Posted on 12/17/2014 12:21:02 PM PST by DoodleDawg
ST. LOUIS, Mo. (CBS ST. LOUIS) – A GOP lawmaker in Missouri introduced a bill that requires pregnant women to receive written consent from the father of the child before an abortion can be performed – or in exceptional cases of “legitimate rape.”
State Representative Rick Brattin, a Republican from outside Kansas City, filed the bill on Dec. 3 that proposes, “No abortion shall be performed or induced unless and until the father of the unborn child provides written, notarized consent to the abortion.”
Although Brattin’s bill leaves open “certain exceptions” to the bill, Mother Jones reports.
“Just like any rape, you have to report it, and you have to prove it,” Brattin told Mother Jones. “So you couldn’t just go and say, ‘Oh yeah, I was raped,’ and get an abortion. It has to be a legitimate rape.”
Brattin used an infamous phrase from former Rep. Todd Akin –who claimed women couldn’t get pregnant from a “legitimate rape” because “the female body has ways to try to shut the whole thing down.”
The negative backlash from Akin’s comments ultimately cost the Tea Party-backed candidate his chances at unseating incumbent Democrat Claire McCaskill in the state’s 2012 election.
But Brattin says he isn’t using the phrase in the same way as Akin did in 2012.
“I’m just saying if there was a legitimate rape, you’re going to make a police report, just as if you were robbed,” Brattin says.
“That’s just common sense.” Under his bill, he notes, “you have to take steps to show that you were raped…And I’d think you’d be able to prove that.”
The bill contains no language for defining what can be claimed as rape or incest exceptions at Missouri’s single abortion clinic in St. Louis. The state has the longest abortion waiting period in the country after a 2014 GOP bill required women seeking an abortion to wait 72 hours between the initial consultation and the actual procedure.
Brattin says that a vasectomy procedure he had himself is part of the inspiration for the bill.
“When a man goes in for that procedure—at least in the state of Missouri—you have to have a consent form from your spouse in order to have that procedure done,” he told MoJo. “Here I was getting a normal procedure that has nothing to do with another human being’s life, and I needed to get a signed form…But on ending a life, you don’t. I think that’s pretty twisted.”
On the whole I'm not keen on the idea of a woman having to get permission from a husband or boyfriend on what she can do with her body, but this is abortion and the ending of a human life so I accept that the father should have at least a say in the matter, and maybe even a veto if he's willing to take custody. But then Brattin goes down the whole "legitimate rape" rathole and gets downright insulting. "That’s just common sense...you have to take steps to show that you were raped…And I’d think you’d be able to prove that.” Excuse me? The victim has to prove she was victimized? Does she have to track down her attacker as well? Provide name and proof to the police? Do their job for them? Wait until he's convicted before anything can be done? Otherwise she hasn't been "legitimately" raped?
And people wonder how the Democrats can make this whole "war on women" stuff stick as well as they do.
I haven’t read it so no comments on the bill. Hope they make the ‘dad’ pay for the procedure also.
Seems fine to me. If they don’t have to provide any evidence to support their story, then any women will just say “I was raped” to avoid the rigamarole, and the law would be toothless. A police report does not seem too much to ask.
He should have avoided that toxic phrase though.
It is better to keep the children, and abort the rapists.
The woman could also just say she isn’t sure who the father is. Are they going to require numerous signatures from the possible fathers?
I agree with the intent of this bill.
Unfortunately women call all the shots when it comes to DENYING men their reproductive rights.
Only a woman has the unilateral right to decide if a man will or will not be a father if she conceives with him. Only a woman has the unilateral right to decide if that man can be a “dad” or if he has to pay the state child support payments for 18 years.
As a notary, I wouldn’t want any part of this.
I would think, in that situation, she couldn’t get the abortion. If the father has rights in the matter, those rights do not disappear simply because the mother can’t name the father.
More troubling is the fact that she could just name anyone as the father, and there is no easy way to verify it without doing a prenatal DNA test. So it seems like it would be tricky to enforce any law like this.
End the murder of infants.
And what evidence would you like?
I'm not disagreeing but that's not what the bill calls for.
“And what evidence would you like?”
It doesn’t matter what I would like, as I am not a legislator. In the story, the man proposing the law talks about a police report meeting his requirements.
I imagine you'd be too smart to qualify for the Missouri legislature.
In the story, the man proposing the law talks about a police report meeting his requirements.
No, actually he doesn't. His exact words are, "Just like any rape, you have to report it, and you have to prove it..." Police report alone isn't enough.
I read his statements to denote that he considers the police report itself to be sufficient evidence:
“I’m just saying if there was a legitimate rape, you’re going to make a police report, just as if you were robbed,” Brattin says.
“That’s just common sense.” Under his bill, he notes, “you have to take steps to show that you were raped…And I’d think you’d be able to prove that.”
Yes, I’m aware of that, but thank you for pointing out the distinction between the article, and what I posted.
Like he said, you have to prove you were raped. You have to show you were raped. Where does a simple police report do either? I imagine his expectation is that unless the woman can prove she was "legitimately" raped then what's to stop her from filing rape charges Monday morning, getting the abortion Monday afternoon, and then dropping the charges Monday evening?
Regardless, the man is coming off as a complete moron in trying to explain this...and it would not surprise me at all if that impression is the actual truth.
That’s not how I read his comments. I think he is simply saying that a police report would be sufficient evidence, to him, to satisfy the statute he wants to propose.
He might well be a moron though. He certainly could have framed the argument a lot better.
What the holy he*l is “legitimate” rape?
Documented rape, maybe - but “legitimate”?
The world is more illiterate by the day.
But again that's not what he's saying.
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