Strollerderby : rape

9-Year-Old Incest Victim Aborts Twins, Church Objects

Cole Gamble — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 17:00:00 GMT

A 9-year-old carrying twins allegedly fathered via rape by her stepfather underwent an abortion in Brazil Wednesday, despite the objections of Brazil’s Roman Catholic Church. Abortion is illegal in Brazil, a country that holds the highest concentration of Catholics in the world.

The stepfather has been in jail since last week.

Fatima Maia, director of the public university hospital where the abortion was performed, said the pregnancy posed a serious risk to the 80-pound girl.

"She is very small. Her uterus doesn't have the ability to hold one, let alone two children," Maia told a Brazilian newspaper.

A lawyer for the archdiocese of northeastern Brazil said the girl should have carried the twins to term.

"It's the law of God: Do not kill. We consider this murder," the lawyer said.

The church excommunicated the mother of the girl and the doctors involved in the abortion. On Saturday theVatican backed that decision.

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Mother Sets Fire to Her Daughter's Gloating Rapist

Cole Gamble — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 17:30:00 GMT

Antonio Cosme Velasco Soriano, 69, was sentenced to thirteen years in Spanish jail for the rape-at-knifepoint of a thirteen year old girl. Nine years into his time, Soriano was given a three day pass to return to his home town of Benejúzar and who should he run into but his victim’s mother. Reportedly Soriano taunted the mother saying, "How's your daughter?" right before entering a crowded bar.

The victim’s mother followed him.

Shortly after, the woman walked into the bar, poured a bottle of petrol over Soriano and lit a match. She watched as the flames engulfed him, before walking out.

According to a witness:

"She didn't acknowledge anyone but walked up to Soriano, who was drinking a coffee, put her hand on his shoulder and turned him round to face her.

"Then she pulled the bottle she was carrying from under her arm and began to tip it over him. At first I didn't realize what was happening, but then I smelt the petrol. I jumped up and tried to grab her, but when she struck a match I got clear.

"The petrol was in a pool around Soriano, and she threw the match into it. It ignited with a whoosh, and he screamed and staggered about covered in flames. As people rushed outside to escape the flames, she just looked at him, then turned and walked away."

Soriano suffered 60 percent burns on his body. 11 days later he was dead.

After her daughter’s attack all those years ago, it’s said the mother suffered from mental illness. When questioned by police about the encounter with the rapist, the woman claimed to recollect nothing of it.

She is currently incarcerated.

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"Pro-Choice Women Shouldn't Cry Over Miscarriages"

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 19:30:00 GMT

Just in case your day is going a little too smoothly, let me share an article that will make your blood boil—particularly if you are one of the numerous women who has suffered the pain of a miscarriage and also happens to believe in a woman’s right to choose.

A guest blogger named Gina over at Mom Logic has written a gem of offensive inanity called “Pro-Choice? Quit Crying Over Your Miscarriage!” Here’s how Gina characterizes the pro-choice women who “break down in hysterics” over a miscarriage: “It's a baby when they want it to be, it's a bundle of cells when they don't.”

This is such a shameless confusion of the issue that we need to put Gina’s thinking in perspective with an extreme—but real-life—example: do I believe that a 12-year-old rape victim should be forced to keep her baby? Absolutely not. Would I be heartbroken if I lost the baby I was carrying, whom I had carefully planned my life around for years? Absolutely. These are two entirely different issues. One has to do with my belief in the universal right to reproductive freedom, which is essential to ending the oppression of women; the other has to do with my personal feelings about motherhood.

Many women who would not choose to have an abortion themselves (except perhaps in extreme cases such as rape or incest) respect other women’s right to choose—as do many men, who will never face the decision of whether or not to have an abortion. That’s why it’s called pro-choice, not pro-abortion. By Gina’s line of thinking, no one who wants kids—male or female—should support a woman’s right to choose.

Gina also writes of pro-choice women who have the gall to want kids of their own: “Suddenly the monthly visitor that they were relieved to get when they were 20, now, at 32, plunges them into the depths of depression.” Well, Gina, this is a little something called “family planning”: making life choices that give both you and your future children the best chances for happiness and success—and therefore, bettering the world. How could anyone take issue with women who were responsible enough to avoid pregnancies when they were too young to care for a child? If it weren’t for unplanned pregnancies, there would be no need for abortion in the first place.

