Regardless of God’s will, can we at least all agree that forcing a raped woman to give birth radically affects her economic well-being?
Pregnant women need health care. What if the raped woman is lower-income? How will she afford her monthly and then weekly ob-gyn visits? What about the cost of the birth? What if she has a c-section? What if she has an ectopic pregnancy? What if she hemorrhages during the birth? If she has a job, how much maternity leave will she get? Will she be able to stay at her job when she has a baby to take care of? How will she afford childcare? What about her child’s education? Will she be able to send her child to a safe school with good teachers? How will the raped woman afford health care for her child?
I am so sick of Republicans who are against reproductive rights, health care that covers contraception, and adequate funds for public education claiming that they care about improving the economy and jobs for everyone. Clearly, the only economy and the only jobs Republican policies support are those of high income males. Romney’s economic strategy comes down to this: If male breadwinners do well, America will do well. So if your financial health depends on a rich guy, Romney may be your candidate. But if it doesn’t, or if you’d rather is didn’t, consider voting for Obama in November.
I don’t believe in forcing a raped women to concieve… but the economic thing is a bit shallow.
You know what’s scary? His Democrat counterpart is almost as bad/even worse, depending on your POV, because he’s against abortion EXCEPT in cases of rape or incest. Libby at Love, Joy, Feminism does a pretty good job of explaining just why this can be seen as even worse than Mourdock’s view:
” Mourdock is anti-abortion, but Donnelly, his Democratic opponent, is anti-abortion too. The difference centers only on rape and incest exemptions. The candidates’ positions indicate that while Mourdock may actually believe the rhetoric about the murder of innocent babies Donnelly does not. If Donnelly really believes that abortion is the “murder” of “babies,” he shouldn’t be okay with the murder of any babies, regardless of how they are conceived. His use of an exemption indicates that what he actually believes is that unplanned and unwanted pregnancies are simply the “consequences” women should have to face for choosing to have sex (the sluts!), but that since women who are raped or victims of incest don’t choose to have sex, they shouldn’t be punished for it. In other words, Mourdock might possibly be genuine in his claim that it’s all about saving “innocent babies”, but Donnelly’s position is quite clearly anti-woman. This makes the choice voters are given lightly surreal.”
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminism/2012/10/richard-mourdock-on-rape-and-gods-plan.html
Reblogged this on Italian Blonde: Lost In Translation / Italiana Bionda: Perso Nella Traduzione and commented:
People forget to actually think of the impact and just take a candidate’s word as gold. Think people, for Jove’s sake,
I have to say from across the pond – I do find the US Republicans pretty terrifying. I hope they don’t get into power for the sake of the rest of us as much as for you. Quasi-religious sexism and racism. Bad bad bad.
I was watching some reality show (yes, I know *hangs head*), and in it the woman had gotten pregnant her senior year in high school. She wasn’t raped, but that pregnancy ended her option to go to college (which is where she was headed originally). She ended up divorced, remarried, divorced, remarried… The men were bed for her, and the fact that she had children so young messed up her future. That is a reality of a young, consensual, unmarried sexual encounter. Rape makes everything so much worse.
Did the rapist have HIV? Hepatitis? Who’s going to pay not only for her prenatal care and birth, but also the therapy she will need to recover from the assault? Plenty of insurance policies don’t cover mental health services, and that assumes she HAS insurance.
Who do those men think they are that they believe they get any say in what I do with my uterus? Or my daughter’s?! I want to ask them, those that have daughters and wives and sisters… would you expect your daughter/wife/sister to carry that baby to term? And keep the child? Or would you whisk her quietly out of the country to “recuperate” in a European “spa”?
*bad for her (not bed)
You said it sister. I honestly don’t know how anyone with a vagina can cast a vote for a republican. There are some who are more moderate but, overall, the freaky zealots are making the whole bunch look very backwards and out of touch.