Olympia Snowe Praises Scott Brown for Work on Women's Issues BOSTON - Senator Scott P. Brown of Massachusetts appeared alongside a fellow moderate Republican, Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, on Monday to kick off a "Women for Brown" committee, the latest step in his concerted effort to appeal to female voters in his campaign for re-election. At a news conference at his Boston campaign headquarters, Mr. Brown highlighted his recent sponsorship of the third reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act - and he drew on his own history of domestic abuse at the hands of his stepfathers. "I remember the desperation my mom, my sister and I felt when we were confronted in the middle of the night with some of the very real challenges of stepfathers wanting to hurt us," he said. Ms. Snowe, who is retiring at the end of her term, endorsed Mr. Brown this month. At Monday's event, she said Mr. Brown's support of the reauthorization, which had come under fire from some Republicans who were concerned it would give new protections to groups like illegal immigrants and same-sex couples, was a clear example of his temperance as a senator. "As Scott has said, we need this third reauthorization, and we cannot allow partisanship to stand in the way," Ms. Snowe said. We cannot make progress in the United States Senate if we do not have senators like Scott Brown, who have demonstrated time and again their willingness to reach across the political aisle to get things done. Ms. Snowe played down her vote against the so-called Blunt amendment, a failed measure co-sponsored by Mr. Brown that would have allowed employers to deny health care coverage they deemed objectionable, including contraception for female employees. "You can have honest disagreements about how you craft that conscience clause, frankly," Ms. Snowe said. Essentially, the key question is: Does Scott Brown support women's access to health services and health care? Mr. Brown's support of the amendment attracted a barrage of criticism from women's groups and the campaign of Elizabeth Warren, his Democratic rival. "The Senate did the right thing in stopping Scott Brown and his extreme amendment that threatened health care coverage for women and families," said a release that Ms. Warren's campaign issued on March 1. Senator Brown took sides with Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney and the right wing of his party. Mr. Brown has a history of supporting the "conscience clause." As a state senator, in 2005, he sponsored an amendment that would have allowed hospitals to opt out of using emergency contraceptives for rape victims. The amendment failed, and Mr. Brown ultimately voted for the bill, which included a requirement that emergency rooms provide contraceptives to rape victims. Mr. Brown also received criticism from women's groups when he suggested, on a radio show last fall, that it was a good thing that Ms. Warren had never posed nude in a magazine (referring to a spread he did in Cosmopolitan in the early 1980s). During the news conference, Mr. Brown denied suggestions from reporters that his support for the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women bill was part of a political effort to win back female support. "I signed on to Violence Against Women a long time ago, two or three months ago," he said. I've been working on these issues long before this came up.