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Maybe now they'll believe us.

Submitted by Daniella on February 1, 2007 - 10:16pm.
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Bad news comes in threes every time.

A fond farewell to our dear Molly Ivins, calling 'em out and putting 'em down every time.

I'm sure you've all heard about the young woman who survived a rape and then was jailed without being given her second dose of EC. Her rape took place in the middle of the afternoon at a popular and widely-regarded as dangerous street festival near Tampa, Florida. She is 21, pre-med, and had the forethought to go straight to police to make her report. Later after most of her assault treatment, police found out she had an open warrant for a juvenile charge. The investigation of her claim was abandoned, and the medical examiner at the jail where she was taken refused to allow her after-24-hours dose of EC. The examiner claimed it would be against her religion to do so.

And then the third and arguably slightly positive part of this stomach-churning trio. A woman was arrested in Kansas City, Missouri, in February 2006 for putting a fake temporary license plate in her car's back window. Why did she do it? She needed to drive to hospital because she was bleeding and concerned about her first trimester pregnancy. Police refused her pleas for health care for the rest of the day, and she miscarried in jail that night. Now she's suing the city police. I wonder how the anti-choicers will react to the Sudanese native's account; they'll be frozen in confusion over whether they love fetuses or hate immigrants more (forgive the vast generalization, I know the two can be mutually exclusive).

Can people still refuse to believe that this country has institutionalized hatred of women? Our police turn their backs on us; they refuse us the basic health care we need and are guaranteed. And our role models are dropping like flies; who will replace Betty and Coretta and Molly? Ladies, we have a lot of work ahead of us.

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That we do.

Submitted by Dylan on February 2, 2007 - 12:47am.

I heard about both of these cases, and after my initial thoughts of horror for the two women and their own personal traumatic experiences and losses, my next thought was to, how far in the past does this story seem? I can't believe that in today's society, the third generation of feminism, this is happening. Maybe we need to "go back" to the second wave and start the fight again. Historically, women have been gaining ground, each wave claiming fame for their achievement, but what will ours be? We do not want to be remembered as the feminists who stood by and watched this.

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My sentiments exactly

Submitted by Beppie on February 2, 2007 - 1:57am.

My sentiments exactly. Those stories are horrifying, and they show how institutionalised a lack of respect for women can be.

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They won't believe us.

Submitted by Irmelin on February 2, 2007 - 8:46am.

They won't believe us. They'll call these random incidents that don't point towards any general negativity towards women. You can cite a hundred of these incidents and they won't believe us. Hundreds of incidents ARE cited on the news each year and they don't pick up on it.

~Meddle not in the affairs of Dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

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While I always take the side of the victim-

Submitted by Julia on February 4, 2007 - 2:02am.

Both sides of the story should be reported, and the person who denied her EC is shocked by all the press that has come out saying that she denied the EC due to religious or moral reasons. She tells her story that she did not know if the EC was allowed, which does seem reasonable given that the administration of any drug in prison is strictly monitered. She maintains that it had nothing to do with religion or morals.

The fact that she was jailed so shortly after the rape is tragic- a person shot in a gang shooting stays in the hospital rather than shoved in jail. Rape should be treated exactly the same.

Love and hugs,
Julia

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I think that stories like

Submitted by Charlotta on February 4, 2007 - 11:50am.

I think that stories like this help me continue to refine my feminism. I've been reading a lot about our justice system lately, and how through its construction and practices women are treated differently, not due to their offenses, but because as women they have different needs, and those needs are not met in prison. I think that our penal system needs a strong feminist critique, indeed one that is explicitly feminist. I haven't been able to find one, unfortunately. Anyone have any suggestions?

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