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:
Mar '11
Re: Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
@Lowcountry
On your last statement:
People are not animals, even if we share things in common and act like them at times. No animal is as capable of the highs or lows we have achieved as a species.
Genetics explains things up to a point, but it is not destiny, and you are straying into the dangerous territory of eugenics. We've been down that road, and China and India are going down that road even now with sex-selective abortions. Do not let yourself be tempted that somehow we can or should "weed out" those of inferior stock, lest you yourself be on the receiving end.
ALL human beings have intrinsic value, some may choose to squander it but it's their decision, not yours.
Aug '12
Re: Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
Elizabeth - when you talk about sovereignty over self are you saying that birth is a gift that nobody has the moral right to force you to give? Also - I though it was a brave article, thank you for sharing it.
Jan '11
Re: Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
What should be the penalty for aborting a child conceived through rape?
If there isn't to be a penalty enforced by the state, then all the conversation here is about personal moral standards.
We might as well discuss whether married couples should divorce. Conservatives have just as much to gain by opposing divorce as they have to gain opposing abortion. The politicization of morality is a bad idea, no matter if it comes from the Left or the Right.
Abortion will be popular as long as men and women are sometimes impetuous. A conservative suburban woman from Montgomery County, PA understands in her bones that, rational and organized as she might be, there may come an evening when a couple of drinks and an itch will lead her into a coupling that is not well thought out. And if not her, then it's her daughter at college who may succumb to a bit of lewd temptation, drunkenness or curiosity.
For someone to then tell her that she should live with a life-time of consequences for that lapse in judgment, with all that that implies, makes her label the strict anti-abortionist as a fanatic, pure and simple.
Apr '12
Re: Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
LowcountryJoe
Are there alternatives that are acceptable? Is there any drug that prevents conception [I believe that Mifepristone only prevents the zygote from attaching itself to wall of uterus]? Adoption can be a solution but how many seekers of adoption would be enthused under full disclosure?
I also think that you're downplaying (maybe even dismissing) the role of DNA in our make-up. The propagation of a species -- even human beings -- depends on a certain amount of genetic variation (adaptation) followed by a natural selection process. I believe in this stuff because it helps explain the world to me.
No, not downplaying or ignoring what DNA does to our actions-- just noticing that it's inferior to our minds in guiding our actions. Especially not going with the notion that a parent that did X violent crime means you're a statistically significant higher risk for also doing that crime when there's no evidence for the notion.
A problem with your animal comparison is that it assumes that animals can choose in the same way humans can.
Apr '12
Re: Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
Jail time for the doctor, for starters.
Somehow, people deal with mistakes they make when they can't kill the evidence. Deciding that an entire sector of humanity can be killed at will is a really bad idea; has nothing to do with imposing "personal moral standards"-- unless that's now so amorphous a thing that it also applies to murder of adults as well.
Mar '11
Re: Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
@freesmith
We all must live with the consequences of our lapses in judgement. You can't undo your lapses - a drunk driver cannot rewind time to not kill that child on the sidewalk, a woman embezzling from her employer cannot just put the money back when her company goes out of business. To suggest that we can undo or forget our crimes is lunacy.
There are no do "do-overs" in life. One of the consequences of sex is conception. Conception creates a new life, and you have to deal with that fact. Pretending that sex can always be consequence free has gotten us where we are today - rampant disease and divorce, single motherhood, and multi-generational absentee fathers.
If you truly care for the woman, then have compassion for the woman, and compassion means helping her through childbirth and beyond, whether through adoption or other support.
As for penalties, go for the practitioners.
Apr '12
Re: Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
LowcountryJoe
Perhaps if you could convince me that animals engage in coercive sex and then care for the offspring of such an act, with a link... · 16 hours ago
Can you find an animal that connects sex to giving birth?
That said, ducks are part of a freaking meme about being animal rapists. (Note: that which has been read cannot be unread.) Apparently there's even a section on wikipedia about animals that do "coercive sex."
Mar '11
Re: Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
Any time someone tells me that God's Lips touch their ears, very loud and insistent alarm bells go off in my head.
Skipsul, you are not great enough to know what God is thinking. Everything I know about God tells me you should worry more about how your are living your life than how someone else lives theirs.
Apr '12
Re: Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
mark
Any time someone tells me that God's Lips touch their ears, very loud and insistent alarm bells go off in my head.
Skipsul, you are not great enough to know what God is thinking. Everything I know about God tells me you should worry more about how your are living your life than how someone else lives theirs. · 25 minutes ago
When "how someone else lives their" life involves killing a third human, perhaps you should do a bit less strawman construction and a bit more addressing of the offered arguments.
