Alaska governor Sarah Palin has a lot in common with Rick Perry, governor of Texas. They're both against stimulus money, have secessionist tendencies and now they have another link: Texas is following in the famous mayor of Wasilla footsteps by charging victims for their rape kits.Of course Sarah Palin denied that she approved of this practice when confronted with the facts that were surfacing during the vice presidential campaign, but she was the boss and had appointed the police chief who defended charging rape victims to the bitter end, even as it was being outlawed by the Alaska Legislature...
There's speculation about Sarah Palin's motives for condoning this insult to rape victims: the kits include the "morning after" pill and it goes against her anti-abortion beliefs. Don't forget that she believes that victims of rape and incest should bear and give birth to the offspring of their attackers. In her mind, only pro-life governors of state have the choice to forego an abortion, even if the baby is her husband's or not her baby at all.
There's an excellent article about the Wasilla rape kits on alternet.org and another one on Feministe.
Mother Jones , Think Progress and HuffPo have articles about the Texas rape kits.
(Thanks for the tip, Sue.)
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8 comments:
Regina this makes me sick! I have been saying that a lot lately I realize readiing about these elected officials who say they are moral but do incredibly evil things.
Is this info about Rick Perry new? When was this CNN video from, do you know?
Lisabeth,
The Mother Jones article is dated May 8, the think progress May 9.
I searched google and "Texas rape kit" came up as news on May 8...
I don't know how long they've been charging the victims, but it has hit the news now.
It's like paying a fine for the crime of being raped.
Disgusting!
Reg
Basseert:About separation of church and state in AK, recently before the appointment vote by the Leg for WAR as AG, the Leg. said a prayer before they even said the pledge of Allegiance! (GINO wasn't there)
Its outrageous that any woman must pay for police CSI of the crime rape!! It is part of the police job to collect evidence and therefore should be in their budget. Aftercare for a victim may be funded by Crime victims funds.
GINO was against rape kits b/c they had morning after pills in them, anyone know about TX? It figures that Perry, cut from the same cloth as GINO would have women paying for this!
Woman's rights advocates must rise up against this travesty.
Here is a rape kit link from "American Police beat"
http://www.apbweb.com/featured-articles/873-states-must-pay-for-rape-kits.html
I wanted to read more about the laws around the separation of church and state and I found this great wiki article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_of_church_and_state_in_the_United_States
Someone should use this in Alaska for a religion gate complaint.
I am going to look more into this as far as a federal complaint would go. I find it very very disturbing that she would give that much money to very religious Christian organizations. I understand Obama wants to expand the idea of funding some faith based programs, but I am sure that is VERY different. There must be a fair process in place to decide who gets money. It seems like Sarah Palin makes up all of her own laws.
Did she really change the laws in Wasilla so that people could not look up who built her house? That is just criminal.
People who think they are above the law should not be in any government position. We have the problem here in Arizona with CRAZY RACIST Sherrif Joe. I think the FBI is involved but so far not much has been done about him.
I think in the future bloggers and activists are going to play a big role in uncovering corruption. And we have every right to do so!!
Regina, if you see this, when you wrote up Religiongate did you talk about the actual laws she was violating? I will have to go see. It would be a good post if not.....:) (Thanks for all your hard work!)
lisabeth,
If you have any links to actual laws she may have broken, please e-mail them to me or post them in a comment so I can follow them up.
If you click on Religiongate (list of gates), you can see everything I wrote on the subject.
Thanks,
Reg
There are quite a few links in the post above.
This below also has some good info with direct quotes from various judges and information on the constitution regarding this subject.
http://www.theocracywatch.org/separation_church_state2.htm
Of course, the "Christians" saying there really isn't a law. Do they rationalize everything?
I'll let you know what else I find.
Christian response - http://www.christiananswers.net/q-wall/wal-g004.html
PS. I hate putting Christian here because I have so many find friends of this faith. I am referring more to the very far right.
Sarah (Alaska) and Perry (Texas) are an interesting twosome.
Texas treats kids rotten but they did go after the FLDS Church to make their kids safer.
Sarah's church seems to own her state.
I don't know how long you all have been actively engaged in all of this, but during the Bush administration, many similar things happened all around the country and world. Dominant among them is the Gag Order that Bush issued on his first day in office that prohibited family planning organizations abroad receiving US funding from discussing abortion. He tried to implement it here.
Pharmacists have been allowed to refuse to dispense morning after pills, and some have been allowed to refuse to dispense birth control pills (many right to lifers believe that birth control pills are a form of abortion which is medically incorrect as they prevent ovulation, not implantation, but hey, don't confuse them with the facts).
Since they couldn't overturn Roe v Wade, they've come at it sideways by removing funding for clinics, making women pay for rape kits, making anything to do with teen reproductive health difficult to access both in terms of information and access to facilities. They've tried to legislate procedures, force parental notification, and etc., and eventually if they have their way, Roe v Wade will be moot.
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