[Vision2020] Threats to Rights for Women

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of the Letters section of today's (October 3, 2012) Moscow-Pullman Daily News with thanks to Nick Gier.

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Threats to rights for women
In backing off from his atrocious remarks about "legitimate" rape, Missouri Congressman Todd Akin said he meant to say "forcible" rape.
This phrase was in a bill co-sponsored by Reps. Paul Ryan and Akin, in which abortions are allowed only in cases of "forcible" rape. The clear implication is that some women who claim to have been raped have somehow consented to the act.
A 2005 Amnesty International survey showed 34 percent of Britons - men and women together - believed women, because of their actions and/or dress, were responsible for their attacks. Why do so many people still believe women are "asking for it" or "free for the taking."
In the Renaissance, wedding chests were frequently decorated with images of the Sabine women being ravished, and we must ask ourselves what message this offered to the bride and groom. It certainly would warn the bride that the groom, as Moscow pastor Douglas Wilson said, "has a right to penetrate," and she has a duty to "receive, surrender and accept" (Wilson, "Fidelity: What it Means to be a One-Woman Man," (Moscow, Canon Press, 1999, Pages 86-87).
Recent studies cited by the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape show that 43 percent of American college men believe it is OK to coerce women to have sex.
All males used to have unconditional sexual access to their wives, and marital rape is still not illegal in 140 countries. In 1975, South Dakota was the first state to give its women the rights of refusal, but North Carolina lingered until 1993.
Many conservative Christians still insist the husband must be the ruler of his wife. Criminalizing marital rape would, in Wilson's words, undermine "the concept of authority and submission in marriage."
In their attempts to control (even penetrate with vaginal probes) women's bodies, far too many American politicians stand as a threat to the basic rights of women.
Nick Gier, Moscow

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Seeya at the polls, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares"
http://www.MoscowCares.com
  
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"We're a town of about 23,000 with 10,000 college students.  The college students are not very active in local elections (thank goodness!)."

- Dale Courtney (March 28, 2007)
 
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