State Sanctioned Rape

By   |  August 26, 2009

Oklahoma is having a bout of the crazies, as Republican lawmakers plan to appeal a decision by the State Supreme Court that strikes down their convoluted and disgusting bill that mandates an ultrasound for women planning to have an abortion.

While pro-choice advocates(or anyone who cares about women’s reproductive rights) have been uneasy after the assasination of Dr.Tiller, one of the last doctors in the country to perform later term abortions when medically necessary, this should come as a reminder that constant vigilance in the reproductive rights debate is essential to securing already hard won freedoms.

The bill, which proposes that a woman would have to undergo an ultrasound and listen to a doctor prattle off a description of it’s organs and other body parts in detail, is a reprehensible attempt by legislators to shame women into carrying the pregnancy to term. Even worse, women in the early stages of pregnancy are required to capture a better image by way of a vaginal ultrasound- a painful,expensive, and invasive procedure to be subject to. Consider those who have been the victim of rape or incest, having to particpate no exception to this horrific blight on legislation.

But don’t worry folks, the “lenient” lawmakers want to let you know that averting your eyes is something that is allowed.How gracious of them.

While there’s more subcategories of the bill, Senator Todd Lamb assures constituents that this is all for the best, citing “positive public policy” by way of informing the mother as much as she can about an abortion(I call it emotional manipulation), and that maybe, just maybe, that fetus might grow up to “be a future Nobel Prize winner.”Senator Lamb seems to forget that the odds of being a criminal are far greater.

Women aren’t stupid, we know going into a procedure what it is.We don’t need to be told by misogynists like Senator Lamb what it details.And in telling us exactly what we’re doing, Senator Lamb inadvertenly paints us as charlatans who just enjoyed a night on the town and have abortions as frequently as we buy shoes, which severely undermines what an intensely emotional and sometimes medically necessary experience it is for some women.

For now the women of Oklahoma can rest easy, but with legislation like this being enacted in states like Alabama and Mississippi, we can’t let our guards down.

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6 Comments on “State Sanctioned Rape”  (RSS)

  1. To Tom Carter:

    Some people have greater access to education and information than others, and that also applies to the ability to move from a free state to a restrictive state. As I stated to MILLA, perhaps anti-choice men should not have sex with women. That’s probably easier than moving your home to another state, don’t you think?

  2. Oh, and MILLA, about women “need[ing]” to seek rights in other areas: the word need implies that there is something that should be done but you aren’t going to do it. It also sounds like you might think that women need something besides hanging onto their personal rights to keep them busy. What does any of that have to do with women seeking the right to maintain control over their bodies and their private lives? Perhaps anti-choice men simply need to abstain from sex with women.

  3. To Tom Carter:

    I don’t take issue with the title of the article, simply because forcing an object into a woman’s vagina against her will is called rape. In this case, the state is forcing it against her.

    To MILLAA:

    It’s nice that you don’t have a problem with a vaginal ultrasound. Try telling a traumatized 14-year-old that she’s going to get another object stuck into her vagina and some more psychological torture because the State says it’s doing her a favor.

    To TINCT:

    Yes, it is manipulation and coercion by the State of Oklahoma — bravo!

  4. I too have to say the title is a bit misleading… but I still agree with the article. This sounds like a last ditch attempt to change the mother’s mind on the operating table by way of emotional manipulation.

    While I do worry that abortion may become a last resort relied upon by careless and lazy women, I still believe it’s necessary to help victims of rape and incest, as what happens to anyone’s body should be their own choice and not that of the state or religious crazies.

  5. I take issue with the title “State Sanctioned Rape.” When you throw the word “rape” around so loosely, you devalue its true meaning.

    I’m pro-choice, in a practical sense — basically according to the framework spelled out in Roe v. Wade. Having said that, I’m not so sure that requiring women (and, let’s be honest, young girls) to be educated to some degree prior to getting an abortion is such a bad idea. Everyone isn’t as well-educated and as fully-informed as you appear to be. There are those cases in which women and young girls who are less knowledgeable may be pressured into an abortion by parents, the baby’s father, or peers. If more information causes them to change their minds, wouldn’t that be better than living a life of regret once they find out what they’ve really done? If, once better informed, they still chose an abortion, what has been lost?

    In any case, states have the right to legislate these kinds of requirements. That’s democracy at work. Those who disagree with it can try to get the law in their state changed or move to another state whose laws are more to their liking.

  6. While a vaginal ultrasound is invasive it’s not painful. Kind of like using a tampon, but inserted a little deeper. I’m not one of the radicals who would kill or encourage killing an abortionist, but abortion is wrong. I hate rape, and feel really bad for anyone who has endured such, but just as that woman didn’t ask to be raped, that child didn’t ask to be conceived and no matter how cute anyone tries to make it seem, abortion is murder and the doctors perfoming them are murderers. Simply put. The life of a person being taken. I mean think of it, we consider cells as living, so even if the life is taken during cell division and formation, it’s still being taken. Women need to seek rights in other areas, but what about the rights of a baby who can not yet speak for itself?

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