Barbara Boxer made a strong statement about the 2012 election this week.

“I gotta say to the women out there, whether you’re Republican or Democrat or Independent, if you’re a self-respecting human being, please vote for President Obama, and to the men who care about women, do the same thing”, she told Al Sharpton Wednesday night on MSNBC’s Politics Nation.

Boxer’s comments came in the middle of a heated discussion about Republicans’ record on women’s rights. The California congresswoman criticized Mitt Romney’s indecisiveness on such issues as the Lilly Ledbetter Act, a 2009 law signed by President Obama that makes it easier for women to receive equal pay.

“This is the issue of our time,” Boxer said.

Though Romney has tried to argue that Obama is worse for women than Republicans, he refused to say whether or not he would have signed the law as president. When HuffPost’s Sam Stein asked a Romney adviser about whether or not the GOP hopeful supports the legislation, he responded, “we’ll get back to you on that.” Hours later, the campaign responded but not before receiving a barrage of criticism from activists and the Obama campaign.

Even Lilly Ledbetter criticized Romney and other Republicans for failing to stand up for equal pay.

Watch Boxer take a shot at Republicans in the clip above, courtesy of MSNBC.