Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
Rape and abortion have filled the headlines this week. Todd Akin's medieval assessment of women's fertility and "legitimate" rape astounded me. The only silver lining was hearing Mitt Romney and many other Republicans condemn Akin flat out. Akin forfeited any claim on morality. His tepid non-retraction, followed by doubling-down confounds me.
For more than twenty years, I kept it a secret. I was 17 when it happened. My sense of self changed forever. Over the course of six days, the tastes, the tightness of the phone cord that bound my hands, and the violence of their exertions, and especially the smells of those young men that raped me repeatedly in a squalid apartment, were seared into my memory. They introduced me to evil, embodied evil incarnate quite literally, and it is through them that my dialogue with evil began. This experience brought about my first unforced prayers to God.
When the attackers left to get another victim, after promising to make me an example, I convinced their drug-addled accomplice to let me use the bathroom without supervision while he got high again. I called my parents, my father came and I knew he would and could protect me. The Second Amendment, the concealed carry permit, my father's years of practice meant I would make it home alive.
A hot shower, unconditional love, and the absence of shame was all I craved. I knew my attackers could not find me, that I could not identify them, and the ordeal was over.
There was no such thing as a call to 911, and a heroic cop emerging with all the magic answers at just the right time like some episodic drama on television. This is not an episode of my life I wanted to save on the DVR list.
Criminalizing the victim of rape isn't a moral win, or a legal win. Women are not property. If he and his supporters read the Constitution, I would like to refer them to the protections afforded men and women. We are equal. We have religious freedom. We have the same rights. Akin has never been the 17 year old gang rape victim terrified of pregnancy, trying to heal. I have. By the Grace of God, I was not pregnant. I have known others who were not so fortunate, women who chose to abort and women who carried a child to term.
Akin decided this week is a great opportunity to fundraise. The criminalizing of rape victims combined with raising campaign cash on the corpses of unimplanted embryos, implanted embryos, fetuses, babies, or the term of your choosing is just as abhorrent as the hyper-partisan Left pretending they care about protecting rape victims, when what they actually do is raise money off of the same unborn children.
The sanctity of our womb and the struggle to balance laws for people of many faiths and no faith makes for labrynthine political discourse. If we lived in the perfect world where every pregnancy was a blessing, I would stand shoulder to shoulder with Akin. But we don't. We live in a world where rape is one of the most under reported crimes, because women fear the shame will define them.
I have seen evil, experienced evil, and been delivered through the fire by God's mercy. No man who shares Akin's view of my womb, no woman who wishes to replace his zealotry with her own, deserves to be seen as a mainstream representative of any political party or as a spokesperson for God.
Rape is a crime so heinous that when used systemically, as it was in Rwanda during the 1994 Genocide, it is considered a Crime Against Humanity and a tool of genocide. It is dehumanizing, degrading and an act of pure evil. For someone of faith to profess no concern for the women who suffer this trauma, and instead focus on one piece of a horrific puzzle for partisan gain is unconscionable. Just as the callous taking of an innocent life is. The settled law in our nation preserves an uncomfortable balance. There is no simple policy fix.
Sovereignty over self is the greatest freedom of all. Our Creator endowed us with life and liberty but it is his mercy and Grace that sustains me today.
For reading on the political implications, please read Rick Wilson's brilliant and cogent piece on the need for Adult Supervision here on Ricochet.
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Comments:
Aug '10
Re: Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
Relevatory courage.
Thanks for your candour and crystalline vision of this matter.
May '10
Re: Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
I have three friends who were raped at 17. One of them gang-raped. None reported it.
This is a much bigger story facing our society than the question of what to do about Todd Akin: the problem of rape and how to stop it.
It's right up there with the sexual abuse of minors in my book.
I am so, so sorry about what you went through! Also amazed at how you've triumphed over it. God help other victims find the same strength.
Apr '12
Re: Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
I wish that the Supreme Court had not removed, to the best of my knowledge, the option of killing those who harmed you. And no, I'm not indulging in rhetorical extravagance-- I don't see a valid difference between those who did that to you, and those who sadistically kill. I want the death penalty for some rapists.
That said, I can not support killing someone whose only wrong is being genetically related to a monstrous unspeakable.
I also cannot associate it with condemning the empirically supported, if contested, statement that violent rape is less likely to result in pregnancy. Not unlikely, not will never, but less.
I cannot associate that monstrous action with what seems to be dividing what happened to you from the women (multiple) that I know who got drunk, propositioned men, and then cried rape. (dear God, do I wish I were imagining that)
Rape is unspeakable. Many forms go without comment in our culture-- the 16 year old with a 30 year old "boyfriend," the teenage boys raped by female teachers, and on and on and on. It's in the same moral category as slavery, as it takes one's self from one.
