Redefining Rape In A Good Girl, Bad Girl Sort Of Way
Rape is only really rape if it involves force. So says the new House Republican majority as it now moves to change abortion law.
For years, federal laws restricting the use of government funds to pay for abortions have included exemptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest. (Another exemption covers pregnancies that could endanger the life of the woman.) But the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,” a bill with 173 mostly Republican co-sponsors that House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has dubbed a top priority in the new Congress, contains a provision that would rewrite the rules to limit drastically the definition of rape and incest in these cases.
With this legislation, which was introduced last week by Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), Republicans propose that the rape exemption be limited to “forcible rape.”
I would point out that rape is always a forcible act. I would also like to point out that by looking for another way to chip away at abortion Republicans are embracing the “she asked for, really wanted it” defense. In GOP land No doesn’t mean No unless the woman has the bruises to show for it?
Other types of rapes that would no longer be covered by the exemption include rapes in which the woman was drugged or given excessive amounts of alcohol, rapes of women with limited mental capacity, and many date rapes. “There are a lot of aspects of rape that are not included,” Levenson says.
What message is being sent here? That if you drug a woman or ply her with alcohol then it isn’t rape because…? What? If a woman doesn’t guard her drink 100% of the time shame on her? If she has too much to drink? Well, what did she expect – she should have known better, after all, getting drunk makes it okay for a man to take advantage?
And if you force or coerce a woman with limited mental capacity to have sex with you that’s okay? Actually, it’s beyond sick, but it seems the GOP is fine with it. This part is seriously effed up.
As for the incest exception, the bill would only allow federally funded abortions if the woman is under 18.
How gracious of them. An adult relative abuses you for years, but once you turn 18 the abuser gets a pass and you can have the baby, because you really should know better now that you’ve had a birthday. More woman blaming complete with woman only consequences.
But while this proposed law wraps itself in its Pro-Life blanket it covers much more than abortion. It has the potential to redefine rape. What is “real” rape? Wonder if sales for the date-rape drug soar? After all, if this law goes through (which, for the moment, doesn’t seem likely) can you convict someone of rape if an anti-abortion law redefines what rape is?
From the files of my personal experience:
20+ years ago I met an attractive 19 year old girl in a small town in central Ohio; We’ll call her… Jane just to protect her identity.
I was 20 and home on leave from the Marine Corps. On my trip home I went to my friends house in Mt. Vernon, Ohio where I met Jane.
After hanging out for a couple days with friends around, Jane decided to show off to her friends by teasing me in a sexual nature. She started by rubbing against my shoulders with her breasts, and then my crotch with her butt. Then a little while later in front of her friends she unzipped my jeans with her teeth and then preformed an oral sex act on me.
A few hours later she asked me to stay at her house with her and her 3 friends that night, which I did. Once at the house her friend, who also liked me asked about sleeping arrangements. Jane responded “Marine Stud is sleeping me.” She then said “I need to get laid or someone is going to get hurt.”
We did go to bed together. We did have sex. It was with mutual consent.
The next morning when her parents returned from their trip a day early and woke us up her story changed. She said “He raped me.”
Luckily her step-dad, a local police officer asked the other girls what REALLY went on the night before. Thankfully there were plenty of witnesses to dispute her claims otherwise my experience could have destroyed my life.
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As a personal defense / Firearm instructor I know that in Ohio a female may use deadly force if SHE believes an act of rape on her is imminent. There is no other test required; no other threshold needs met.
I don’t even know what to say to this comment. What does Jon’s story have to do with abortion in the case of rape?
I get that people make false accusations. They also make false accusations in murder cases and who took grandmom’s china.
*fanning self, opens window*
Whew.
The rest of the male readers will be commenting in… just a few minutes.
“What does Jon’s story have to do with abortion in the case of rape?”
I’m not seeing it. Maybe he gets a thrill out of posting lurid, irrelevant stories on the Internet?
Not quite sure what Obama2008 is saying either…
Joe H.
Stevensville, MD
Jon, I used to live in Mt Vernon. Once you’d watched the tubes zip through that old downtown department store & eaten chocolates from that awesome little chocolate shop, wasn’t much to do there. Surely that explains her execrable taste.
i think what he was trying to say is “young girls beg for it all the time and are just liars so it is best to just assume all women are lying, force them to have the baby, then demonize them for being a single mom and take their welfare.”
Perhaps this is what they mean by “forcible rape.:
Via Digby:
some elected GOPers actually think she should view it as a blessing.
ben, I think the specific instructions are that she should take those lemons and make lemonade
Sharron Angle made the lemonade remark.
The Republicans didn’t take very long to show their priorities did they? Repeal HCR (doing the Chamber’s bidding), make sure those millionaires have their tax cuts and now make sure impure women are forced to have babies. Did any of this create a job?
I’m glad we have a Senate to kill this stupid shit coming out of the House and a president who will veto.
