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Rape Survivors on the GOP

Jill

A must-watch:

Transcript:

Why do Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan want to take away our right to personal health care decisions?
UltravioletAction

V1- Dear Governor Romney.

V2- Dear Governor Romney.

V3- Dear Governor Romney.

I was raped at age 20. It was forcible even though I didn’t have any bruises or cuts. That doesn’t make it any easier to live with.
　
Starting at six years old, I was sexually assaulted. It began with an uncle, then a grandfather. I was molested and raped far too many times to count.
　
Twenty-two years ago, I gave birth to a lovely daughter who was conceived as a result of rape.
　
That’s right. Nine months later I gave birth to a boy from that encounter.
　
I could go into graphic detail of what was done to me. But that would take page after page of describing so many experiences I vividly remember to this day.
　
I chose not to abort my pregnancy. But I can find no fault with any woman that chooses an abortion if she becomes pregnant as a result of rape.
　
Eleven years later I still think about the rape and my son every day no matter how hard I try.
　
I don’t know how my life would look if I had not been victimized by rape. Which I believe is the worst crime against a human being. But I do know and experience nearly thirty years later, the torture of the effects of being raped as a child.
　
Governor Romney.

Governor Romney.

Governor Romney.

I’m wounded, I’m pissed, and I’m not alone.

23 thoughts on Rape Survivors on the GOP

  1. Unfortunately its a numbers game. Romney can afford to throw away the women who have been raped, if he gets the women who feel abortion is wrong. Many women who are personally against abortion and wouldnt get one, feel you shouldnt have that option either.

  2. You know what I wanted when I was forcibly impregnated by an abusive guy as a teen? I wanted– access to support. What IS pro choice woman friendly support?

    Support with access to counselling.
    Support with trauma/rape/sexual abuse oriented therapy and ongoing life management.
    Support with access to understanding woman friendly resources that let me explore all possible options and avenues of support.
    Financially assistance to get an abortion if desired.
    Assistance with finances, with community access to family activities that accept mothers with trauma or complex issues, with therapy and parenting support with the specific issues of raising a child from forced pregnancy.

    I am a woman who wanted to give birth— and the subsequent act of giving birth to a child without resources and then feeling like I was so undersupported and faced with crippling trauma issues and no resources to cope left with the only option feeling like adoption.

    Adoption doesn’t remove the trauma. I love and miss my daughter every day. Her coming toexistance was the only good thing to happen from that situation and she is a wonderful human being.

    She is taught by her adoptive family to “stop the cycle of teen pregnancy” as if getting sexually abused and raped is a sign of bad young girls being bad. Rather than young women being uneducated and undersuppoted in their families and communities fo build healthy relationships and understand what abuse/assault looks like and how to deal with it.

    I would never wish this on another woman. The GOPfor one needs toexpand resources for ALL families because children don’t deserve to pay theprice of spending deficits. Mental health and trauma support for parents, family center and enrichment activity access for poor and struggling families… etc.

    So much could be done. If GOP cares about children why don’t you do these things? You don’t care about the son I am raising, who I was imregnated with while passed out drunk, a coping mechanism I clung to in the early years of having been raped/impregnated and losing my daughter. We are poor, I struggle. We use thelibrary, we use food stamps, I struggle to work while managing trauma issues and sometimes can and sometimes can’t. The resources are limited and the women’s shelter is underfunded and underresourced and not equiped to provide extensive resources to mothers parenting children of rape.

    If you want women to have these babies than instead of taking away the most woman friendly andhumane option that is there for women who don’t feel they want to give birth and either raise or go through the further trauma of adoption and being used for your fertility to provide a child to a family who wants totake that child from you as their own because you don’t have the resources to keep that child and they do…

    Women impregnated by rape need MORE SUPPORT and MORE RESOURCES and MORE HELP.

    NOT LESS CHOICE.

  3. So much could be done. If GOP cares about children why don’t you do these things? You don’t care about the son I am raising, who I was imregnated with while passed out drunk, a coping mechanism I clung to in the early years of having been raped/impregnated and losing my daughter. We are poor, I struggle. We use thelibrary, we use food stamps, I struggle to work while managing trauma issues and sometimes can and sometimes can’t. The resources are limited and the women’s shelter is underfunded and underresourced and not equiped to provide extensive resources to mothers parenting children of rape.

    I have literally never voted Republican in my life (I have voted both for Democrats and third parties,) precisely for the reason that I get the impression they don’t care about things like this.

    1. Exactly, if they were honest supporters of their messed up anti-choice position, they would provide support for each child born. Instead they pursue policies to increase population at the price of women, and cut the services provided (e.g. the tax money we pay into the system for social benefits) They view humans as a labor commodity to produce so the elite can live an easier life. All they want is the extra people on the planet, at a minimum level of “alive and able to labor for us”. Hence the no abortions, birth control is evil mantra. (one who is opposed to abortion choice would logically support greater access to birth control as it reduces unwanted pregnancies). We are witnessing the rebirth of efforts to forcibly socially engineer a society on the basis of denial of freedom. They are trying mightily to turn America into a third world country.

