After his dramatic upset win, Alaska Republican Joe Miller took a stunningly distasteful route when tweeting about his opponent: Senator Lisa Murkowski. Rumors in Alaska were flying that Murkowski, who is trailing Miller with vote totals without absentees and early-votes counted, would run in the general election even without the Republican nomination. Miller responded with this mind-boggling post about his rival:

Of course, Miller’s campaign promptly removed the Tweet and denied that the candidate was the author. Facing criticism, the campaign released a statement claiming that the author was referring to Alaska’s Libertarian Party, not the Senator.

But in light of this sexist outburst, no matter who wrote it, it’s worth asking what Miller’s attitude is towards women when it comes to writing laws.

The answer is that the Tea Party-loved, Sarah Palin-backed “small government conservative” has a very intrusive view of the government’s role in women’s lives and family decision-making: He opposes a woman’s right to choose in nearly all cases, believing that an abortion should be legal only when a woman’s life is endangered. He does not support exceptions for rape and incest, and is a staunch supporter of Measure 2, a referendum that passed with 55% of the vote, which forces minors to obtain the consent of their parents in order to have an abortion. In the case of sexual assault by a family member, minors can receive a “judicial bypass” from the Supreme Court, but can only petition the Court with the authorization of an adult family member or a law enforcement officer.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, National Association of Social Workers and the YWCA all opposed the law, citing the lack of protections for girls who are homeless and the victims of abuse, incest, or rape. According to the Juneau Empire: “a girl who is struggling with an unwanted pregnancy, and is suffering abuse at home (maybe even the awful damage of incestuous rape),” because of Measure 2, “would be forced to either deal with the consequences of revealing this pregnancy to an abuser, or relive the abuse in a written statement before she is psychologically ready to do so.”

Miller is the preferred candidates of the right-wing Alaska Family Council, whose mission is to “to hold our public officials accountable to a higher law – the law of God.” He also strongly opposes comprehensive sex-education and stem-cell research, while a champion of the “global gag rule,” or the prohibition of US funding to family planning services and the groups that promote them.

The more combative Tea Party-style of campaigning by candidates such as Joe Miller, who previously paraded with assault weapon-wielding supporters, promotes a cold political agenda that sees government with little-to-no role in helping or protecting the elderly and disabled, low-income families, the unemployed, the uninsured, or victims of hate crimes. However, Miller believes in a severely expansive and invasive role for government when it comes to decisions over women’s bodies.