By Teeluck Sooknarine/ Addicting Info
New Mexico’s first Hispanic Governor, Susana Martinez, proves that Republicans knows no bounds when it comes to their evil war on women and women’s issues. It is a shame that a woman would be leading the charge against other women and forcing women to be at the mercy of their rapist in order to conform to proposed laws that are being pushed to the fore.
Jodi Jacobson of Rh Reality Check reports:
”Now, however, unless a woman who conceived and gave birth to a child as a result of rape can prove that she was “forcibly raped,” she will be denied assistance for childcare needed for work or education.If adopted, this policy will have numerous implications. It establishes in state law a narrow definition of rape that can and will be applied in other areas of law and policy. It puts a heavy burden on women who have been raped and are now struggling economically to support a child or children to prove the *manner* in which they were raped, requiring that women who have left violent domestic partnerships, who were date-raped, who were impregnated as a result of incest, or through other “non-forcible” but nonetheless equally violent and denigrating means of sexual violation to first “re-engage” with their abusers to seek child support, putting control of their lives back into the hands of someone by whom they were violated in the most profound sense of the term, or to prove somehow they were victims of “forcible” rape or incest.
Many women, for again what are clearly obvious reasons, can not or will not be able to seek or receive child support from their rapists or, due to the dynamics of rape and rape reporting, may not have adequate “proof” that the rape they endured was “forcible enough” to satisfy the state, and so will be completely disqualified from childcare assistance.”
Women’s groups are up in arms about this shameful treatment being meted out to them (women in general). It was bad enough when old white men were trying to control what women did, but now it is even worse considering a women who should know what difficulties disadvantaged women of all races go through after being raped initiated these ghastly attacks against her fellow females.
Rh Reality Check goes on to report:
“When are we going to stop looking for ways to minimize the violence against women? Rape by definition is already an act of power and control,” said K.C. Quirk, Executive Director of Crossroads for Women in Albuquerque, NM.”
In a statement, Strong Families, a coalition working to advance the rights of women and immigrants, said:
“The attempt to qualify differing levels of rape is especially egregious coming from the nation’s first Latina governor, a former tough prosecutor from southern New Mexico, and a prominent speaker at the Republican national convention. Leaders want to emphasize that rape is rape, period.”
“Rape is rape, let’s not move backward toward victim blaming… [A]s a single parent who once benefited from state-subsidized child care assistance, I am saddened at the state’s move to decrease access to a much-needed benefit for our women and families,” said Adriann Barboa, Field Director with Strong Families.
Shame on you Governor, Martinez–shame on you. Your ancestors are rolling over in their graves in shame. You have a rich heritage and you most of all know what your ancestors went through at the hands of those who abused them. There is a saying…’A person is the culmination of their ancestors’ efforts’.
A hearing on the proposed policy is set for October 1 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
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