The Raping of American Women

It has taken me several weeks to find a good head space to write about rape in the United States and how too many politicians from the right are using it to exploit their abortion beliefs. I boil up with anger just thinking about it, so I have to pause a lot to get my thoughts together.

I will start with attempting to make a person (especially men) understand what a woman goes through when she is raped. First of all, she is forcibly and sometimes violently violated in the most personal way possible by a person she did not want to have sex with. Not only can it cause irreparable physical damage, but it completely causes irreparable psychological damage. It not only destroys the life of the victim, but the victim's friends and family are also permanently scarred. It sets off a chain of destruction in the lives of countless people and that kind of deep-seated suffering and trauma never completely goes away.

"Victims who survive these crimes have to worry about having contracted sexually transmitted diseases, they may have physical injuries, girls and women have to worry about pregnancy. This is on top of the stigma, fear and anger that being victimized may bring. It is never 'just sex'. Ask any victim of any age or gender. Anyone who's ever had someone trespass against them can start to understand how this crime can traumatize."

That quote is from an unidentified rape victim I found on a victims support website.

And let's also keep in mind that many rapes aren't reported because the crime is so personal and heinous and private. When asked about the attack, victims must relive what happened and reporting it to the police means reliving it. Reliving it at trial etc... That's not to mention the medical examination after the attack. You were just man-handled inappropriately and traumatically and now, you must undergo similar touching as part of your exam.

And despite what some politicians claim, you can indeed get pregnant from a rape. It has happened hundreds and hundreds of times. And I guess this is leading up to what I really want to address in this blog and that is politicians continually excusing and trivializing rape in order to push their anti-abortion agenda. 

After seeing the reports of New Mexico rep Cathrynn Brown, who introduced a bill where rape victims who got pregnant from their attack would be jailed for having an abortion because they destroyed evidence of the crime, that was the last straw. (Fortunately, Brown's bill doesn't have the support to become a law, but the fact it was even introduced is mind boggling. And the fact it was introduced by a woman is disgusting.)

Of course, there have been other pieces of legislation introduced and my mind automatically turns to Paul Ryan, who doesn't seem to care much for the victims of rape, but more for the product of rape. 

"Whether it's the language of Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan that isolates the concept of  'forcible rape,' simply looking to limit abortions at all costs, or bills like Brown's that have a myopic focus on punishing the assailant, the GOP continually misses what should be one of the most critical parts of any rape-abortion legislation -- the perspective of the victim." - Brittany Bullock, Huffington Post blogger.

Bullock's point is what's so infuriating. These laws are introduced with ZERO consideration of the victim of a heinous crime. These politicians are introducing legislation that would allow rapists parental rights to children they created during a rape. It's bad enough these women are victims, but people like Paul Ryan want to force them to have a child they probably don't want and then have to DEAL with the man who attacked them in their everyday lives because that child has a right to see their rapist father. It is sick. 

You have to be a sick, heartless bastard to push your pro-life agenda? We get it. You are pro-life, but be pro-life to the point of reason. In trying to save the life of one child, how many more are you destroying?  These proposed laws turn rape victims into criminals. Rape is NEVER deserved and if pregnancy is the product of that rape, you should NEVER be forced to have that child. 

This mindset of using rape as a means to give your pro-life agenda a boost is doing nothing but trivializing rape. The more you talk about it happening and the more you give reasons as to why a rapist has certain rights, the more you put the notion into society that rape is okay. And rape is NEVER okay. EVER. And lending it credence is Mr. Ryan saying that rape is just another "method of conception." 

If you want the national mindset on abortion to turn around, then use education (something the GOP seems to dislike) instead of asinine laws that will only empower rapists. We need common sense in these kinds of situations. Women who are raped are victims and they have and will have gone through enough without a heartless politician furthering their suffering to gain brownie points with an extreme right agenda.

I have personally seen the negative toll the rape of one person can have and the aftershocks number in the hundreds. Stop being a champion for an agenda and start being a champion for victims. You might also be able to keep your public office. Maybe. 

Call Me A Hypocrite

I am a hypocrite. I admit it. I got some not-so-nice messages after my last blog that discussed my complete hatred of guns. I cited mass shootings as one of my reasons and stressed why the deaths of children makes these crimes even more horrific.

Then, the cowards who decided not to air their grievances as comments on my blog, decided to DM me on facebook or email me. They said there was no way I could be pro-choice and anti-gun. How could I advocate killing babies and then advocate not killing babies?

I suppose, however, my alleged hypocrisy has exceptions. It does bother me a bit when pro-lifers assume that just because I am pro-choice, I am pro-murder. That is like saying someone who is pro-death penalty is pro-murder. It's not exactly correct. I know there are some aspects of issues that I like to proclaim as being "that simple." But, abortion isn't simple and never has been. If it were, the Supreme Court wouldn't have ruled on the issue in the first place.

So, let's compare the killing of children in a mass shooting situation versus abortion.

The first word that came to my mind when thinking this through was choice. You see, that is why I am pro-choice. This gives a woman a choice in what happens to her body. With abortion, two lives are involved, not just one. In mass shootings, the perpetrator doesn't walk into a school and first call the parents of the children they plan on gunning down to check if that's okay. When a gunman walks into an establishment with the intent to spray bullets, and the child's mother is not around, it doesn't present a physical danger to the mother. You see, sometimes abortions are necessary to save the life of the mother. Sometimes abortions are necessary if the mother was raped or there is incest. Abortion can be mulled over, thought about, considered and discussed. Mass shootings are obviously NEVER necessary and rarely is discussion even an option.

Now, I understand how conservatives see abortion as just another means of birth control and I know for a fact that it has been utilized that way. Human life is precious and the decision to end a life isn't something that should be taken lightly. But we have all seen Dirty Dancing enough times to know that if safe and medically-performed abortions aren't available, then back alley and wire hanger abortions will begin again. These types of dangerous procedures threaten both the lives of the mother and child.

And it seems to me that most members of the GOP only care about those children being born. Once they are in this world, the charity stops. Many babies are aborted because families can't afford another child or the mother is drug-addicted, homeless, abused or destitute. The GOP is against funding welfare, food stamps, drug rehabilitation programs, low-income housing, Planned Parenthood and other social initiatives. So, they just want that child to be born so it can starve in the streets. Great plan. And I am the one being called a hypocrite by the right wing.

But, as usual, I digress.

I hear many say mass shootings are "God's will," but abortions aren't. Pardon me, but what's the damn difference? I don't believe in the will of any deity, but I do believe in the will of some wacko with a legal arsenal of guns that can take my life and your life in less than a second. So, take the guns.

Just like we don't call American soldiers "murderers" we shouldn't call people who are pro-choice murderers. Our beliefs and our actions are truly for the good of the United States and its children. And THAT is why a pro-choice, anti-gun America is heading in the right direction. It's progress. Deal with it.