Gina claims that she “respects women’s right to choose.” If she truly is pro-choice—which, by her own definition, means believing that all babies are nothing more than “a conglomeration of microscopic cells” until they are out of the womb—then I sincerely hope she never gets pregnant. It’d be pretty difficult to avoid things like smoking and drinking if you have zero emotional attachment to your baby.

Photo: Flickr/Steve Rhodes

Sex Offender Wins Raffle that Benefit Rape Victims

JeanneSager — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 13:26:00 GMT

I'm not sure whether to cheer this story or go take a long, hot shower. So let me dig in.

A man convicted on three separate incidents of sex abuse of a minor - two in 1993 and a third in 2000 - has won the lottery. According to Alaskan law, games of chance have to benefit a charity, including this one - the first-ever statewide lotto. In this case, the non-profit chosen was Standing Together Against Rape (STAR), a charity for sex abuse victims. Fitting, isn't it?

Alec Ahsoak of Anchorage walked away with $350,000 after taxes on the half-a-million-dollar prize, and now he says he'll use the money to turn around a life that has been troubled since childhood when he was a kid growing up in the foster system. He'll also be setting aside $100,000, which he'll be donating to the folks at STAR to help their cause. He'll be helping kids in the state where sex abuse rates are the highest in the nation, the state where he is listed on the Department of Public Safety Sex Offender/Child Kidnapper Central Registry.

Obviously Ahsoak has reoffended as so many sex offenders have. He has, however, served his time and has been "clean" for the past nine years. He claims he's a changed man, and the money will help him plan for retirement. That he's even considering turning money over the charity says something about where he is today, and the charity can use this as a teaching point in its awareness campaign. This could potentially work out even better for them than the initial linkage with the lottery and the accompanying money and publicity.

But a part of me is still feeling skeeved out by this whole coincidence. Does this sully the waters for charities linked to the lottos in Alaska?

Image/Source: KTUU

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New Organization Helps Incest Survivors

Shannon LC Cate — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 19:31:00 GMT

Most parents are aware of the chilling statistics:

1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys will report sexual abuse. More will not report it.

That's an epidemic, folks. We all do what we think is best to protect our children from this experience, many of us, while living with the aftermath of our own abuse histories.

There's one more resource out there now, to help on both of these fronts. VOICE Today offers resources to help those recovering from the experience of incest as well as advice for protecting children from it. It has a Christian slant, which may not be appropriate for everyone, but helpful for some.

I hope none of you need these resources, but if you do, or if you know anyone who does, it's good to know they are out there.

Ad Against Al Franken is Comic Book About Rape, Porn

JeanneSager — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:51:00 GMT

Hey kids, want to read about rape and porn? Thanks to Minnesota Republicans (via Gawker), now your kids can check out cartoony pictures of a little girl and her puppy alongside slams against former SNL star Al Franken.

It’s not hard to see how kids would pick up the mailer, sent out to on behalf of Norm Coleman, Franken’s opponent in the Minnesota Senate race. The drawings are all in cartoon form, with a rendering of a little girl with pigtails and a doggy’s face . . . right next to a “warning” that Franken “has written so-called comedy routines about raping women.”

The opening page of the leaflet shows a charicature of Franken poking his head out from behind a door. The inscription on the door reads, “Come on in kids . . . Senator Franken’s going to tell a few jokes.”

We get it, he’s supposed to be a pedophile inviting kids over for a little inappropriate content a la late night TV comedy.
Except the comic book-like brochure, with the words “come on in kids,” was distributed by the National Republican Senatorial Committee. They’re throwing words like “raping” and “pornographic” around like fearmongering is going out of style.

So the kid who just learned to sort the mail and grabs the magazine that came just for them can get a taste of comedy Republican-style. And the horrified parent who hears them sounding out, “por, por, porna, porna . . . pornographic,” can vote Democrat this year.

Images: Gawker

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Does PSA Blame Parents for their Daughters Being Raped?

JeanneSager — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:29:00 GMT

The public service announcement warning parents not to buy their daughters alcohol because of the heightened risk for sexual abuse for drunk teens is a total of 30-seconds long. But the Queensland Government in Brisbane, Australia has been drawing harsh critiscm around the globe for putting the blame in the wrong place - the victim.

Opening with a girl's stricken face as she weeps and fights off an attacker in a dark alley, the commercial follows the girl's night in reverse. It backs out of the alley, away from the guy into a party of teens drinking, then back to the girl's house where Dad hands her a box of booze and waves bye bye. "Don't kid yourself," an ominous voice says, "buy your children alcohol and they could pay the price."

