Rape... no longer always forcible!
No really. Here's the link to the bill, with the line in question anchored.
"‘SEC. 309. TREATMENT OF ABORTIONS RELATED TO RAPE, INCEST, OR PRESERVING THE LIFE OF THE MOTHER.‘The limitations established in sections 301, 302, 303, and 304 shall not apply to an abortion--
‘(1) if the pregnancy occurred because the pregnant female was the subject of an act of forcible rape or, if a minor, an act of incest; or
‘(2) in the case where the pregnant female suffers from a physical disorder, physical injury, or physical illness that would, as certified by a physician, place the pregnant female in danger of death unless an abortion is performed, including a life-endangering physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself."
Some very dangerous semantics (1) there...
Some are interpreting this bit of wordplay as to exclude: drugged rape, coerced or date rape, statutory rape, or pretty much anything else that isn't 'violent' or leaves self-defense wounds. And if joe-shmo can, some god-damned lawyer will attempt to, and somehow win (blaming it on a failure of the law, not that he's a bloodletting defense attorney.)
So before I lose you in a rant of definitions and seething, go sign this petition that says this is akin to wandering around asking stupid women to sign a petition banning Women's Suffrage.
BTW, 'self-defense wounds' is an actual clinical and law-enforcement term to define a TYPE of wound, because there are varying types of wounds. Unlike RAPE, where 'force' is inherent in the definition and word. NON-consensual. Compelled.
In the medical dictionary, rape is simply defined as:
3 rape definition
Function: n
: unlawful sexual activity and usually sexual intercourse carried out forcibly or under threat of injury against the will usually of a female or with a person who is beneath a certain age or incapable of valid consent compare sexual assault statutory rape
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2007 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
That's all the damned clarification you need. Don't tack "forcibly" onto the thing, to imply that a woman, drunk to the point of unconsciousness by her own volition, who is then used like a warm blow-up doll, is NOT raped because it was not 'forced'.
Rape has had such a disgustingly mobile definition already that the Legal dictionary's definition has an entire disclaimer about how a married woman CAN be raped!
Main Entry: rape
Function: noun
: unlawful sexual activity and usually sexual intercourse carried out forcibly or under threat of injury against the will usually of a female or with a person who is beneath a certain age or incapable of valid consent because of mental illness, mental deficiency, intoxication, unconsciousness, or deception —see also STATUTORY RAPE
NOTE: The common-law crime of rape involved a man having carnal knowledge of a woman not his wife through force and against her will, and required at least slight penetration of the penis into the vagina. While some states maintain essentially this definition of rape, most have broadened its scope esp. in terms of the sex of the persons and the nature of the acts involved. Marital status is usually irrelevant. Moreover, the crime is codified under various names, including first degree sexual assault sexual battery unlawful sexual intercourse , and first degree sexual abuse .
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law, © 1996 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
Women (and men, where brave enough to come forward) have a hard enough time CONVINCING their peers and a judge that what was done to them was rape, yet some jackass wants to take an extra qualifier on to make it even harder? "Well, see Sir, when told 'bend over, or I'll gut you' you made the choice to bend over and be anally penetrated, you weren't forced if you made the choice." Sound ridiculous? Somewhere, someone who believes that statement, believes a prostitute can't be raped, due to her profession.
'Rape' as a word has five definitions in the first entry of Dictionary.com (where it is a noun).
–noun
1. an act of sexual intercourse that is forced upon a person.
2. the unlawful compelling of a person through physical force orduress to have sexual intercourse.
3. statutory rape.
4. an act of plunder, violent seizure, or abuse; despoliation;violation: the rape of the countryside.
5. Archaic . the act of seizing and carrying off by force.
It's also a verb:
verb (used with object)
6. to force to have sexual intercourse.
7. to plunder (a place); despoil.
8. to seize, take, or carry off by force.
–verb (used without object)
9. to commit rape.
It's one of the oldest acts known to man, though it's Middle English terminology came so late...
Word Origin & History
rape
late 14c., "seize prey, take by force," from Anglo-Fr. raper, O.Fr. raper "to seize, abduct," a legal term, from L. rapere "seize, carry off by force, abduct" (see rapid). L. rapere was used for "sexual violation," but only very rarely; the usual L. word being stuprum, lit. "disgrace." Sense of "sexual violation or ravishing of a woman" first recorded in Eng. as a noun, 1481 (the noun sense of "taking anything -- including a woman -- away by force" is from c.1400). The verb in this sense is from 1577. Rapist is from 1883.
My letter to 'my representative' read thus:
Um... Limiting the definition of rape is a very dangerous thing. It opens up whole avenues where lawyers can deny a woman the succor of seeing her attacker punished, based on a line in an anti-abortion act. They'll be able to dredge the semantic pool to say that a woman, drugged with GHB, didn't fight back and therefore wasn't forced. A woman, terrified her boyfriend will beat her, submits to sex she doesn't want, crying the whole time, but not fighting back, and that will not be 'rape'. Even a minor, statutorily-raped by a STEPfather in her own bed, does not constitute rape in the lines of this anti-abortion law.
Think beyond this anti-abortion law, to the repercussions of the language used. This cannot be allowed to pass.
You've been faithful 'til the end. Good job. Your reward is the video of ignorant young women, willingly signing away "Women's Suffrage." Course, in my opinion, if they sign it away, I don't think I want them voting anyway O_o
Another good one.
Comments
Post a Comment