*Trigger Warning*
Okay readers, bear with me for a second. I know we’ve been talking about politics a LOT here at ShoutOut. Between Katie O.’s post on Mitt Romney’s long history of flip-flopping to a recent Bitchin’ Table about Rick Santorum’s homophobia, we’ve covered just about all of the current crop of Republican candidates. But reading back over all of these posts made me pause for a second and think to myself, “What is with these guys focusing on nothing but women and their bodies?”
It seems like this election season, Republican candidates have nothing else to focus on but abortion and rape. Just yesterday, Ron Paul made quite a mistake when he appeared on Piers Morgan, in which the following exchange occurred:
MORGAN: You have two daughters. You have many granddaughters. If one of them was raped — and I accept it’s a very unlikely thing to happen — but if they were, would you honestly look at them in the eye and say they had to have that child if they were impregnated?
PAUL: No. If it’s an honest rape, that individual should go immediately to the emergency room. I would give them a shot of estrogen….
Sorry, what now? What exactly is “honest” rape? And who will be the judge of that, Ron Paul? Because according to this clip regarding distributing the morning-after pill to rape victims, you “don’t know how we’re going to police that.”
So if you don’t think we can police that, who exactly do you propose will police “honest” and “dishonest” rapes? Oh right, you can’t, because rape is rape. It doesn’t just happen in a back alley, it isn’t always at gun or knife point, and newsflash: it happens to 20% of the women in this country.
Moving on.
Then there’s Rick Santorum, who believes that impregnated rape victims should be forced to carry their rapists’ child.
I’m sorry, but since WHEN is a child of rape a gift from any kind of higher power? In what sick, twisted universe is a rape some kind of strange vessel through which some higher entity imparts a gift to you?
But really, this is all beside the point. The real question we should all be asking is, with our economy going to shit, the Middle East virtually imploding, a Congress that can’t seem to get a damn thing done, and the rest of our multitude of problems, why are these men so worried about what a woman can and can’t do with her OWN body? Because frankly, it’s none of their damn business.
Personally, I refuse to vote for a politician who thinks that women can’t be trusted to make important decisions over her own body. So readers, think about it for a second…do you really want to elect a president who doesn’t trust 50.8% of the population? Who thinks your body should be nothing more than a dumping ground for sperm? Who will continue to wage the war on women?
I didn’t think so.
ShoutOut! James Madison University 
I really liked that you pointed out the absence in other discussion types within the Republican Party. I feel like that’s a skill I struggle with. I feel like I have no problem answering or considering whatever argument that is presented to me but I always forget to think about what is missing from the discussion. I also think the “honest” rape bit in the Ron Paul video is ridiculous. That’s just poor language on his part. I can see how he might have meant it but rape is rape. I also really dislike that he said if it is “honest” rape that you should immediately go to the emergency room. That seems to be exclusionary to people who don’t want abortions. Why is getting an abortion or estrogen shot post-rape what you have to do? I understand his platform is probably not that all women who are raped have to terminate a potential pregnancy but his use of that language seems to suggest that he doesn’t understand other perspectives.
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Thanks eszenyme! I’d like to point out (to clarify for all the readers) that I don’t think that everyone who is a Republican is a total jerk or stupid. I just get incredibly pissed off when it seems like all the moral majority Republicans can talk about is abortion. And yes, Ron Paul’s language was absurd. I agree, abortion should not be mandatory if you are impregnated from rape. I just don’t want to see the option go away completely. I have the utmost respect for rape survivors who do or do not choose to go through with the pregnancy. I just firmly believe in the right to choose free of anyone else’s coercion.
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I guess what I don’t understand from your above post, is why the sexual orientation or race of a male has anything to do with his ability to manage a woman’s body? This post makes it seem that if it was a gay black man, saying that abortion should be, illegal then it would be okay. Or that somehow homosexuality gives men a unique perspective on what it is like to be a woman or have a woman’s body? I doubt that this is the author’s intent, but I do find the wording curious and a little troubling.
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Thanks for the comment Richard! I see your point, and you’ll see that I did change the wording of the title. I guess what I was trying to get at (but didn’t manage to articulate in the article) is my frustration that the most privileged group of people in the world (straight, white men) have nothing better to do than obsess over uteri.
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