Rachel Maddow shares a clip from an Al Jazeera documentary featuring an Ohio State Legislator who is advocating extreme anti-abortion legislation.
These are the best GOP rape quotes I could find - but message me if you have more! Let’s hold these people accountable.
1. Todd Akin: “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways of shutting that whole thing down” - mid 2012 Senate Campaign
2. Claytie Williams: “If it’s inevitable, just relax and enjoy it” - mid 1990 Gubernatorial race in Texas
3. Chuck Winder: “I would hope that when a woman goes in to a physician with a rape issue, that physician will indeed ask her about perhaps her marriage, was this pregnancy caused by normal relations in a marriage or was it truly caused by a rape. I assume that’s part of the counseling that goes on.” - March 2012
4. Ken Buck: “A jury could very well conclude that this is a case of buyer’s remorse … It appears to me … you invited him over… the appearance is of consent.” - October 2010
5. Rick Santorum: “I think the right approach is to accept this horribly created — in the sense of rape — but nevertheless a gift in a very broken way, the gift of human life, and accept what God has given to you… rape victims should make the best of a bad situation.” - January, 2012
PEOPLE: WE SHOULD ALL BE FURIOUS. WE SHOULD ALL GET PISSED OFF AND BE VOCAL ABOUT IT. WE SHOULD ALL VOTE.
Tweet of the day.
This is Gisella Perl, a a successful Jewish gynaecologist in Sighet, Romania in the 1930s and 40s. She was taken to Auschwitz in 1944, where she treated women with kindness and compassion. She was asked to report all pregnant women to Josef Mengele- better known as the Angel of Death. When she discovered what was done to them (medical experimentation and torture, ending with often being thrown alive into the crematoriums) she vowed that there would never again be a pregnant woman in Aschwitz. So she began the abortions.
In her time in Aschwitz, Dr. Perl performed over 3,000 abortions in spite of her professional and religious beliefs as a doctor and an observant Jew. Any babies born alive in Aschwitz were usually drowned, despite Mengele’s orders to allow them to starve to death. Because of Dr. Perl’s brave actions in performing these abortions, many women made it out of Aschwitz alive, able to go on and have families after the war.
Although she was vilified by many for her actions, there is no doubt that she is not the monster abortionists are made out to be. This woman, this doctor, this abortionist was a hero. Despite her personal beliefs, she understood what had to be done. If you click the photo, you can go to a more extensive biography of her- she was a true hero.
The primary argument for reproductive choice is the argument that women have the right to decide what goes on in their own bodies. Even if we assume that fetuses are people with all of the rights of people with birth certificates, they still don’t have the right to use another individual’s body without her consent. Organ donation is not mandatory, and if a random person tried to hook you up for an impromptu blood transfusion, they would be charged with assault.
Most anti-choicers just rage and respond that if you’re a slut who dared remove the freshness seal from her vagina, you lose the right to bodily autonomy. The popular analogy “Swimming is not a contract for drowning; driving in a car is not a contract for death; walking outside is not a contract for assault” addresses the fact that sex is not a contract for pregnancy.
If your antis are typical, they will likely just respond with “SLUTSLUTSLUTSLUTSLUTSLUTSLUT MURDERING SLUT.” In this case, reminding them that 70,000 women die every year (13% of worldwide maternal deaths) because abortion is illegal might draw their attention to the fact that anti-choice =/= pro-life.
They may argue that abortion hurts women by causing breast cancer, mental illness, or infertility. They may also argue that because abortion is unsafe in countries where it is illegal, it must be unsafe here. You can respond with:
- The American Cancer Society, the National Cancer Institute, the World Health Organization, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists agree that there is no correlation between induced abortion and breast cancer.
- The American Psychological Association has found that there is no statistical difference in depression or PTSD cases in women and adolescent girls who have and have not had induced abortions.
- In the US, where abortion is safe and legal, less than .3% of first trimester abortions result in complications requiring hospitalization. This makes a first trimester abortion safer than pregnancy, labor, and delivery of an infant.
A few other statistics you can whip out:
- 88% of abortions take place in the first 12 weeks (first trimester) of pregnancy.
- Less than 1.5% of abortions are “late-term” (after 21 weeks). These can only be performed in cases where the mother’s life/health is at risk or the fetus is diagnosed with an extreme abnormality incompatible with life.
- “The Pill” does not cause abortion, it prevents ovulation.
- Plan B does not cause abortion, it prevents implantation within 72 hours of unprotected sex. Pregnancy is not medically defined as beginning until 8-10 days after intercourse, so Plan B cannot possibly be an abortifacient.
- The neural connections in the fetal brain are not well enough established to experience pain until at least 24 weeks. This means that no electively aborted fetus feels pain.
- The Christian bible contains verses that imply that the Christian god is A-OK with abortion. And even if he weren’t, we don’t live in a theocracy (and we have that pesky First Amendment thing), so the rights of the nation’s women cannot be curtailed because one religion’s holy book says so.
I hope that helps!
(Question made rebloggable by request from whereisfranklin)
