So when my friend Bree tylergrrls made me aware of this yesterday...
I was utterly furious. I'm not talking about a little bit of anger toward a stupid politician, I'm talking full out, near-hatred rage.
Let me explain the situation as best as I understand it. South Dakota recently banned abortion, something most of us have probably heard about by now. One of the South Dakota Republican State Senators, Bill Napoli (and it's taking much restraint on my part not to add several choice adjectives to describe him), feels there should be a clause for rape/incest victims to get an abortion. However, the following are his views of what is "real" and "violent" rape:
"A real-life description to me would be a rape victim, brutally raped, savaged. The girl was a virgin. She was religious. She planned on saving her virginity until she was married. She was brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it, and is impregnated. I mean, that girl, could be so messed up, physically and psychologically, that carrying that child could very well threaten her life."
Let's take that one step at a time, shall we?
According to this man, whom the people of South Dakota elected to office...only virgins can really be rape victims.
According to this man...only RELIGIOUS virgins can really be rape victims.
According to this man...only religious virgins who are sodomized AND vaginally violated can really be rape victims.
So ladies, if you're not a religious virgin saving yourself for marriage and you're raped, well, it wasn't REAL rape.
Regardless of your views on abortion, there isn't one damn person in this country who shouldn't be OUTRAGED that an elected official is so utterly stupid and completely insensitive to survivors of sexual assault. Are these the kind of people you really want running our country? We live in a society where every two and a half minutes, somewhere in America, someone is sexually assaulted and one in six American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape, and 10% of sexual assault victims are men.
We no longer live in the Dark Ages, folks. And if we don't confront jerks like Bill Napoli when their views on something as insidious as rape are hideously wrong, well, then we're a part of the problem too.
Bill Napoli's Home Office address and email:
Senator William M. Napoli
Home Office
6170 South Highway 79
Rapid City, SD 57702
Phone: (605) 341-2370
Email: sen.napoli@state.sd.us
Related Articles:
http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php/weblog/bill_napoli_is_spelled_a_s_s_h_a_t/
http://www.wonkette.com/politics/bill-napoli/bill-napoli-is-all-twisted-up-and-dead-inside-160381.php
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/03/07/ivins.abortion/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/voyageur/116820129/
http://ziamunshi.com/2006/03/09/who-is-bill-napoli/
Related Links:
http://www.rainn.org
http://www.nsvrc.org
I'm leaving this as a public post, so you may link to it if you are as angry about this as I am.
~The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it. --Albert Einstein
~All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing. --Edmund Burke
Let me explain the situation as best as I understand it. South Dakota recently banned abortion, something most of us have probably heard about by now. One of the South Dakota Republican State Senators, Bill Napoli (and it's taking much restraint on my part not to add several choice adjectives to describe him), feels there should be a clause for rape/incest victims to get an abortion. However, the following are his views of what is "real" and "violent" rape:
"A real-life description to me would be a rape victim, brutally raped, savaged. The girl was a virgin. She was religious. She planned on saving her virginity until she was married. She was brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it, and is impregnated. I mean, that girl, could be so messed up, physically and psychologically, that carrying that child could very well threaten her life."
Let's take that one step at a time, shall we?
According to this man, whom the people of South Dakota elected to office...only virgins can really be rape victims.
According to this man...only RELIGIOUS virgins can really be rape victims.
According to this man...only religious virgins who are sodomized AND vaginally violated can really be rape victims.
So ladies, if you're not a religious virgin saving yourself for marriage and you're raped, well, it wasn't REAL rape.
Regardless of your views on abortion, there isn't one damn person in this country who shouldn't be OUTRAGED that an elected official is so utterly stupid and completely insensitive to survivors of sexual assault. Are these the kind of people you really want running our country? We live in a society where every two and a half minutes, somewhere in America, someone is sexually assaulted and one in six American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape, and 10% of sexual assault victims are men.
We no longer live in the Dark Ages, folks. And if we don't confront jerks like Bill Napoli when their views on something as insidious as rape are hideously wrong, well, then we're a part of the problem too.
Bill Napoli's Home Office address and email:
Senator William M. Napoli
Home Office
6170 South Highway 79
Rapid City, SD 57702
Phone: (605) 341-2370
Email: sen.napoli@state.sd.us
Related Articles:
http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php/weblog/bill_napoli_is_spelled_a_s_s_h_a_t/
http://www.wonkette.com/politics/bill-napoli/bill-napoli-is-all-twisted-up-and-dead-inside-160381.php
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/03/07/ivins.abortion/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/voyageur/116820129/
http://ziamunshi.com/2006/03/09/who-is-bill-napoli/
Related Links:
http://www.rainn.org
http://www.nsvrc.org
I'm leaving this as a public post, so you may link to it if you are as angry about this as I am.
~The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it. --Albert Einstein
~All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing. --Edmund Burke