UPDATED: EMILY’S LIST SCORECARD EVALUATING 2012 REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES

The Numbers Get Smaller: What South Carolina Women Should Know

EMILY’s List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, today releases their evaluation of front runners going into South Carolina – and exposes what South Carolina women and families should know about their records and their values.

New Hampshire Pick #1: Former Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney:
Romney Likes “Being Able to Fire People.”
In South Carolina, the unemployment rate was 9.9 in November 2011, which meant there were 213,500 unemployed people in the state.

New Hampshire Pick #2: Congressman Ron Paul:
Paul Voted Against The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
In South Carolina, a woman working full time is paid $31,010 per year, while a man working full time is paid $39,648 per year—creating a wage gap of $8,638 between full time working men and women in South Carolina. As a group, full time working women lose approximately $4.9 million each year due to the wage gap, which is critical since over 250,000 households in the state are headed by women and 34% of those households live below the poverty level.

New Hampshire Pick #3: Former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich:
Gingrich Praised GOP War on Planned Parenthood.
Planned Parenthood plays a critical role in providing health care to low-income women - many who would be forced to go without health care if it was defunded. Eliminating the family planning program would stop millions of women each year from receiving preventive care. In 2008, Title X-funded centers provided contraceptive care to 95,900 women in South Carolina.

New Hampshire Pick #4: Former Senator Rick Santorum:
Rick Santorum’s aide says women shouldn’t be president because it’s against God’s will
South Carolina relies on female leadership. The state is represented by Governor Nikki Haley and depends on women owned businesses. In 2011, the state had 105,100 women owned firms, which employed 100,300 people and was credited with $14.7 million in sales. In fact, the state was ranked in the top 10 states for growth in number of women-owned businesses.

The EMILY’s List "Republican Presidential Scorecard" will be an ongoing effort to communicate with women voters about the Presidential race and what’s at stake. The scorecard will be continually updated to adjust to the changing dynamics of the primary.

The EMILY’S List "Republican Presidential Scorecard" shows the candidates who scored worst on women’s issues (in order of most egregious): former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich; Congressman Ron Paul; former Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney; former Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA).

Changes to the scorecard include:

• Mitt Romney’s flip-flop on his views on firing people.
• Governor Rick Perry’s exit from the race.
• Former Governor Jon Huntsman's exit from the race.

In the 2009-2010 cycle, EMILY's List raised more than $38.5 million to support its mission of recruiting and supporting women candidates, helping them build strong campaigns, and mobilizing women voters to turn out and vote. With a community of more than 900,000 members across the country, EMILY's List is one of the largest political action committees in the nation. Since its founding in 1985, EMILY's List has worked to elect 86 pro-choice Democratic women to the U.S. House, 16 to the U.S. Senate, nine governors, and hundreds of women to the state legislatures, state constitutional offices, and other key local offices. In the 2009-2010 cycle, EMILY's List had the largest number of members and donors in our 25 year history.