Apr '11
Re: Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
flownover, above, has said what I think, not least of which is "relevatory courage." Thank you.
Edited on August 24, 2012 at 5:16amJun '10
Re: Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
Men can't get pregnant, but a young man can get raped too. If you think women don't like to talk about it, try getting that secret out of a man. And as for pregnancy, the simple fact remains, adding another evil act to the first evil act doesn't fix anything. I understand not wanting to raise the child, but I'll never understand wanting to kill it. Evil doesn't fix evil.
Edited on August 24, 2012 at 5:17amMar '11
Re: Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
There is always a stigma associated with rape, a shame, and it can take years, even decades for victims to admit what happened. I knew a lady who was such a victim during WWII, and she told no one until her own last years. She kept it from her husband (who probably knew the perpetrator), her children, and only revealed it to her grandchildren during a discussion of, of all things, abortion. She had done nothing to "deserve" what had happened, yet she took the blame on herself saying, effectively, that randy soldiers are randy soldiers and that was that.
I agree with Foxfier above, except to add that execution is too humane a treatment for some of the swine out there.
Sep '10
Re: Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
Wanting has nothing to do with it.
Mel Foil: but I'll never understand wanting to kill it. · 4 minutes ago
Edited 4 minutes ago
Mar '11
Re: Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
Evil may not fix evil, but for the unsaved, the faithless, and the desperate it seems a way out, a way to purge the trauma. Besides, they're taught it's not "killing".
I've picketed outside of clinics, and most of the women that go in are terrified, many are accompanied by their boyfriends, or their mothers or fathers. The clinics I've seen sometimes maintain a sort of perimeter of rather burly women in boots who will "escort" (read: cajole) reluctant women in - but there is no support on the way out, the women are on their own at that point, and they need help then even more than before they went in.
Mel Foil: Men can't get pregnant, but a young man can get raped too. If you think women don't like to talk about it, try getting that secret out of a man. And as for pregnancy, the simple fact remains, adding another evil act to the first evil act doesn't fix anything. I understand not wanting to raise the child, but I'll never understand wanting to kill it. Evil doesn't fix evil. · 4 minutes ago
Edited 4 minutes ago
Jun '10
Re: Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
Leslie Watkins:Wanting has nothing to do with it.
There are women who've come forward publicly about bringing a child to term that was the result of rape. Maybe that's a very select group--that's willing to publicly reveal those facts to an audience--but I've never heard or read any of them say, "I wished I'd had an abortion." They may not ever want to meet that child, or hear from that child, but they also know that it wasn't the child's fault, and it doesn't mean that the child is cursed to behave like the biological father. The child has another Father--the King of Heaven. That may sound weird, but I guess I'm weird.
Mar '11
Re: Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
You're not being weird, but do remember there is a tremendous social (and often family) pressure on rape victims to "just get rid of it". If they lack faith, and they lack a supportive network, then they often will turn to abortion. It's a trite expression, but it is true that "abortion has 2 victims" - pray for them both.
Mel Foil
The child has another Father--the King of Heaven. That may sound weird, but I guess I'm weird. · 5 minutes ago
Apr '12
Re: Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
Mel Foil
There are women who've come forward publicly about bringing a child to term that was the result of rape.
A friend from the Navy is one of the children from this.
Her parents-- those who raised her-- are Filipino.
She's blonde. (bio father is apparently Norwegian or something)
If you want an illustration of shock, see the Navy folks from the PI who called her... um... a lady of ill-repute, then got cussed out fluently in the same language. It's a know issue about Filipinos not adhering to the language regs, so they were really up the creek; complain and admit they were violating a much more important reg....
She's a much loved aunt to her sibling's children, although she hasn't found a man worthy of her yet. For those who are looking.
Apr '12
Re: Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
Remove evidence of the crime, remove the crime.
It's human, but no less sad.
Apr '12
Re: Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
skipsul: Evil may not fix evil, but for the unsaved, the faithless, and the desperate it seems a way out, a way to purge the trauma. Besides, they're taught it's not "killing".
I've picketed outside of clinics, and most of the women that go in are terrified, many are accompanied by their boyfriends, or their mothers or fathers. The clinics I've seen sometimes maintain a sort of perimeter of rather burly women in boots who will "escort" (read: cajole) reluctant women in - but there is no support on the way out, the women are on their own at that point, and they need help then even more than before they went in.
