Legal (And State-Sanctioned) Rape

Doonesbury has always been an excellent cartoon. Cartoonist Gary Trudeau realized long ago that he doesn't have to make up anything -- the politicians do plenty of things insane enough to keep him supplied with material forever. This week he's taking on the Republican requirement that any woman seeking an abortion in the state of Texas (and now Virginia, also) must be raped with a 10" vaginal ultrasound wand (even if she objects to the procedure).

Any individual who did that to a woman against her will would be convicted of rape and given a long (and well-deserved) prison sentence. It is no less a rape when it is ordered to be performed on a woman against her will by the state of Texas. Rape is still rape whether it is done by an individual, a group, an organization, or a governmental body. The human body is sacrosanct (whether male or female), and no invasive procedure should ever be done without the full and un-forced consent of the person whose body is being invaded.

There may be a few of you who say this can't be rape because it's not done for sexual gratification. If you believe that, then you're a moron. Rape is not now, and never has been, about sex. It is about power. And that is just what is being done by the state of Texas (and Virginia). The state, thanks to the Republican-controlled government, is trying to demonstrate its power to control a woman's body.

These are the same people who tried to deny equal rights to minorities until forced to grant them by federal law (and are still trying to do this -- just look at the Republican redistricting plan for Texas). These are the same people who deny equal rights to gays/lesbians by refusing to allow them to marry. And these people (Republicans) want to keep women in a second class status in America by denying them control over their own bodies.

They use (or rather misuse) their 1st century religion to justify their attempt to keep white men at the pinnacle of power in this country (in spite of the fact that in this secular country the Constitution is supposed to be the ultimate law -- and it says ALL people should have equal rights).This must stop!

Past efforts to impose their misogynistic beliefs were bad enough, but this latest action goes way too far. Rape, including state-sanctioned rape, is just wrong and can never be justified -- not even by religion, ANY religion.