coerced into having sex with another individual. If an individual says no, other individuals should respect those decisions. An individual has the right to say no even after they have said yes, and that means no.

 

Rumors, Rumors, Rumors...

A woman has a right to her sexual privacy, even with consensual sexual encounters, which means that a man is not meant to speak or think about any sexual encounter that has ever occurred, to ensure that a woman's professionalism is maintained at all times, and to ensure that rumors do not lurk at the water cooler or in the hallways or in the gym changing area. Please keep your thoughts about the personal relationship status or the sexual encounters of others to yourselves, even if they are true. A personal relationship is between two individuals, and others should not speculate or spread rumors about personal relationships that never developed, to try to promote them, or to try to force a woman into a personal relationship that she doesn't want. Rumors can lead to lawsuits because of defamation of character, or worse, which can be costly on your wallet, so pay attention and keep your mouths shut, men!

 

Stand up for women!

  

Ending Sexual Harassment

Patrick McElhiney has never sexually harassed another person, mostly because he doesn't view people based on their sex or sexual orientation. When he looks at another person, he doesn't even register their sex, unless someone else brings it up in a conversation. Patrick has lived his life conservatively, even despite being a Democrat and supporting liberal social rights. He never intends to interfere with other people's personal lives, and he respects other people in the same way that he respects himself.

In order to get away from the tendency to sexually harass, men must view women without sexist views. A safe bet is to not even become interested in women for personal reasons without there having been some significant reason, which men should never seek out on their own under any circumstances. Patrick lacks a history of having personal relationships with women, which is why he respects other women as equals, and he would never feel comfortable putting another person in a disadvantaged position.

Most men use sex as a motivation for other activities, while Patrick tries to be a good role model for other men, because he respects all people equally, and he believes that in his ideal world, sex should be limited to significant life partners and not exchanged or forced upon by others for personal pleasure—which nullifies the possibilities of sexual harassment. People shouldn't be held back in their lives due to sexual harassment against them.

 

Justice for women!

 

Ending Sexual Abuse

Sexual abusers should be locked up for life, because there is no legitimate reason for someone to sexually abuse another person; yet it still happens in today's society. Patrick has been outspoken against the abuses in the Catholic Church, specifically, because it hit close to home for him. Individuals should not be robbed of their freedoms and rights as they proceed forward with their lives. People shouldn't be held back in their careers after being sexually abused.

In the State of Indiana, criminals are getting away because of lax rape statutes—these types of legal deficiencies need to be corrected as soon as possible. There should be Federal laws protecting victims of sexual abuse, to prevent rapists from slipping through the legal loopholes. It's a really bad experience to be raped — it's much worse when the rapist gets away with it after the victim has had to relive those horrible moments in a courtroom.

McElhiney believes that the standards for rape should include oral rape and anal rape, types of rape that are not currently included in Federal, state, and local laws. An example is in New York City (NYC), that under-reports its rape statistics using NYC Police's CompStat system, which doesn't account rape as including oral rape or anal rape. CompStat drives police decision-making in NYC, and bad managerial and budgetary decisions have been made due to the under-reporting. This system and many other systems like it around the country, have let down rape survivors for years.

We need to end sexual assault in the military, which has increased by 38% since 2016. There are failures in the system when our nation's heroes try to bring attention to sexual assault. These military crimes should be reported through an independent party, because it just doesn't work in the chain of command. Military sexual assault victims say it's harder to go to their commander, because the commander might favor one person over another. An independent military judiciary system needs to be established for victims of sexual assault in the military. 

 

Presumed innocent unless proven guilty!

 

Me Too Movement

The Me Too movement is a step in the right direction to hold sexual abusers accountable for their acts. Generations of women have been marketed as meat, which is disgusting. It's not that people don't believe every single claim made by women; it's that the courtroom is a better place to prove the claims. The courtroom process needs to be improved for persons who have been sexually abused, so that they don't need to relive the events in public if they would rather not. The courtroom is currently a scary place to go for most women who have been sexually abused, because they are unsure about the courtroom processes, and they may think that they won't be believed.

We need to ensure that all women know that their voices will be heard, and that Justice will be on the side of the victim of sexual abuse. We also need to extend the time frame that women can bring up a sexual abuse claim after it has happened, to ensure that all women receive fair and just treatment in the U.S. Justice System.

Patrick is somewhat concerned that potentially innocent people's lives could be ruined for purposes such as financial gain, or revenge for some other matter other than the claimed sexual crime by criminals. There needs to be due process in the Me Too Movement. When only the Media is used to address alleged criminal activities, and there's a public opinion that any claim that is said about sexual abuse is true, the expectation for criminal damage is extremely high, and there is no legal process to protect individuals that are illegally targeted for political, financial, or intelligence purposes, just in the same way that millions of people are targeted for other crimes such as identity theft.

McElhiney supports the rights of all persons who have been sexually abused to get Justice; he also believes that the best venue to get Justice is the courtroom, and not the Media. A courtroom decides whether a person is innocent or guilty, and the Media can cover the conviction or exoneration. If every single claim of sexual abuse of any woman is believed by the public when she publicizes it, there is the possibility that society could be used against an innocent person by one woman.

 

The motive behind each of these types of incidents could be unique, however the efforts should be easier to identify if the public is aware of the weakness in the openness of society caused by the Me Too movement.

 

Healthcare above politics! 

 

Women's Health

Women's health is just as important as a men's health — however their bodies are quite different, and there is a clear need for Women's Health centers such as Planned Parenthood. The Hyde Amendment, which states that taxpayer money should not be used to perform abortions, or provide support to organizations that perform abortions, should be removed from our legal system because it unfairly targets African American and Latino women that are poor and can't afford healthcare services otherwise.

There are critical services that organizations such as Planned Parenthood provide to women, that are necessary for the health and wellness of their patients. Women depend on their health, and there is a need for organizations that are specific to treating a woman's health. Even if a woman is not sexually active, she still needs the support and care of specialists that are familiar with women's health issues.

Period Poverty is a major women's health issue that isn't usually discussed by politicians. Women shouldn't have to choose between feeding themselves and taking care of their sanitary needs — it's demeaning and inhumane. There should be a government program to provide maxi-pads and tampons to poor women through dispensers that give out maxi pads or tampons on a timer; this ensures that they can't take a lot of them all at once for selling them or getting them for their family members.

There should be free women's feminine products available in every Jr. High and High School in America, in all public restrooms, and in women's prisons, to be used by the financially disadvantaged. All public schools, in both men's and women's bathrooms, should contain condom dispensers for the financially disadvantaged to prevent pregnancies.

These reproductive and sanitary products should be provided by non-profit partnerships with local, state, and the Federal governments. There should also be a tax exemption on women's feminine products and condoms in every state in America. This is for Patrick's abstinence first initiative.

Canada has increased its budget to provide $1.4 Billion starting in 2023 for women's healthcare services to people around the world. Half of the funding will be used to ensure women have access to safe abortions and reproductive-health services worldwide. Planned Parenthood is eligible to receive some funds where domestic governments have taken funds away.

 

Healthcare is a right, not a crime!

  

Abortion Rights

Personally, McElhiney believes that many types of abortions are morally wrong, like most people, however he still supports women’s rights, including the right to have an abortion. He believes that women should decide how they use and care for their own body. The United States Supreme Court will likely uphold Roe v Wade, because we cannot move backwards in history — there is no such thing as a time machine.

Abortion rights in cases of rape or incest should be protected no matter what, as well as if the mother's life is being threatened. While a woman has the right to choose to have an abortion, she also has the right to choose to not get pregnant, and to not have sex. When a woman has sex, she takes the risk of becoming impregnated, even while taking precautions such as birth control and contraception. Men don't have as much risk in having sex, because they don't have to carry the baby around for 9 months.

When abortion rights are allowed in cases of rape, and not in other cases, this will result in an increase of women reporting false rapes when they don't want to have the baby. It's not fair to place the potential father in the position of either going to prison, or being a father — possibly without his knowledge. Restricting abortion rights will also lead to higher rates of suicide and self-harm, including women performing abortions on themselves with coat hangers. The Republican laws are not going to do any good for women's rights. Over 77% of Americans want Roe v Wade to be upheld.

Proper planning for a family, including 1) the education of the parents, 2) acquiring careers with significant income, and 3) getting married before having sex — is the best way to take into consideration the type of family that a child should be born into. Patrick supports public benefit programs like welfare, however he doesn't believe that the programs should be used to raise children. Parents should have both private and public support of their future, through economic and sociological means, prior to having children.

Patrick is also opposed to the Hyde Amendment, which bans Federal funding from being used for abortions, because it disproportionately affects the poor, disabled, and minorities. We can't expect poor women to raise children if they can't afford to, and the law has complicated how Planned Parenthood is funded to provide vital women's healthcare services in America.

There is such a thing as a man's right to choose, and that is what happens to his conception in cases that do not include rape or incest. In these cases, the father of the unborn child should have rights to decide if the baby should be born or terminated. The mother should not have 100% of the authority to have an abortion in cases of consensual sex.

There may be advantages to having courts involved in decisions involving abortions, for the purpose of ensuring that both parents want to have the abortion. If only one of the parents wants to have the baby, then that parent could be granted the rights to raise the child alone. If both of the parents want to have an abortion, then perhaps an abortion would be the best legal decision.

Government support programs in tough times are good, however Patrick doesn't support the concept of a welfare state. He believes that every person must help themselves, and improve their community through concerted involved efforts. Our national debt is over $22 Trillion dollars, and we cannot afford to raise hundreds of thousands of children from our tax revenues.

 

Healthcare rights are human rights!

 

Stopping Anti-Abortion Legislation

McElhiney is opposed to what 9 Republican-held states are doing to try to push a variety of illegal anti-abortion laws to the United States Supreme Court to try to get Roe v Wade overturned. There are laws that are formed over long periods of time from knowledge and judgment that is gained over progress throughout history, and then there are laws that are political that are meant to destroy the establishment, like those in consideration in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Ohio, and Missouri. Patrick is opposed to our courts being used for the latter. These new laws acutely violate people's rights and disrupt society. Most women do not even seek abortion services until after 6 weeks, and the laws are all seeking to ban abortions by this time.

The United Nations Commissioner For Human Rights, Kate Gilmore, has said that recent United States abortion laws are a “crisis” akin to “torture”. She said that the laws amount to gender-based violence against women without a question. It negatively affects disabled, urban women more so than well-off women that have access to more resources and can go abroad to have an abortion.

A woman left a baby in a dumpster in Palm Beach, Florida in July 2019 because she thought it was stillborn. Another baby was found in a plastic bag in Georgia, named “India” by the first responders that found her, in June 2019. This is a growing trend that may be related to the rhetoric and new anti-abortion laws, forcing mothers to not seek legal avenues of adoption.

The new laws, which are clearly unconstitutional, have many unanswered questions:

  • Who decides the standard for a “life threatening” condition, in order to allow an abortion to proceed for a mother? Would if the mother is suicidal? Does that count as “life threatening”?
  • Where did the prison term length of “99 years” come from? What statutes were the alleged crimes compared to, in order to justify 99 years of prison time? Would the doctor be charged with murder?
  • If a woman is impregnated as a result of rape or incest, and forced to have the child, who would be responsible for raising the child?
  • What would the family raising the child tell that child about their real parents?
  • Would the father be able to have custody of the child after he got out of prison for the rape charge?
  • Would the mother have the legal right to object to the father having custody rights over the child if she was raped?
  • What happened to the mother's rights over controlling how and when she has biological offspring, if she's raped, and she can't have an abortion?
  • Could the mother sue the government for violating her human rights?