Feministing, Jezebel and dozens of others have taken up bashing the Aussies for the short, charging the ad makers with blaming girls for getting raped and their parents for putting them in that situation. "I think what is upsetting about this is that it perpetuates the belief that rape is a young woman's fault and that if parents buy their daughters alcohol they are putting them at risk of rape," says Feministing blogger Samhita. "What about telling young men to not rape drunk women? That is what the focus of the PSA should be. Perhaps another conversation about youth and alcohol consumption is needed, but let's not tangle the issues."

I agree that there should be more education for guys about a girl's right to say no. But I think it's Samhita who is mixing the messages here. This is about parents not taking care of their kids. It's about a smarmy smiling dad (watch the video and you'll see it) handing his daughter a big box of booze, putting her in a car full of teenagers with said alcohol and waving without a care in the world. Rape isn't the only horrible thing that can happen to her out there.

Unfortunately, rape is a reality, and there is only so much parents can do to protect their daughters. The U.S. Department of Justice has surmised a woman is raped here in the states every two minutes. It can happen in broad daylight or a dark alleyway. It can happen with alcohol or without. And you don't have to tell me that girls who undergo some sort of sexual abuse often feel like it's our fault.

Which is why arming our daughters to protect them from some day being raped is part of our jobs. Not because they're the weaker sex. Not because they're doing something wrong. Because it's something that can, and shouldn't have to happen. Add alcohol to any situation where boys and girls co-mingle, and statistics show the risk of a rape occuring increases. The U.S. Department of Justice Violence Against Women report figures 45 percent of all rapes involve alcohol - which could mean the victim or the attacker. The numbers include adult women, but considering two in six rape victim are under 18, there are plenty of teen girls being raped where alcohol is a factor.

Not because they're bad kids or because they asked for it but because they lost their ability to function because they drank too much. They lost their ability to protect themselves from the dangers that are out there, and guess who failed to protect them? Their parents. The ones who sent them to a party with a bunch of alcohol and no education on what it can do.

So, yes, I do put a portion of blame on the parents. Which was the point of the PSA to begin with - to teach them not to provide ther kids with free alcohol, to teach their kids about the affects alcohol will have on the body - including the risk of blackout, the risk of losing the physical strength to push off an attacker, and the risk that someone else who's drunk may have their inhibitions reduced to the point where they'll do something stupid. Like rape a girl.

In fact, the PSA shows a girl being abused, but the narrator says "67 percent of teenagers have been abused or assaulted whilst under the influence of alcohol." She says "your children." She doesn't say girls. She doesn't say daughters. It's an advertisement about protecting our girls and our boys, teaching girls to protect themselves, teaching boys they're not allowed to use alcohol as an excuse.

It's an advertisement that puts the responsibility for kids in their parents' hands. And when they drop the ball, the blame belongs with them.

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National Organization for Women President Endorses Palin

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 16:10:00 GMT

Remember that video of Sarah Palin misquoting Madeline Albright at a rally in California? Well, the faux feminism gets more and more outrageous. Guess who introduced Palin? Shelly Mandell, the president of L.A. National Organization for Women, who has endorsed the McCain/Palin ticket.

I attended the March for Women’s Lives in Washington, D.C. back in 2004, which Mandell organized. It was one of the most unifying, uplifting experiences of my life, to be surrounded by thousands of women peacefully demanding reproductive freedom. The fact that Mandell would go on to endorse a staunchly anti-choice presidential ticket is not the only reason her judgment should be seriously questioned. Jezebel has done some digging on Mandell and it turns out that she’s got some skeletons in her closet, including helping to get a fellow NOW rising star arrested.

In her introduction for Palin, Mandell pointed out that Palin will be a champion for Title IX because she plays sports. I'm all for Title IX, but will having an athletic woman in office help other women when her running mate opposes equal pay, as McCain has already done? Will the fact that Palin played basketball in college help women when she fights to make abortion illegal even in the case of incest or rape?

If it were up to Mandell, the National Organization for Women would need to change its name to the National Organization for Powerful People with Female Genitalia. Fortunately, it’s not up to Mandell. The California NOW president has issued a statement that says, in part, “I can assure you that there is no local or state affiliate of NOW, including LA NOW, which endorses or supports the McCain/Palin ticket.”

Photo: Jezebel

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Palin's Town Charged Women for Rape Kits

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 22:15:00 GMT

You may have heard that the police department of Wasilla, Alaska--currently the littlest big town in the world--charged rape victims for forensic exams while Sarah Palin was mayor. This is a bit like asking the bereaved for hundreds of dollars before taking fingerprints at the scene of a murder.

