![[A] Funny Feminist](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_rWrkV0aSXE8/TQ6uf5aKISI/AAAAAAAAAGo/8leFke6j9kw/S1600-R/bloggerheader1.jpg)
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Rape Victim Abortion Funding | ||||
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If you follow me on Twitter, you would have noticed that I've spent the better part of a week tweeting about the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act," a law that seeks to deny abortion rights to any woman with a health insurance policy in which any amount of the premiums can be written off on a tax return, unless that woman can pay for the procedure out of pocket. Right now, the vast majority of health insurance policies cover abortion, and a percentage of those premiums can be written off by the individual or business who purchases the policy. House Republicans and conservative Democrats who have signed on to this bill equate the tax write-off with abortion being federally subsidized. Of course, tax breaks for the wealthy aren't considered federal spending, but tax breaks for Americans with health insurance that covers abortion is. Basically, this law further screws over low and middle income women who wish to use the perfectly legal medical service called abortion. Essentially, such women must pay a tax on their policy (in that their policy is taxable income), even if they never have an abortion. The law would also deny abortion coverage on any private policy that is included in the health insurance exchanges in the new healthcare law.
Most egregious of all, the law also redefined rape as "forcible rape." The qualifier "forcible" implied that some rape isn't forced, but merely coerced or maybe implied. Women who were unconscious, drugged, or mentally handicapped were excluded from the definition. The language was then taken out, thanks to Sady Doyle's #DearJohn campaign on Twitter and the above video from The Daily Show. The combination of anger and satire woke the anti-choice morons who cosigned this disgusting bill to the fact that ALL rape is forcible. Duh.
Although it's nice that they stripped the word "forcible" from the bill, this bill is still terrible and needs to be defeated. This law will deny millions of women abortion coverage. Incest is also redefined, in that it excludes women who became pregnant by a family member after they turned 18. It allows the government to interfere in personal decisions and private business, and it increases taxes. The new Republican party, everyone!
1 comment:
Of course sexual coercion is rape. A fact that people would like to overlook is that this so-called 'rape lite' is committed almost as often by women.
Not to sound too much like an anti-feminist here, but this is a fact that mainstream feminists would rather not pay attention to.
Excuse me, and I know that one is limited for the sake of putting up a concise blog post, but the wording was used is suggestive of an idea that rape is a crime that men own. The number of women who commit rape is high enough for us to word it as,
'person who is a rape victim.'
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