  4. I agree that there should be more resources out there for mothers or soon to be mothers that need help. What most of you fail to understand is that there are compassion pregnancy centers and other places out there that do help but, a lot of them get run out of town (do your research) shouted down, or cut off from funding, due to how they take away customers from Planned Parenthood. I would have no problem with planned parenthood if they didn’t support abortion throughout the whole nine months of pregnancy. NO! Don’t deny it, its in the Democrats part platform, which PP supports. I am all for women’s healthcare, and I support abortion, up to a certain point, for rape victims and incest victims. Not all republicans are narrow minded. There are plenty of us whom are more than willing to meet ya’ll halfway. We get rebuked time after time. There are also plenty of prolife democrats out there. Maybe if both sides, and I mean both, would agree to meet halfway, more women would get help. Why does PP get more federal funding than compassion pregnancy centers? Don’t deny that either, because it is happening.
    Signed a compassionate constitutional conservative.

    1. C. Fisher, PP gets more funding because PP actually provides health care. Crisis pregnancy centers do not. They don’t employ doctors. They don’t do pelvic exams. They don’t do STI tests. They don’t prescribe medications. They don’t do breast exams. They can’t refer out for mammogram services or cervical biopsies. PP does all of those things, which is why they get Title X funds to provide health care.

      Crisis pregnancy centers also routinely mislead women, straight-up lie, and threaten women’s health. They often pose as abortion clinics, and then give women all kinds of flat-out untrue “information” — like that abortion causes breast cancer and infertility, that all women regret their abortions, etc. They promise to help women who choose to give birth, but in reality that “help” means a pack of diapers and prayers for good luck. They also often offer ultrasounds, but don’t actually employee people who are capable of reading ultrasounds beyond “There’s your baby!” And so women think they’re getting real health care (and assume they will be told if the ultrasound indicates anything abnormal or dangerous about the pregnancy) when really, the people reading the ultrasounds have no medical training and no idea how to identify the kinds of issues that a pregnant woman needs to know about.

      If pro-lifers want to provide actual care for women in need, they should do it. There are plenty of women who are choosing to give birth who need help. But intentionally misleading women, often in incredibly dangerous ways? Not health care, and not deserving of federal funding.

    2. …and a good first step would be to support Obamacare, which finally bans insurers from charging more from women for their preventative healthcare than men. In fact, all data indicates Obamacare will *reduce* need for abortions because “women contemplating an abortion are far less likely to seek one if they can afford health insurance for themselves, and feel confident they can provide quality medical care to their newborn children.” But no, that would allow women to control their bodies so they can become career-driven sluts — we can’t have that!

    3. What most of you fail to understand is that there are compassion pregnancy centers and other places out there that do help but, a lot of them get run out of town (do your research)

      Perhaps you could provide some links. That’s rather standard when one is making a claim such as this.

      shouted down, or cut off from funding, due to how they take away customers from Planned Parenthood.

      Actually, a lot of them run into trouble because they commit outright fraud, calling themselves “medical centers” when they provide no medical care at all. They only see themselves as being “in competition” with Planned Parenthood because they resort to lies and deception to keep women from getting medical care at PP.

      As for losing funding, many states and the federal government explicitly provide for taxpayer funding for CPCs, even when they refuse to hire non-Christians and pursue an explicitly religious agenda.

    4. I would have no problem with planned parenthood if they didn’t support abortion throughout the whole nine months of pregnancy. NO! Don’t deny it, its in the Democrats part platform, which PP supports.

      Citation needed.

      The Democratic platform supports the laws as written, which does not mean abortion on demand the entire nine months of pregnancy. NO! Don’t deny it.

      1. In fact, I went ahead and GIFY:

        The President and the Democratic Party believe that women have a right to control their reproductive choices. Democrats support access to affordable family planning services, and President Obama and Democrats will continue to stand up to Republican efforts to defund Planned Parenthood health centers. The Affordable Care Act ensures that women have access to contraception in their health insurance plans, and the President has respected the principle of religious liberty. Democrats support evidence-based and age-appropriate sex education.

        Protecting A Woman’s Right to Choose. The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to make decisions regarding her pregnancy, including a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay. We oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right. Abortion is an intensely personal decision between a woman, her family, her doctor, and her clergy; there is no place for politicians or government to get in the way. We also recognize that health care and education help reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and thereby also reduce the need for abortions. We strongly and unequivocally support a woman’s decision to have a child by providing affordable health care and ensuring the availability of and access to programs that help women during pregnancy and after the birth of a child, including caring adoption programs.

        That, for the record, is the Democratic Party’s entire platform statement on abortion and reproductive rights. I await your response.