Now CNN has covered the story, including interviewing the man who sponsored a bill to end the practice. He says, "This [the bill outlawing charging for rape kits] was something that just about everyone agreed on--except Wasilla." The McCain campaign maintains that Palin knew nothing about her town's administration of rape kits. (McCain, however, made his stance on rape kits perfectly clear when he voted against national legislation--introduced by Joe Biden--that would have made charging for sexual assault exams illegal.) This legislator says he finds it very hard to believe that the police chief of a small town waged a campaign against a piece of statewide legislation without the mayor's knowledge. I would add that, if Palin didn't know about the rape kit controversy, perhaps she was slacking on her duties as mayor a wee bit.

But I'm giving away all the good parts. Watch for yourself on Huffington Post.

Photo: pinkandchocolatebrown.blogspot.com

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Five more FLDSers Arrested

Brett Singer — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:00:00 GMT

AP (via Jezebel) is reporting that five male members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) have turned themselves in to the police. They were indicted with the crime of having sex with minors, as was FLDS "prophet" Warren Jeffs. One of the men, Merrill Leroy Jessop, was also charged with bigamy. Another, Lloyd Hammon Barlow, was charged "only" with not reporting child abuse, which is a misdemeanor. He is the resident doctor at the ranch.

This is the first we're hearing about the FLDS folks since April, when Texas Child Protective Services (CPS) raided the polygamist compound (which I still think sounds like a wart cream. Hello??? Is this thing on?), except for when the head of CPS resigned, which makes one wonder if Jezebel is right when they imply that the raid was treated as a bigger crime than whatever may be going on inside the walls of the Zion Ranch. I'm kind of surprised that it took this long to charge someone with bigamy, since that's, you know, a major tenet of their religion – polygamy. Poly marriage. Not legal. Just sayin'. Of course, that charge is nothing compared to forcing minors to have sex. But it's all just "alleged" for now.

image: Jezebel

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What Does Bush Have Against Planned Pregnancies?

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 20:42:00 GMT

Although I am unequivocally pro-choice, I respect those who are peacefully opposed to abortion on moral grounds. But anyone who supports the Bush administration’s most recent attack on family planning is completely nuts as far as I’m concerned.

The administration has put forth a proposal to deny federal funding to any health programs, including schools and hospitals, that “discriminate against” providers who refuse to provide abortion or some types of birth control. To give you a feel for how this policy would affect women’s lives, the draft proposal, according to The New York Times, “expresses concern about state laws that require hospitals to provide emergency contraception to rape victims who request it.”

To that end, the Bush administration would like to make the definition of abortion much broader. According to the proposal, abortion should be redefined as anything “that results in the termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation.”

That “before or after implantation” is crucial: it means that birth control pills and emergency contraception could be considered abortion—and that any clinic that thinks otherwise could lose federal funding.

Does anyone else feel like she’s in the Twilight Zone?

Photo: prochoice.org

11-Year-Old Romanian Permitted to Have an Abortion

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 17:39:00 GMT

Romania has ruled that a young rape and incest victim may be allowed to have an abortion. The shocking news is that this was a very controversial ruling.

"I want to go to school and to play. If I can't do this my life will be a nightmare,'" the 11-year-old wrote in a letter to the government committee deciding her fate. Already, the girl had been shunned by her former friends because of her pregnancy.

Romanian law prohibits abortions after 14 weeks, unless the mother’s life is in jeopardy, and the preteen girl was 21 weeks pregnant. An earlier abortion was not possible since no one, presumably not even the girl herself, knew she was pregnant. Her parents took her to a doctor on June 2 because she seemed sick. There, she told doctors that she was raped by her 19-year-old uncle, whose current whereabouts are unknown.

The mainly orthodox country is divided over the ruling. Pro-life groups have rallied for the pregnant child to give birth, offering to care for the baby after it is born. But child rights organizations say the young victim should not be made to undergo further hardship. Even the Orthodox Church aired on the side of tolerance, arguing that although abortion is a crime, this is an extraordinary situation that can only be decided by the girl and her family.

Photo: Romanian girls on a holiday (pbase.com)

Children of Polygamy Cult Returned to Parents

Cole Gamble — Mon, 26 May 2008 17:00:00 GMT

A dozen of the children removed from the FLDS Polygamy cult in Texas are being reunited with their families. Said parents and children will be allowed to live together under state supervision until a verdict comes down from the Texas Supreme Court. They may not, however, return to their Yearning For Zion ranch for the time being.

