The House GOP's Plan to Redefine Rape

[Daemonaquila]

Source: Mother Jones

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." This would rule out federal assistance for abortions in many rape cases, including instances of statutory rape, many of which are non-forcible. For example: If a 13-year-old girl is impregnated by a 24-year-old adult, she would no longer qualify to have Medicaid pay for an abortion. (Smith's spokesman did not respond to a call and an email requesting comment.)

"This bill takes us back to a time when just saying 'no' wasn't enough to qualify as rape," says Steph Sterling, a lawyer and senior adviser to the National Women's Law Center. Laurie Levenson, a former assistant US attorney and expert on criminal law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, notes that the new bill's authors are "using language that's not particularly clear, and some people are going to lose protection." 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.

Read more: http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/01/republican-plan-redefine-rape-abortion

---

More frightening than the mind-set it takes to write such a bill, is the likelihood that if it passes, it may eventually affect state criminal statutes and prosecutions of rape, and the legality of late-term and other abortions.

[sakabatou]

1. Republicans: Marching proudly back to the Dark Ages

[goforit]

2. HELL YAH!!! Disgusting!!

They need a reality check.

[Judi Lynn]

3. I trust the victim to know if she/he was raped. Republicans are becoming even greater fools.

Now they are visibly crossing the line, moving into advocating for true criminality.

How twisted can a group get? Looks as if they are out to break any records set previously.

[Bandit]

7. Sometimes the "victim" doesn't think of themself that way

There are numerous instances of a fifteen year old having sex with an eighteen year old with no regrets but their parents have a problem with it..Who really is the "victim" in such a case?

[Judi Lynn]

9. You'd better believe if there is a rape, there is, by god, a victim.

I don't intend to spend a moment indulging someone's fantasy about this.

On edit:

It's not really a topic which should invite idle masturbatory speculation. It's ####ing far too damnably serious.

[HockeyMom]

4. I used to work with an absoultely beautiful 21 year old young woman

who was totally mentally disabled; as in she was in a wheelchair, in diapers, had to be fed, and did not even respond to her own name. She was totally unresponsive to anything/anyone. If someone like she were to be raped, it wouldn't be rape to these people? By any stretch of the imaginmation, this woman could constant to NOTHING. They may as well say raping an INFANT wouldn't be rape.

Are these people crazy? SICK and crazy.

[damntexdem]

5. Rape is what the GOP envisions doing to us all.

I guess they figure that the Dems will cave, so there will be no need to use force.

[Plucketeer]

6. Focusing like a laser....

on the economy!

[williesgirl]

8. But where are the jobs in this effort! Fucking bastards.

[bongbong]

10. Jobs only for their criminal cronies

The no-talent freeloaders are lining up at the Wingnut Welfare Buffet table for millions courtesy of the taxpayer.

[SpiralHawk]

11. Ptoooey on the diaper-sex republicons and their so-called 'Family Values'

what pigs

[MilesColtrane]

12. Republicans are misogynistic, scum sucking, evil shitheels, who....

who should be cock whipped and beat in the kidneys with a rubber truncheon until they piss blood.


(So much for my pledge to ratchet down the rhetoric.)

[old mark]

13. K&R. My wife does rape counseling online. This is beyond disgusting...

the "values" GOP has outdone themselves.


mark

[Warren DeMontague]

14. Not a problem, if we treat women as able to make their own decisions about their own bodies

no matter what the circumstances.

[Odin2005]

15. There are no words.

:grr: