“House Republicans’ New Definition of ‘Rape-Rape’” is an article from Jezebel.com discussing the attempt to eliminate abortion coverage for women under government health insurance in all cases except for forcible rape & when the pregnancy endangers the life of the mother through the Hyde Amendment to the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortions Act. This redefinition of rape would eliminate coverage for abortions of pregnancies that result from statutory rape, incest, date rape, & sex during which the woman can not give consent because she is intoxicated or otherwise incapable of consenting. Though all of these types of rape can be as mentally & emotionally scarring & traumatizing for victims, House Republicans believe that pregnancies caused by forcible rape are the only ones that should be permitted to be aborted under Medicaid. A lawyer at the National Women's Law Center says, “This bill takes us back to a time when just saying 'no' wasn't enough to qualify as rape."
Not only is this an attempt to deal a giant blow to reproductive rights, but it further attacks the victims of what the GOP considers to be “non-forcible” rape, telling them that they did not go through enough physical & mental pain in order to be granted what it seems the GOP would call the “privilege” to abort the fetuses of their attackers. It is appalling to me that people still do not understand that rape is rape is rape is rape. It does not matter if your boyfriend, a friend of a friend, your father, or a stranger attacked you; it does not matter if you were underage, drunk, or had a knife held to your throat; if you were penetrated by a man without your express consent, you were raped. If that rape results in a pregnancy, you should have every right to abort that fetus. Would you want to have to raise a child while seeing the face of your attacker in that child every day, reminding you of that terrible attack? Unfortunately, most of the representatives who have signed on to support & try to pass this amendment don’t have to ask themselves this question; the vast majority of them are men. One of my good friends was gang-raped in her own driveway when she was fifteen & she got pregnant. This was a violent, forcible rape & she had private insurance, so she got an abortion, but it kills me to think about the case if she had been on Medicaid. Would she even be able to prove that it was forcible rape before the second trimester? That is another big question in this debate, as rape cases can go on for months, long enough for some fetuses to turn viable & be born. Don't go after the rape victims, House Republicans. They've been through enough & they do not need you to tell them that they haven't.
Until next time... ciao 💗
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Wow, this is intense and needs to be talked about because so many people, including myself, do not know about it. This really does remind me of the olden days when women didn't have rights and they were told what to do by men. This is not about women standing up for feminism. This is about a human's wellbeing and the United States is not respecting or protecting that. And isn't that what the government is here to do-protect its people?
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