One Institution I'm Willing to Privatize

taken from ginkthink.wordpress.com 

Can you guess what it is? If you guessed the Post Office- well, you're wrong. If you guessed Social Security- wrong. If you guessed vaginas and uteruses- you got it! Not an institution, you say? Well, women's reproductive organs sure are discussed as though they are public property, and I for one think it is high time we privatize them. 

I'm sure everyone has heard about State Representative Cathrynn Brown's bill to make abortions illegal after she has been raped because it is "tampering with evidence." Yes, I said a WOMAN introduced this bill, yes, I said RAPED, and yes, I said ILLEGAL. The victim would be charged with a third degree felony, to be exact.  

I'd like to take a sample of
your baby, please--as
evidence, of course. 

Third degree felonies in the state of New Mexico, where this legislation was introduced, can carry a sentence of up to three years in prison. I know when I think of a rape victim who has just had to make the decision of whether or not to terminate her unwanted pregnancy I think, "hey, prison seems appropriate." Of course this legislation is unlikely to pass as Democrats control both the House and Senate in the state's legislature, and of course there will be many Republicans who think it's bologna, too. I hope. I can't be too sure...

Representative Brown (the woman pictured to the left) made a public statement after receiving criticism for her bill. “New Mexico needs to strengthen its laws to deter sex offenders. By adding this law in New Mexico, we can help to protect women across our state.” Brown said that this bill aims to deter rapists from committing crimes and then aiding in the abortion process to destroy the evidence.  (The evidence, huh? I thought fetuses were "babiez with beating hearts and promising futurez." Does anyone else find it strange that a proponent of such a measure would have the balls to call babiez evidence? Sounds like a liberal fetus-hating thing to say to me.)

Calm down! If it was a legitimate rape, the baby
wouldn't even exist! The only thing this evidence
proves  is that no rape occurred at all!

Why, then, is it the victim of the rape the one who is charged with a crime? Why haven't I heard these women called victims of a crime even once while reading about this proposal? The right's tendency to categorize women who are raped as sluts is nothing new. Keeping a baby full term as "evidence" is just another way to place the onus on the victim of a crime to prove her own victimhood. We call women who have been raped "alleged victims" who "were probably wearing short skirts" and were "asking for it, anyway." Now, according to this bill in New Mexico, it should also be the victim's responsibility to carry her rapist's baby to full term as evidence of her assault. Holy bologna. 

Republicans are proponents of privatization, right? I say, let's start with our lady parts and see how that goes. We will talk about Social Security another time.