Last Friday an appeals court ruled the state had no right to take the children into custody. On one hand it's hard to fault the authorities in their raid. The heard of the underage marriages to older men, heard many other stories of highly questionable behavior with minors, and galloped in to “rescue” all the children. Unfortunately the legality of the matter is messier than that. It may be proven not every single child was endangered. Yes, an odd thought considering the stories about what went on behind the walls of that compound. Though there are children of the cult too young to have been asked to bear children and therefore may not technically qualify as abused, to teach those young children that this is normative behavior is, in my mind, abuse enough.

Photo: AP

10-Year-Old Gives Birth in Idaho

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Sun, 11 May 2008 03:13:00 GMT

This is a story with so many tragic layers that there’s really nothing to report but the sad facts: An Idaho girl, just a child herself at 10-years-old, delivered a six-pound baby by C-section. The alleged father, 37-year-old Guadalupe Gutierrez-Juarez, has been charged with rape and is being held in county jail. The girl, who was 9-years-old when she became pregnant, may have had a medical condition that caused her to have an unusually early onset of puberty. Police only became aware of the situation after the girl went to a doctor's office for treatment the day before she gave birth. Very little information is being released about the young mother, who is in state custody along with her baby.

Reading a story like this, I have to remind myself of the almost miraculous resiliency of the human spirit. Both the 10-year-old and her baby are in good health, and it is not naive to hope that they will one day lead healthy, happy lives.

In another sad twist to the story, Gutierrez-Juarez is a suspected illegal immigrant, so that some Web commentators have seized on this tragedy to call for tougher immigration laws. Whatever one’s beliefs on legislating immigration, let’s hope that reason prevails in this case, and one horrific event is not used to make blanket characterizations about the millions of immigrants living peacefully in the U.S.

Photo: localnews8.com

Nicole Kidman Calls for End to Violence Against Women

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 21:14:00 GMT

On the one hand, it’s easy to poke fun when a celebrity comes out against something as obviously egregious as, say, poverty. On the other hand, stardom is one of the only surefire ways to catch people’s attention—why not exploit it in the service of good? Such was the case with Nicole Kidman’s address at the United Nations this week, calling for greater awareness about the prevalence of violence against women. Seven months pregnant with her first biological child (she and Tom Cruise adopted two children), the Moulin Rouge star called violence against women “the most widespread human rights violation of our time,” pointing to the fact that one in three women worldwide is raped, beaten, or abused in her lifetime. The Oscar-winning mother-to-be also urged the public to sign on to UNIFEM’s Internet initiative calling for global action to end violence against women.

It seems to me that both the Internet initiative and Kidman’s high profile address are simply attention grabbers for what is an incredibly important facet of the U.N.that could use more funding: UNIFEM (the United Nations Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women) is instrumental in establishing concrete programs that help women achieve financial, political, and social equality in all countries, but particularly those in or emerging from conflict. In stressing the progress initiatives like UNIFEM have made in the last quarter-century, executive director Joanne Sandler stated, “At least 89 countries have specific laws on domestic violence and more than 100 countries have made rape a crime.” I hate to see the glass as half empty, but I couldn’t help but note that this means about half of the governments in the world don't see rape as a problem, and more than half see no reason to punish men who beat their wives. It’s easy to forget that millions of people actually do not consider violence against women egregious at all—there’s a reason we need people like Nicole Kidman to remind us.

Photo: AP

Would You Announce This On A T-Shirt?

Amy S.F. Lutz — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 12:35:00 GMT

I was never raped, I'll say that right up front. But from what I've read, for many victims, the terror and violation of being raped is compounded every day by the shame, humiliation, and isolation that takes much, much longer to heal.

So you have to admire anyone who is trying to increase social awareness about rape, and to give victims a voice. But a T-shirt that says, "I was raped"?

That's the latest brainchild from Jennifer Baumgardner, who used the same tack in 2004 when she created shirts that read, "I Had An Abortion." She plans to distribute the rape T-shirts to college campuses through a sex education website, www.scarleteen.com.

My take? It seems that if you have the chutzpah to wear a shirt saying, "I was raped" (that's the design, in the picture), you almost certainly already "own the experience," as Baumgardner states as one of her goals for victims. But I can imagine victims who are still locked in stunned silence, who see someone ELSE wearing this shirt, and feel - at least for one moment - not so alone.

New York Times photo