GOP wants to downgrade crime of RAPE to "forcible" only

[Emma]

This is just WONDERFUL:

Rape is only really rape if it involves force.

So says the new House Republican majority as it now moves to change abortion law.

For years, federal laws restricting the use of government funds to pay for abortions have included exemptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest. (Another exemption covers pregnancies that could endanger the life of the woman.)


But the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act," a bill with 173 mostly Republican co-sponsors that House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has dubbed a top priority in the new Congress, contains a provision that would rewrite the rules to limit drastically the definition of rape and incest in these cases.

With this legislation, which was introduced last week by Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), Republicans propose that the rape exemption be limited to "forcible rape."


This would rule out federal assistance for abortions in many rape cases, including instances of statutory rape, many of which are non-forcible.

For example: If a 13-year-old girl is impregnated by a 24-year-old adult, she would no longer qualify to have Medicaid pay for an abortion.

Given that the bill also would forbid the use of tax benefits to pay for abortions, that 13-year-old's parents wouldn't be allowed to use money from a tax-exempt health savings account (HSA) to pay for the procedure. They also wouldn't be able to deduct the cost of the abortion or the cost of any insurance that paid for it as a medical expense.

"This bill takes us back to a time when just saying 'no' wasn't enough to qualify as rape," says Steph Sterling, a lawyer and senior adviser to the National Women's Law Center. Laurie Levenson, a former assistant US attorney and expert on criminal law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, notes that the new bill's authors are "using language that's not particularly clear, and some people are going to lose protection."


Other types of rapes that would no longer be covered by the exemption include rapes in which the woman was drugged or given excessive amounts of alcohol, rapes of women with limited mental capacity, and many date rapes. "There are a lot of aspects of rape that are not included," Levenson says.

motherjones.com/politics/2011/01/republican-plan-redefine-rape-abortion

[EBST]

But the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act," a bill with 173 mostly Republican co-sponsors that House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has dubbed a top priority in the new Congress, contains a provision that would rewrite the rules to limit drastically the definition of rape and incest in these cases.

What you are trying NOT to say is that it is also supported by Democrats.




This would rule out federal assistance for abortions in many rape cases, including instances of statutory rape, many of which are non-forcible.
For example: If a 13-year-old girl is impregnated by a 24-year-old adult, she would no longer qualify to have Medicaid pay for an abortion.


Nice try with that age difference bullshit. Statutory rape has nothing to do with actual "rape."  Statutory rape is between two people who should not have been having sex to begin with, but happened to get caught.

Plus, statutory rape is not just between two people who are 15 years apart in age. Statutory rape is also when a pissed off parent finds out his 17 year old daughter had sex with her 18 year old boyfriend. Even if the age difference is only a day apart.

Sorry, but you can pay for that shit out of your own damned pocket.
 

[HK91-762mm]

  Im as pro abortion as they come --BUT I dont see where the guvmennt has any business taking tax dollars for medical procedures !!!