It's Government Rape !

Republicans are very good at talking about freedom and equality but they seldom live up to their words, especially when it comes to women. They have fought for years to keep women as second-class citizens -- citizens who shouldn't even have the right to control over their own bodies. Now the Texas legislature is about to cross a line that should never be crossed. In their religious zeal they are about to mandate a physical intrusion inside a woman's body in an effort to deny that woman a choice on whether to have an abortion or not.

It sounds innocuous enough the way male legislators tell it. The proposed law would mandate a sonogram be performed on any women seeking a legal abortion -- a sonogram that she would most likely be forced to witness. But it is much worse than that, because this is no ordinary sonogram. Here's what State Rep. Carol Alvarado says about the procedure, "This is a trans-vaginal probe. Colleagues, this is what we're talking about. It's a very intrusive process; this is not the jelly on the belly that many of you are thinking about. This is government intrusion at its best."

At the early stages at which legal abortions are done the "jelly on the belly" sonograms would not produce the images these male lawmakers desire. No, they want to mandate a probe be inserted into a woman's vagina -- an unwanted invasion of both body and privacy. Isn't sticking an unwanted thing, no matter what that thing is, into any orifice of a woman without her permission normally called rape? Is it any less a rape when mandated by the government?

Now some of you may be thinking that this is different because it's not sexual in nature. That's ridiculous. Rape is never about sex -- it's about control and power. And that's exactly what this law is about -- control and power over another person's body. This may be government sanctioned, but it is rape nonetheless. It is just a way to humiliate and control a woman.

As far as I'm concerned this is just more sick and perverted behavior by the right-wing fundamentalist Republicans -- and it crosses the line of common decency. As a Texan I'm ashamed that other Texans can even consider such a vile law.