Repeal Heterosexual Marriage Rights!! - Democratic Underground

Madspirit

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Tue Feb-27-07 11:14 PM
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Repeal Heterosexual Marriage Rights!!

Edited on Tue Feb-27-07 11:16 PM by Madspirit

Because of the below facts, I support repeal of the right for heterosexuals to marry: (This post has a point...<g>

Prevalence of Domestic Violence:

. The number one cause of death for pregnant women is murder by their baby’s father.

• Estimates range from 960,000 incidents of violence against a current or former spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend per year to three million women who are physically abused by their husband or boyfriend per year.

• Around the world, at least one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused during her lifetime.

• Nearly one-third of American women (31 percent) report being physically or sexually abused by a husband or boyfriend at some point in their lives, according to a 1998 Commonwealth Fund survey.

• Nearly 25 percent of American women report being raped and/or physically assaulted by a current or former spouse, cohabiting partner, or date at some time in their lifetime, according to the National Violence Against Women Survey, conducted from November 1995 to May 1996.

• Thirty percent of Americans say they know a woman who has been physically abused by her husband or boyfriend in the past year.

• In the year 2001, more than half a million American women (588,490 women) were victims of nonfatal violence committed by an intimate partner.

• Intimate partner violence is primarily a crime against women. In 2001, women accounted for 85 percent of the victims of intimate partner violence (588,490 total) and men accounted for approximately 15 percent of the victims (103,220 total).

• While women are less likely than men to be victims of violent crimes overall, women are five to eight times more likely than men to be victimized by an intimate partner.

• In 2001, intimate partner violence made up 20 percent of violent crime against women. The same year, intimate partners committed three percent of all violent crime against men.

• Women of all races are about equally vulnerable to violence by an intimate.

• Male violence against women does much more damage than female violence against men; women are much more likely to be injured than men.

• The most rapid growth in domestic relations caseloads is occurring in domestic violence filings.

Between 1993 and 1995, 18 of 32 states with three year filing figures reported an increase of 20 percent or more.

• Women are seven to 14 times more likely than men to report suffering severe physical assaults from an intimate partner.

• The health-related costs of rape, physical assault, stalking, and homicide by intimate partners exceed five point eight billion dollars each year (CDC study).

Domestic Homicides:
• On average, more than three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends in this country every day. In 2000, 1,247 women were killed by an intimate partner. The same year, 440 men were killed by an intimate partner.

• Women are much more likely than men to be killed by an intimate partner. In 2000, intimate partner homicides accounted for 33.5 percent of the murders of women and less than four percent of the murders of men.