One of the most extreme anti-choice fanatics in Congress

If you’ve been watching this campaign so far, you’ll remember that Mitt Romney spent considerable political capital trying to convince women he was on their side, despite the Republican Party’s unceasing attacks on women’s reproductive rights.

It’s emblematic of Romney’s unfocused, self-contradicting campaign that he then picks a vice presidential candidate who’s one of the most extreme anti-choice fanatics on Capitol Hill: Paul Ryan Sponsored Fetal Personhood Bill, Opposes Family Planning Funds.

Despite Mitt Romney’s efforts to court women voters ahead of November, he chose a running mate who is far outside the mainstream on women’s health issues. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) cosponsored a bill that would give fetuses full personhood rights from the moment of fertilization, which was even rejected by voters in the socially conservative state of Mississippi. He voted to defund federal family planning programs, authored a budget that dismantles Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, all of which disproportionately aid and employ women, and voted multiple times to prevent women in the military from using their own money to pay for abortions at military hospitals. Ryan also supported a highly controversial bill that Democrats nicknamed the “Let Women Die Act,” which would have allowed hospitals to refuse to provide a woman emergency abortion care, even if her life is on the line. Planned Parenthood Action Fund said in a statement on Saturday morning that Ryan has earned zero percent on its women’s health voting scorecard, and other women’s rights group expressed similar alarm.

I’ll go out on a limb and predict that having Ryan on the ticket isn’t going to improve Romney’s sky-high unfavorable rating among women voters.