    5. I am all for women’s healthcare, and I support abortion, up to a certain point, for rape victims and incest victims.

      If you don’t support access to abortion for all women, you’re not actually for women’s healthcare. You’re only for healthcare for women you think morally deserve access to care, whereas those dirty sluts who don’t have an acceptable excuse for being needing an abortion (which, in case it wasn’t clear, is a central pillar of reproductive health) miss out.

    6. I would have no problem with planned parenthood if they didn’t support abortion throughout the whole nine months of pregnancy. NO! Don’t deny it, its in the Democrats part platform, which PP supports. I am all for women’s healthcare, and I support abortion, up to a certain point, for rape victims and incest victims. Not all republicans are narrow minded.

      So you’re against all abortion unless the impregnated woman had no choice in the matter? And you’re against all abortions after ‘a certain point’ regardless of the health implications towards the mother? and you’re ‘all for women’s healthcare’ as long as women give up bodily autonomy?

      And this is all supposed to be an example of how you’re NOT narrow minded? What, in your opinion is the opposite of narrow minded? Extremely narrow minded?

    7. Except “compassion” pregnancy centers don’t provide care and they don’t tell the truth. Here is one person’s account. If you’re less interested in anecdotes and more interested in some robust data, scroll to the bottom of this page to read about the results of a congressional report on CPCs. They perpetuate pseudoscience such as the repeatedly debunked link anti-choicers make between breast cancer and abortion, or the hogwash about a made-up “post-abortion trauma syndrome.” These are liars and fear-mongers who use misinformation to further their agendas.

      I support Planned Parenthood because they provide evidence-based health care without subjecting their customers to moral judgments. The vast majority of what they do is preventive — meaning that they prevent far more abortions than the people at CPCs prevent. If I were opposed to abortion, I would still be in favor of Planned Parenthood because of the importance they place on access to contraception and medically accurate information about sexual and reproductive health. The anti-choicers are trying to take that away from us, with their emphasis on denying access to birth control and pushing failed abstinence-only policies in public schools.

    8. There are plenty of us whom are more than willing to meet ya’ll halfway.

      Well, what I’d like to see is legal abortion on demand for all nine months of pregnancy, available to women and girls of all ages and in all geographical regions, all provided absolutely free by the federal government and paid for by a highly progressive income tax (until we can ultimately abolish the state, capitalism, and the financial/monetary system, that is). But–believe it or not–I’d meet you halfway in the spirit of pragmatism. I doubt you’d meet me halfway though.

      1. legal abortion on demand for all nine months of pregnancy,

        Don’t fall into that trap. There’s no such thing as an abortion of a healthy full-term baby five minutes before it’s born, because the mother suddenly changes her mind — as women are wont to do, of course — and says “Kill it!” That’s never happened and never will.

        1. That’s totally true Donna. Which is why completely legal third term abortion is so important I think. If a woman is trying to get an abortion that late in her pregnancy it’s because their is a damn good reason, like serious health risks if she continues with the pregnancy.

        2. LotusBecca that’s an extremely dangerous sentiment. We might as well make murder legal because hey, if someone’s going to do something as awful as that they must have a really good reason!

        3. Uhh. . .not sure if you are saying that tongue in cheek. . .but no. The difference is murder is awful and abortion isn’t. Therefore, murder should be illegal and abortion shouldn’t be.

        4. Yes Drob, if women have control over their bodies it will lead to murder. That is exactly true and in no way a hyperbolic reactionary statement made by the anti-choice crowd.

      2. Roe v. Wade sets the limit at fetal viability unless there is a health issue for the mother, I recommend those wishing to debate this actually read up on what abortion is and isn’t. The Democratic Party platform very clearly says we support Roe v. Wade, not we support aborting at month 7, 8, 8.5 or 9.

        There’s plenty to debate about what a “health issue” is and where viability is set, but no country with legal abortion allows it where the fetus is viable and the pregnancy is healthy. And these are the debates the medical ethics community is having without the rabble of misinformation that passes for abortion discourse in the general public.

        you can read more here:

        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_termination_of_pregnancy

        Pay particular attention to the EU country dates, some are as low as 20 weeks (Norway) or earlier, some are as high as 24 weeks. Some state a physician determine viability or set it at 24 weeks.

        http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/27/us/27abortion.html

  5. Piece of advice: If you intend to bear false witness against reproductive health professionals, don’t do it online, where anyone can debunk your falsities with basic fact-checking. There are 4,000 so-called pregnancy centers (read: fake clinics) versus 2,000 abortion clinics in the U.S., and multiple congressional investigations dating back to 2006 have revealed pregnancy centers’ deceptive tactics in pretending to employ medical staff, lying about contraception, tricking patients from going to licensed clinics and practising religious discrimination — all while receiving federal funds, despite offering nothing analogous to Planned Parenthood’s cancer screenings and HIV counseling. Oh, and given the GOP’s assaults on contraception and the fact that every “pro-life” organisation in the U.S. opposes birth control, it’s blatant deception to claim you want to meet the reproductive health community halfway.

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