 

McElhiney doesn't support the State of Missouri trying to push out Planned Parenthood. Patrick thinks it is unfortunate that Missouri could soon be the first state in America without an abortion clinic.

Patrick McElhiney supports Federal legislation that would require that all new abortion bills at the state level would be required to obtain clearance from the United States Department of Justice before being passed. The Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution states that Federal laws override state and local laws.

Boycotts by Media companies including Disney that are threatening to stop filming in Georgia over the new abortion law backlash will hurt democrats disproportionately, because most of the people who work in the film industry are democrats.

The FDA is cracking down on abortion healthcare services, by controlling abortion drug imports from foreign nations, including India, through lying about the risks allegedly posed by the drugs. The Trump Administration is trying to win a war against women, and it's up to American voters to hold the Administration accountable by not re-electing Donald J. Trump.

There is some hope in regard to women being able to access abortion centers without the threat of being arrested and charged with murder. The Reproductive Health Act, which has already taken effect in Illinois, gave reproductive rights to women to make any decisions for their reproductive health in the state. New York City is also setting aside funding for 2019 to provide 500 free abortions to the needy, including paying for the patients' transportation.

 

 

Being pregnant isn't a crime!

 

Stopping Prosecutions of Mothers

The State of Alabama has a history of prosecuting mothers as part of the Personhood Movement, and we need to pass Federal legislation that puts an end to it. In 2019, a woman was indicted for losing her unborn child due to a shooting of her abdomen. A grand jury said the women who shot at the pregnant woman was acting in self-defense. They said that the woman who was pregnant intentionally started the fight, and because she was pregnant, it was her fault that she lost the fetus.

There's also a law that prosecutes a woman for using drugs while being pregnant. What happens if a mother takes a drag of a marijuana joint, and tests positive for THC in a blood screening at work? The state has a history of prosecuting pregnant women during their pregnancy for endangering the fetus, but some reasoning behind the cases doesn't make any logical sense.

 

18 = legal age to get married

 

Banning Child Marriage

Child marriage is a problem that has undermined women's rights for hundreds of years. Often times young women who enter into marriage don't have a way to support themselves and don't even complete high school. People argue that the soldier that is going off to war has a right to marry his or her high school sweetheart, however they end up going into training for at least a year, and there's no place for their spouse to live on the military base. People argue that if a young woman gets pregnant, the decision to get married is tied to her reproductive rights, however, these relationships rarely ever last - it's usually more about what they're going to tell their parents.

Banning child marriage seems like a no-brainer, but there are still people that support these rights. It's widely known that human traffickers use young women, coerced into marriage to older men, by paying their parents and then taking their daughter to some foreign country where U.S. laws have no impact on protecting them. There's more prevalence of sexual violence and domestic violence in child marriages. The women often feel silenced by their spouse, who verbally and physically abuses them. With child marriage still being allowed in most U.S. states, women's rights are at stake, and we need our elected leaders to work together to ban all types of child marriage, to protect young women from terrible effects from decisions that are made far too soon in their lives.

 

Patrick for _________!

 

Professional Courtesy

While Patrick McElhiney believes in a woman's right to choose, and he believes that sex is primarily for the purpose of procreation, he doesn't believe that his views on matters of developing a family should constrain the sexual freedoms of other individuals. He does believe that having sex prior to being prepared to raise a family is the equivalence of being on a slippery slope, which can lead to developmental and financial problems in life early on.

McElhiney believes that a person's freedom to make their own decisions in their life is the ultimate human right, as long as it doesn't infringe upon the human rights of others, and for this reason, there are significant differences between what Patrick believes, and what he would support as new legislation, especially when it comes to personal issues such as procreation and abortion rights. Patrick believes that the ultimate human right should be respected no matter what — when it comes to personal freedoms, and he only shares his personal beliefs, because you would ask him as a candidate for public office.

  

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