I would like to respond to the letter "GOP gets unfairly criticized" by Joan Kaufman. The gist of this letter is that there is no war on women's rights by the Republican Party. It goes on to cite numerous "facts" to support her case. These so-called facts are no more than misinformation and misogyny to hide the real truth.

Of these cited facts, three of them stood out to me as particularly wrong. The first one was the non-passage of the Violence Against Women Act. The truth was that this moral act wanted to include women from all types relationships, including lesbian couples. But the anti-gay GOP members were willing to trash this entire act because of the addition.

The second was any federal funding of Planned Parenthood, which by federal law cannot include abortion. Planned Parenthood does a whole lot more than that for low-income women's health.

The third and most egregious of these items was her definitions of rape. Rape is rape no matter if it is a knife at a woman's throat or seductive words in an innocent ear. Legally a child cannot consent to any sexual activity. It is by default non-consensual sex, which is the legal definition of rape. Again we have the GOP to blame for this even being an issue.

Wherever Tea Party Republicans gained power, state or federal, the number of laws against women's interests skyrocketed.

Yes, there is a war on women and it is being led by the Republicans.

Stanley J. Schulte Jr.

Swansea