Republican Wants to Send Rape Victims to Prison for Having Abortions
It's time for another "pro-life" pop quiz, boys and girls, so sharpen those No. 2 pencils.
One of the biggest talking points of your anti-woman movement is that it's actually to protectwomen from, um, themselves. That is why women must be forced to undergo transvaginal ultrasounds, listen to hypothetical descriptions of what their fetus might look like in a few months, read about imaginary risks of one of the safest procedures there is—all so women, poor dumb little dears that they are, will understand that terminating a pregnancy means, you know, terminating a pregnancy. It's all about compassion for the ladies, you see.
Do you prove just how much you really care about women by:
(b) Forcing rape victims who are impregnated by their rapists to carry their pregnancies to term or go to prison for up to three years.
If you guessed (a), congratulations, you're correct! If you guessed (b), you're state Rep. Cathrynn Brown of New Mexico—a Republican, of course—with a super duper pro-lifey, pro-womany plan to criminalize rape victims. Laura Bassett at Huffington Post reports:
A Republican lawmaker in New Mexico introduced a bill on Wednesday that would legally require victims of rape to carry their pregnancies to term in order to use the fetus as evidence for a sexual assault trial.
Brown's proposed bill, House Bill 206 is just brimming with concern for women's well-being. That's why it defines an abortion as "tampering with evidence":
Tampering with evidence shall include procuring or facilitating an abortion, or compelling or coercing another to obtain an abortion, of a fetus that is the result of criminal sexual penetration or incest with the intent to destroy evidence of the crime.
The "pro-lifers" will often insist they're not interested in criminalizing mothers. That's why they've started giving Orwellian names to their twisted legislation, like the Women's Health Protection Act, the Women's Health Defense Act, and the Women's Ultrasound Right to Know Act. Because it's all about protecting women. And obviously, the very best way to protect women who've been raped—the very best way to prove just how concerned about women's rights and health these anti-woman extremists really are—is to turn them into criminals, put them on trial, and toss them in prison for, quite possibly, longer sentences than their rapists would serve.
And gosh. Republican women wonder why no one takes them seriously when they insist they care about women too.
12:34 PM PT: Via Dan Amira, now we get the "that's not what I meant to say" explanation. Uh huh.
