It hasn't even been two weeks since the US supreme court's Hobby Lobby decision – a depressing reminder of how regressive America remains on issues of gender and sexuality – and already Democrats are firing the first shots in what's sure to be a new front in 2014's definitive battle for women's votes.  This week, Senators Mark Udall (D-CO) and Patty Murray (D-WA) have outlined legislation that would bar employers from banning coverage for contraception – essentially overturning the Hobby Lobby ruling. After a Senate vote as early as next week, any such bill is sure to fail in the Republican-controlled House. Then comes the real test: Are Democrats willing to work on women's health with the same vigor with which they've so quickly revived it as a political issue?  The GOP is digging an even deeper hole with women than they did in 2012: denying women access to birth control is almost certainly going to be the Republicans' legacy of idiocy heading into 2016, especially given that, at any given time, about 25% of reproductive-age women are using hormonal contraceptives or intrauterine devices, the two methods at issue in the case. (Studies show that 88% of women will use one of those methods of birth control in their lifetimes.)  Democrats aren't wasting any time making sure that the GOP's anti-contraception reputation sticks. Udall – whose Colorado seat is seen as vulnerable – said in a statement that "women should never have to ask their bosses for a permission slip to access common forms of birth control or other critical health services". Murray said, "I hope Republicans will join us to revoke this court-issued license to discriminate and return the right of Americans to make their own decisions, about their own health care and their own bodies." Sure she does.  The intent of their bill – since it clearly won't pass – is to shine an incredibly unflattering spotlight on the GOP's problem with women and sex, and good for Democrats on that score. The conservative narrative that paints women who use birth control as "sluts" – first widely posited by Rush Limbaugh in 2012 , but which has gained wider currency since – will be just about as popular with female voters as then-Representative Todd Akin's "legitimate rape" comments. (The now-memoirist has since doubled down on his statements.)  And Emily's List president Stephanie Schriock (rumoured to be a pick for a top campaign position should Hillary Clinton run for president) told me, "Women voters are not interested in having their boss or their government decide just what kind of health care they deserve access to".  "This is just one attack in a long line of many from Republicans who are obsessed with legislating women's lives, and it's going to backfire," Shriock added.  She's right – and not just in the short-term. Should Clinton run for president, the continued Republican obsession with women's sexuality (and Democrats calling them on it) can only be net positive for her campaign. The cultural response to sexism has shifted considerably since Clinton's last run, and the misogyny that dogged her last time around will do nothing if not motivate women at the polls.  Those who think otherwise are underestimating just how sick and tired American women are of fighting the same battle for decades only to be called whores.  But as the GOP goes down in misogyny-kindled flames in 2014 and women flock to support Democrats, we need to make sure that the focus of Democrats and feminists on women's issues isn't just about votes, but about change. Because while the "war on women" worked wonders at the polls in 2012, it didn't have the same impact on policy – there were more abortion restrictions enacted over the last three years, for example, than in the entire previous decade.  And though feminist- and left-led campaigns to beat back Republican attacks on women's health garnered a lot of media attention, that didn't stop conservative activists from rolling back women's access to reproductive health care. The popular campaign to stop a Virginia bill mandating transvaginal ultrasounds before abortions, for example, trended on Twitter and made it into a Saturday Night Live sketch – and then the law was amended, but only to change the kind of ultrasound required. Viral campaign aside, some women in Virginia now won't be able to afford an abortion because the cost of the state-mandated ultrasound.  And, in the wake of the Hobby Lobby ruling, some of the same women won't be able to afford access to the birth control that could prevent unwanted pregnancies in the first place – which the GOP is cheering. But making Republicans the villains on election days hasn't been enough to reverse their policies.  In her Hobby Lobby dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg – who has reached serious meme status in recent weeks – wrote that, with its decision, the supreme court had "ventured into a minefield", and now they've dragged Republican politicians with them. What really matters, though, is what Democrats and feminists can do for women in their wake besides being satisfied with the carnage.
Jessica Valenti: Let's be honest: trying to overturn Hobby Lobby won't work. Let's get optimistic instead: Republicans have ventured into the feminist minefield of 2014