Why Does Republican Senate Candidate Scott Brown Hate Rape Victims?

[Joanne98]

By Megan Carpentier, Air America
Posted on January 13, 2010, Printed on January 13, 2010
http://www.alternet.org/story/145133/

This first appeared on Air America Radio

Republican candidate Scott Brown, running to fill Ted Kennedy's Senate seat, has a problem with more than just Martha Coakley. As Coakley's new ad points out, he also has a problem with rape victims.

From Sarah Palin denying funds to reimburse hospitals for performing forensic rape examinations to the 30 Senate Republicans who voted against allowing rape victims their day in court, the new Republican party tough-on-crime platform is, apparently, that rape victims ought to have rights, as long as they don't interfere with the rights of people in Wasilla who prefer lower taxes, businesses or super-devout (and, possibly, Deuteronomy-loving) Christians or .

Scott Brown falls into, at a minimum, the latter camp. In 2005, he sponsored legislation to allow doctors and nurses to turn away rape victims from Massachusetts emergency rooms if they objected to providing rape victims with emergency contraception. He said:

“Through our conversations, I’ve heard, ‘what if somebody has a sincerely held religious conviction about dispensing the emergency contraception medication? What about their rights? How do we address those?’ ’’ Brown said on the Senate floor, according to a State House News Service transcript.

Brown added that a rape victim would be referred to another facility at no additional cost. “It’s not about the victim."

Brown, who probably has not been sexually assaulted, let alone driven by ambulance or police car to an emergency room only to be turned away by medical professionals who profess to value their religion over your physical health, thinks that laws governing the provision of government-funded services to victims of sexual assault aren't "about" the victim. It's about what makes the Christian medical professionals most comfortable. I am certain that a victim raped in Lee, Massachusetts who endures the 11 mile drive to the hospital in Great Barrington only to be turned away by a Christian emergency room nurse (who objects to emergency contraception she herself doesn't have to take) wouldn't mind at all then going to a hospital in Pittsfield (21 miles), Hudson, NY (27 miles) or Westfield (47 miles) in order to get the medical care she needs, as long as it's a free ride. There's nothing like a person who morally objects to your presence in her place of employment after you've been sexually assault to assist you in coping with your trauma.

Continued>>>>
http://www.alternet.org/reproductivejustice/145133/_why_does_republican_senate_candidate_scott_brown_hate_rape_victims

[NJmaverick]

1. He's a Republican, that pretty much answers the question

[fascisthunter]

2. because he's a sexist asshole who gets his rocks off of controlling and judging women

[PM Martin]

3. "Out of Site, Out of Mind?"

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/01/out_of_site_out_of_mind.php?ref=fpblg

[immoderate]

4. And that's when he's being nice...

--imm

[BayPatriot]

5. facts...

His intent (as he stated) is to make it so doctors, nurses, and hospitals aren't forced to go against their religious beliefs.

Is everyone here for the law forcing people to go against their religion?

To be honest, it has nothing to do w/ a rape victim. As horrible as that act is, it does not trump another's religious principles.

[wizstars]

7. Isn't compassion a religious principle , dickhead?

Go back to Freeperland where you belong.

[BayPatriot]

10. It certainly is...

what is more compassionate than protecting the innocent life?

[TrogL]

8. If your religious beliefs prevent you from doing your job

Don't apply for it.

[BayPatriot]

11. a doctor's job is saving lives, is it not?

[Stuckinthebush]

9. Those are some pretty f-ed up religious principles

Sorry. I'm sure if men could be impregnated against their will then abortion would never be debated. It would have been free and legal for centuries.

[BayPatriot]

12. a useless argument

as it will never happen.

but not that not 100% of women are pro-abortion...

[Stuckinthebush]

13. Indeed. Still a f-ed up religious principle

Just saying.

[seaglass65]

6. I wouldn't say Coakley loves pedophiles

I wouldn't go so far as to say Coakley loves pedophiles because I hate making extreme accusations that are clearly hyperbole, but she fought to keep a cop free for two years who raped an 18 month old with a curling iron. She fought to get Boston priest child rapist John Gagan off with a slap on the wrist. Three school age boys said they were abused and she gave him a year probation. The monster would not be convicted until 7 years later (he eventually was killed in prison).

[MdFriendofHillary]

14. It's all really back to health care and the public option.

If one views health care as a simple economic transaction -- willing buyer / willing seller -- it might even make sense. But the problem is that nothing at all about health care works in the strict Adam Smith economic model. A victim of any emergency trauma goes to a hospital facilitated by the state if not straight up subsidized by the state. They didn't "choose" to be a buyer and they have almost no bargaining power if they are even conscious. And that is generally recognized; in most states no emergency room has the right to deny care because of ability to pay.

So why would it be surprising or even out of the ordinary if the government mandated what services are available? Most of us would insist that emergency contraception to a rape victim be a standard treatment, required just like setting a broken bone would be required if a patient presented in the emergency room with that need.

But if private providers are in the "business" of selling selected services, then this makes sense in the same tortured way that private providers of "health care for profit" ever do make any sense.

But, of course, they don't.

So, until they have one, I'll keep marching for a Public Option.
Now!

-- Edward Kimmel
Takoma Park.
see: "Teabaggers can't handle a little dissent."

Good work, Joanne98.

[DemReadingDU]

15. the video was posted on DU last September by Joanne98

"Teabaggers can't handle a little dissent"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x370402

Welcome to DU
:hi: