Paul Ryan defended the use of the term 'forcible rape' in the bill he cosponsored with Rep. Todd Akin, saying it was just 'stock language.' In the meantime, another Republican showed his ignorance of the seriousness of the issue by comparing rape-induced pregnancies with out-of-wedlock conceptions. The Republican War on Women continues. Watch it.
As a guy who served 20 years in the military with women doing the same jobs I did, I really find these right wingers insulting and demeaning to women veterans including all other women. We need to understand that a woman getting pregnant from a rape or incest or statutory rape is unfortunately all too common across America. We can never eliminate all rapes or acts of incest but we can control how we treat the victims of such crimes. The women and young girls who have this happen to them have had their humanity stolen from them. We need to understand that any pregnancy that comes from such an act is not a planned or wanted pregnancy. So therefore, this is a matter for a trained social worker, a doctor, and a nurse to deal with to help the woman or girl make the right decision her life. It is not a decision for right winged politicians with Bibles in their hands to pontificate about. This is medical and legal matter that trained professionals must deal with. We have to allow these women a state sponsored abortion and medical care including mental health counseling so the healing process can start for the woman in question. If prosecution of the perpetrator is possible then it should be carried forward but oftentimes this will never happen for a large number of reasons. Women are not animals or doormats they are our wives, mothers, sisters, daughters and sometimes our bosses or coworkers. When women or girls get treated like doormats, the men who share their lives get degraded right along with them. But, this seems to not be a topic amongst the GOP.
Linda S Houston
8/28/2012 11:48:08 PM
Eugenie,
There seems to be a real reluctance on the part of governments to even touch the subject and I find it completely unsettling. It really is big business. Some governments seem to even be promoting it. They have tracked American johns down in foreign Asian countries with young adolescent women sex slaves. But you never hear of any real high profile prosecutions. It remains our dirty little secret. Kudos to your daughter for focusing on important issues.
Puyallup Girl
8/28/2012 10:20:57 PM
Very well said, Linda. My daughter is getting a masters degree in Womens issues, to, hopefully, go out and help the women of the world. Get out there young women, only you can change the things that Linda-Houston just talked about. It has to be the younger generation who changes some of the wrongs and makes them right.
Linda S Houston
8/28/2012 8:06:53 PM
I cannot help but wonder how many of these so called pro lifers happened to watch the MSNBC special on human trafficking in sex slavery, it was on just a week ago. Houston was the featured city. This vile practice is one of the biggest growing businesses in the world. Poor young women sometimes as young as 12 are sold into slavery, taken across the border and forced into prostitution under threat of death and death of their families back in their home countries. Many times these girls end up pregnant and its the back alley abortionist who takes over. These women are so deathly afraid of their captors they rarely run. The traffickers have pictures of their families and homes to scare them and threaten them with death if they try to flee.
So Romney and Ryan...................should a 12 year old imprisoned young girl forced into prostitution be made to bear the rapists child? None of these girls are in the business willingly. They are tricked in their home countries by very clever male scum telling them they have a good job waiting for them in the United States.
This is going on all over the world and being pretty much ignored by most governments and law enforcement. There are American businessmen involved in this because of the money. Business is booming.
Women's rights is not just an American phenomenon. We have to band together the world over and get rid of the vermin that is causing this misery in young women's lives. It's time to see some people imprisoned for life. To heck with the drug war, we need to put money into this blight on society and stamp it out for good.
blueb
8/28/2012 11:31:02 AM
Ayn Rand hated her mother.
Rob, Oregon
8/28/2012 11:10:36 AM
Who the hell is anybody to say what a woman has to do if they are impregnated by the hideous crime of rape? These people are just incapable of letting the abortion issue go. The earth is on fire, and they are still hung up on Roe V. Wade. Democrats need to get off their duffs and vote in numbers that can't be rigged by these fascist clowns, or face having your life micro managed by the follow me or else party.
linda, virginia
8/28/2012 11:10:15 AM
August 16th 2012.....A 16 year old girl in the Dominican Republic died because of their strict abortion ban. She was 16 weeks pregnant and the dooctors there were more afraid of losing their licenses then losing her life.
As women, and mothers of young women we have got to stop these attacts on womens health and our rights to choose our method of treatment necessary to save "our" lives and the lives of "our" daughters.
Now her parents have lost a daughter and a grandchild. This is outrageous. With a Romney/Ryan presidency.. The Dominican Republic health Law will be "our" law.
Wake up parents..especially women we have got to save our children from the dictorship Romney/Ryan respresent..
ron mariposa
8/28/2012 9:53:57 AM
SICK people with SICK ideas
sandy
8/28/2012 8:22:16 AM
It's disgusting how they keep interfering in the private lives of women when they should be concentrating on the economy and jobs. What these fools don't realize is that rape just isn't a "quickie" but often preceded with verbal and physical abuse by a spouse, relative friend or a stranger. Not every woman has immediate access to health care after a rape, so she may find herself pregnant a few weeks later. As they want to also ban the "morning after pill" as a form of abortion, here a beaten and traumatized woman must be counseled that she has to carry any pregnancy to full term under threat, maybe, of being arrested and imprisoned.
Ukeman
8/28/2012 12:52:42 AM
stock language; "rape is rape"... in other words, don't bother with any questions about it; we don't want to discuss it; until we get the white house; then we'll TELL you what rape is (since you didn't figure it out for yourself from our documented positions). Same for Medicare and Social Security; boys and girls you voted us in (MANDATE) for change: no more payroll taxes but you buy your own insurance and retirement pensions. And by the way, Bombs Away; warfare is big business...