May '10
Re: Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
Frozen Chosen has explained his position to me through PM, and I do not want to leave my misunderstanding of his views hanging out here. He does not believe in the "evil DNA" idea. I don't want to put too much of his position into my own words, but I understand his view this way: if the mother chooses to bear a child of rape, the baby just as innocent of it's biological father's sins as any other human baby.
Edited on August 27, 2012 at 5:55pmMar '11
Re: Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
Foxfier
mark
Any time someone tells me that God's Lips touch their ears, very loud and insistent alarm bells go off in my head.
Skipsul, you are not great enough to know what God is thinking. Everything I know about God tells me you should worry more about how your are living your life than how someone else lives theirs. · 25 minutes ago
When "how someone else lives their" life involves killing a third human, perhaps you should do a bit less strawman construction and a bit more addressing of the offered arguments. · Aug 26 at 9:20pm
No strawmen here, foxfier, just a simple quote (and response to) of what skipsul actually said. "Judge not, lest ye be judged." People who think they know God's Mind often find themselves surprised.
Not everyone agrees that all human life is equal. It's why I support the death penalty and why I believe that allowing abortion within the first trimester is moral and acceptable. Especially in the case of rape and incest. In my opinion, this is exactly addressing the offered arguments.
Apr '12
Re: Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
Somehow, telling skipsul that he should listen to you, instead of God, is not reassuring.
It is not news to anyone that many do not believe all human life is equal; it's built into places like Iran. That doesn't do much to excuse the irony of out of context quoting of Jesus refusing to support a group that wanted to execute a woman for having sinned, where the common implication is that she was sinning with them.
You made no attempt to respond to Skipsul's very clear point about people having to live with the physical results of a lapse in judgement.
Mar '11
Re: Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
Wow, talk about strawmen! I didn't say skipsul should listen to me and not God, I merely responded to his very clear statement that he thinks he speaks for God. I disagree with him.
Also, I'm not sure why you need to bring Iran into the conversation, although it is a country where some people like to tell others how God expects them to live.
Mar '11
Re: Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
Ms. Blackney, thank you for your courageous post. As a father of a daughter and a concealed carry permit holder who practices regularly, I would like to think that I would provide the same protection, unconditional love and absence of shame for my daughter if, God forbid, she should ever be in the same situation.
Apr '12
Re: Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
Quote:
Thus, don't listen to God, listen to me and I'll tell you what God thinks.
And you still did not respond to his point.
Apparently, you are very skilled at missing the point. Iran does not hold all humans as equal. Doesn't matter what they use to justify dehumanizing this or that section.
Mar '11
Re: Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
@Mark - you missed my point regarding judgement - Frozen was basically saying that I was judging a prospective rape victim for aborting her child - I was responding by pointing out that I was not, but the Bible has pretty clear prohibitions on murder. If killing an unborn child is murder (and I'm certain it is), then abortion in this case would be wrong. This, however, is not judgement - at worst it is passing along something I heard. Judgement implies punishment or a weighing of scales, and if you followed the thread you would have seen me arguing for compassion for the young woman - God will sort it out in the end.
Secondly, the quote "judge not lest ye be judged" is very often taken out of context - don't forget the part about Jesus turning to the adulteress and saying "Now go and sin no more". Jesus was saving a woman from being stoned to death by an angry mob of people of whom many were probably guilty of the same sin, and were therefore in no position to attack a woman simply because she got caught and they didn't. Put another way, people in glass houses, etc.
Mar '11
Re: Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
@Mark (continued) - Your implication that neither I nor anyone else has any business actually attempting to follow biblical directions is something I'm more used to hearing from the anti-religion lefties.
Certainly we can all point to lunatics who somehow think they have the ear of God (Westboro Baptist comes to mind). But would you thus discount all actions or beliefs associated with religion? I never said I knew what God was thinking, but I was reiterating what He said. There is a difference.
Mar '11
Re: Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
System went weird, duplicate post.
Edited on August 30, 2012 at 8:15pmMar '11
Re: Akin, Rape, and Sovereignty over Self
@Mark (concluded) -
The irony of this statement is amusing - I shouldn't assume I know anything about God, but apparently you're just fine? And where did I say I was speaking for God? Would quoting scripture here be out of line?
Anyway, if you are living your own life and not harming anyone else, why would I bother you? But if you are deliberately harming another (or advocating the same), do I not have have a duty to intervene in some way?
If you were being mugged, should I just pass by "living my own life" and not worry about yours or the muggers? Or would stopping the mugger be too judgemental for you?