I can't speak for first hand-- never had an option of being there-- but the charities I support also have post-abortion aid. Moments, days, years, doesn't matter.
I have trouble imagining being told by those I trust, when I'm in trouble, "this will make things like it never happened" and then... oh, God.
Aug '10
Re: Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
I have no problem with the death penalty being used for the more aggregious cases of rape - there are worse things that you can do to someone than killing them.
I am also very disturbed by the men on this site who would accuse a rape victim of an evil act if they decide to abort the fetus that resulted from the act. Talk is cheap, brothers, and if you think that a woman should be forced to carry a rape-induced pregnancy to term against her will you do not understand our Heavenly Father's plan for His children.
If a rape victim decides to carry the fetus to term and give the baby up for adoption that is a very selfless and wonderful act. If she decides to terminate the pregnancy that is her rightful choice and no one should judge her for it or tell her she is wrong.
Jan '11
Re: Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
Elizabeth Blackney:
The sanctity of our womb and the struggle to balance laws for people of many faiths and no faith makes for labrynthine political discourse. If we lived in the perfect world where every pregnancy was a blessing, I would stand shoulder to shoulder with Akin. But we don't. We live in a world where rape is one of the most under reported crimes, because women fear the shame will define them.
I believe that it takes a whole lot of courage to write these words in an on-line conservative forum. I wish that more women would go to term with their pregnancies but I wouldn't want to legislate it for the reasons you put out there; we don't all have the same belief & values and there are some instances where it's just not fair to ask a women to go through with a pregnancy which was the result of a repulsive event.
I also can't help but think that the comment section in this thread would look far different had you written the paragraph above without also sharing a deeply personal and very painful event from your life.
Apr '12
Re: Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
I am sorry, but as sympathetic as it is-- this is killing someone because of the horrific sin of their biofather.
It is understandable, but wrong. Just as wrong as killing the siblings of a rapist, or the non-rape-born children of a rapist.
Stating that is not "condemning" a woman in a horrific situation that felt she had no choice, it's a statement of fact about ahuman who was offered no choice at all.
I wish rape was actually condemned to a fraction of what folks act; it isn't.
It's a goal to work towards.
Most of the guys I socialized with on ship were raped as teens, by teachers.
At least half of the women I'm sociologically intimate with were victims of statutory rape-- and I'm not talking about "I'm 17 and he's 18" junk.
Apr '12
Re: Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
My sociogroup are geeks, the guys of which are really choice victims-- but that was a real eye opener, especially watching them talk about it and try to spin it so they weren't disgusted by it... but, counter the guy stereotype, weren't bragging about it.
That is BEFORE we get into the Navy related sex issues that make me question the whole idea of women in the armed forces....
Sep '10
Re: Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
I see the carrying of the fetus to term an act of great virtue and mercy. I don't see it as moral to force a female to carry a healthy child to term because their was no consent to this agreement. It's done at the point of the bayonet. In either case, pray for all parties even the rapist, then destroy the rapist.
Mar '11
Re: Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
Frozen, if you're pro-life then you have to be 100% pro-life, otherwise you're pro-abortion. If you believe that abortion is the killing of another human being, then regardless of the events leading to the pregnancy, that unborn child is still a child. Regardless of whether the pregnancy was forced, you're still dealing with another human being, and therefore your own "choice" is compromised.
Furthermore, for those of us of Christian belief, I should point out WE are not the ones judging (that's God's job), we are merely relaying God's word.
There are some who, claiming Jesus falsely, do say and do horrid things, and who elevate the sin of abortion above all other sins, ignorantly condemning the mothers for their mistakes. Yet it is also wrong to condone or excuse abortion merely as "choice" simply because the circumstances were horrific.
May '10
Re: Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
To criminalize abortions in cases of rape is not necessarily to threaten the fearful mothers with anything. Rather, the law's focus should be on the physicians who perform abortions. If a mother decides to kill her own child in the womb, nothing can be done about it.
That is between the mother and God. I wouldn't berate her for it, but I can say with absolute certainty that abortion is such a scenario is always the wrong choice. However terrible the pain (which I'm sure I can't imagine), killing an innocent child is not an acceptable way of lessening that pain.
Sympathizing with her trauma and tolerating her dreadful response is one thing. Excusing the abortion is something else entirely. Let us not teach women that it is sometimes acceptable to kill an innocent to avoid pain. A child at any stage of development, of any origin, is inherently precious.
Elizabeth mentions Rwanda. I have read stories of Rwandan rape victims who chose to raise their attackers' children, and were happy. They do not look at their children and see pain.