Tuesday, May 03, 2011

There's Rape and Then There's Rape (Part II)

Remember when House Republicans were trying to draw distinctions in abortion coverage between "real" ("forcible") rape, and other forms of rape (such as statutory rape)? They had dropped it under massive public criticism, but now it looks like it's sneaking its way back. While the specific language was deleted, Republican Congressmen are trying to build a legislative trail to interpret the relevant provision as barring abortion coverage for statutory rapes. At times the euphemize it ("abortion based solely on the youth of the mother"), but elsewhere they're quite explicit (the bill will "not allow the Federal Government to subsidize abortions in cases of statutory rape.").

Incidentally, didn't I recall a campaign by pro-life organizations to send underage girls to abortion clinics, in order to expose what they claimed was a cavalier attitude by the clinics towards statutory rape? As I recall it, those groups claimed that the "youth of the mother" was on its own sufficient to declare the clinics soft on rape. My how times change.

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