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GOP's Latest Anti-Choice Tactic: Redefining Rape to Block Abortion Funding

Wed, 02/02/2011 - 09:13
Submitted by Carlin Ross

They're just not going to be happy until we're all barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen.

Republican Chris Smith (featured here next to Boehner) has introduced legislation that includes a provision that could redefine rape and set women's rights back by decades.

Right now, federal dollars can't be used for abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or when the woman's life is in danger.

But according to the New York Times, the Smith bill would narrow that use to "cases of 'forcible' rape but not statutory or coerced rape." This could mean cases where women are "drugged or given excessive amounts of alcohol, rapes of women with limited mental capacity, and many date rapes" would no longer count as rape.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE sign the petition to urge Congress to oppose this sexist, anti-choice bill.

Can you imagine? Your underdage daughter gets ruffied and medicaid won't pay for her abortion. Or your mentally incapacitated daughter gets lured into sex - no abortion for her either.

Roe v. Wade is the law of the land but there's this constant movement to undermine choice by making it difficult to find a clinic or come up with the money to pay for an abortion. 83% of US counties don't have a clinic. If this law passes, they're not going to stop there. Slowly but surely they will put an end to intentional motherhood.

For me, the Supreme Court upholding a state ban on late term abortion without an exception to save a woman's life sent a very clear message. Women are expendable. Zygotes and fetuses are not *sigh*

I wonder if things would be different if men got pregnant.

Sex, Politics & More Sex

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absolutely disgusting, I was

Thu, 02/03/2011 - 01:02
jexhibitionism

absolutely disgusting, I was seeing red when I heard about this for the first time.. unreal

8-O

Thu, 02/03/2011 - 13:37
Forseti

I'm completely speechless and that doesn't happen very often.

some good news - their bs

Fri, 02/04/2011 - 08:27
Carlin Ross

some good news - their bs attempt to redefine rape failed. However, the new version of the bill apparently retains the clause that limits the incest exemption to girls under the age of 18 and language that makes it tougher for women to obtain abortion coverage through their private insurers.

I am going to take a

Fri, 02/04/2011 - 11:45
awsure

I am going to take a hazardous step and play devil's advocate against your comments a bit. Hopefully the replies are civil although it seems folks on both sides of this issue get extremely heated in their rhetoric. Statistics suggest somewhere around 1% of abortions occur due to rape/incest which makes the outrage to this proposed law (in my opinion) a bit disengenous. The vast majority of abortions occur because the pregnancy is simply unwanted for various reasons. The "hypothetical" daughter you pose in your comment that's a victim of rape is, in reality, overwhelmingly more likely a young woman that simply got pregnant. I've always felt you should argue the issue, not within the narrow scope of extreme peripheral circumstance, but rather within the meat of the issue.
In terms of the republicans attempted legislation it's simply a tactic of "incrementalism" which democrats also employ within the scope of their beliefs on issues like gun control. In lightning rod issues like these politicians recognize that a narrowly written bill can pass more easily than a broad based one and they hope to use the momentum much like a snowball rolling down a hill.

WHY a woman gets an abortion

Sat, 02/05/2011 - 03:29
Forseti

WHY a woman gets an abortion has no bearing on the issue. Women must be allowed to have an abortion for any reason - not just religiously/whatever sanctioned ones.

Yes...the WHY has absolute

Fri, 03/04/2011 - 12:32
awsure

Yes...the WHY has absolute bearing. And no, women should not be allowed to have abortion for any reason whatsoever. You see, I can produce an equally intractable position also. The problem is it serves to do nothing except polarize the issue further.

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