As a rape survivor (and yes, that is what its called) and having lived thru the process, including medical, criminal investigation etc I think I have the right to add something here.
Until one of these ignorant fools is held down, choked to the point that you are sure you will die,vaginally raped, then sodomized and bit(yes,I wrote bit) over and over, so badly that the scars are still on your back years later…they will NEVER know what the experience is like.
yes, I knew him
yes, I had dated him,
yes, I had broken up with him
and Yes – for the record – I said NO
thru the criminal investigation, medical care and therapy/counciling it felt like they system was raping me all over again.
and things these days are way better than they were…
So, as long as these fools exist, women like me will stand in their way to protect the rights and dignity of other women.
and yes, had I gotten pregnant, I would have aborted, immediately.
I am so sorry this happened to you, Musteno. Your story breaks my heart. I can’t even imagine how this proposed law makes you feel.
I call bullshit on Cinemax Jon.
20 years ago there were plenty of wild girls but unless you were a biker chick (and you wouldn’t have given a shit what your parents thought anyway), it didn’t go down like Girls Gone Wild.
There are no words for the GOP freaks of DC.
do you think it would be as disgusting if this was their “extreme opening play” to get something passed that would seem less horrible by comparison?
Thank you Pandora, 🙂
Now, I feel strong and have devoted my time and life to fight for women’s rights, especially revolving around this issue.
so, that said, they will have to get thru me and the thousands like me, before we will allow this to go thu.
and Jane, I suppose I did make lemonade with my lemons. (smile)
much to the chagrin of those that would propose this legislation.
Joe Biden remember, was the author is the VAWA (violence against women )ACT…we have our allies in the right places.
This is how the Right does it, Ben: Ask big, then compromise. Ask big again, then compromise again. They chip, chip, chip away at what they want and accept slow progress.
A dramatic true story about a child born of a rape victim, written by Aaron Myers.
Waters, Ethel (b. October 31, 1896?, Chester, Pa.; d. September 1, 1977, Chatsworth, Calif.), American singer and actress who brought black urban blues into the mainstream.
Ethel Waters was born to a 12 year old mother, Louise Anderson, who had been raped by a white man, John Waters. Although she was raised by her maternal grandmother, she took her father’s surname. Reared in poverty, she left school at the age of 13 in order to support herself through domestic housework.
Waters performed for the first time at the age of five in a children’s church program. She was called Baby Star and later, performing on the black vaudeville circuit, became known as Sweet Mama Stringbean. After moving to New York City in 1919, at the start of the Harlem Renaissance, Waters recorded songs for Black Swan Records and then Colombia Records while playing in revues and performing on the white vaudeville circuit during the 1920s. Two of her more popular songs were “Dinah” (1925) and “Stormy Weather” (1933). By refining the lyrics and the performance, Waters introduced urban blues to a white audience. Her stylistic alterations created a niche for the black nightclub singers who gained popularity from the 1930s through the 1950s.
In 1927, Waters’s career as an actress began with the musical Africana. She played singing roles in other Broadway productions: Blackbirds (1930), Rhapsody in Black (1931), As Thousands Cheer (1933), At Home Abroad (1936, and Cabin in the Sky (1940). Waters played more dramatic roles in Mamba’s Daughters (1939) and The Member of the Wedding (1950). Appearing in nine films between 1929 and 1959, she received an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress in Pinky (1949). Through these roles, Waters transformed the image of the older black woman from that of the servile “Mammy” to the self-sufficient Earth Mother. She toured with evangelist Billy Graham from 1957 to 1976. Waters is the author of two autobiographies: His Eye is on the Sparrow (1951) and To Me It’s Wonderful (1972).
–Aaron Myers
No shit, Stories. Most slaves who were raped by their owners bore them their children too. Abortion is about a woman’s reasonable right to control her own body. The forcible rape argument is about whether the GOP believes that it is permissible to deny funds and remedy to rape victims in categories of the statutorily too young, the mentally ill, the paralyzed, the drugged or otherwise unconscience etc. all who would ostensibly be raped in a manner that could not be termed “forcible”.
Is this Stories way of saying rape can be good? It’s a really stupid game, but I can play…
Imagine if Hitler had been aborted.
See how stupid this is?
Here’s my proposal: Any woman who has been impregnated by rape can bear the child if she wants to. Oh, wait … that’s the law already, isn’t it? So basically, all the people affected who want to bear those children can do so, meaning that of all those who want to change the law, none of them will be directly affected.
Does that seem the fair way to do things? Can we retake a vote on the tax cut extension for the rich, only this time the rich get no say in it?
Here’s a thought – instead of focusing on the victim and whether they fought hard enough perhaps we should do all we can to prevent rape in the first place. Strange concept, I know. I should think this is something that both left and right can agree on.
It would also be good to make sure all girls and women have access to birth control.