In Favor of Feminism: Share Your Views

The following statistics are from 2015. Only recently has Texas voted to update their sex ed policies (after 23 years) which go into effect next year; however, abstinence is still heavily favored and sex ed will still not be a school requirement.

illimae, I so agree when you say: “Unfortunately, so many issues are intertwined that it's nearly impossible to educate simple facts without people jumping in to stop it.“

It is difficult to even have a conversation on the topic of abortion it is so taboo. If you say you are pro-choice, another will accuse you of being “pro-abortion." A twisting of words that confuses the issue. There is a lot of nuance on this topic, but for many, there is no room for discussion. I don't think I've ever had a person in real life ask me where I stand on the issue, or even bring it up at all, other than several women I know who had one.

Wow. I had no idea what role religion played in other countries, so that’s a fascinating chart.

From my perspective, society conditions women to feel guilty if they want “more” out of life than just being a mother. If a woman makes the choice to abort a fetus due to financial hardship, society claims she is selfish, greedy, inhuman. Of course, men are permitted to charge full speed ahead to get whatever it is out of life that they want. Women are not to be demanding. Women must sacrifice for the good of their unborn or they are not womanly enough. So there is this box that women must fit their lives into in order to be accepted. There is no room for any thinking outside the box or it is considered abnormal. Conform. No need to think for yourself. The men will do that for you!

One answer to the abortion issue is free contraception. Yet we have states that do not want to teach students about it, much less distribute it without cost. To me, some of the debate centers around society's hang up with women's sexuality. Why, if birth control was free, all these women might go around fucking for fun! And a lot of people believe a woman should only copulate with the intent to get pregnant and have a baby. Like it’s a chore. Women are expected to look sexy and appealing, but that is for the benefit of the male gaze. Men have always been given a pass to "sow their wild oats". Society does not want women to indulge.

Link to end the backlog website: https://www.endthebacklog.org/

Excerpt from site:

Though experts estimate that there are hundreds of thousands of untested kits in police and crime lab storage facilities throughout the country, there is no comprehensive, national data on the nature and scope of the rape kit backlog. Few state governments and no federal agencies track this data. Across cities and counties, there are vast differences in the way law enforcement officials track and report rape kit data, if at all, making it exceedingly difficult to compare data and to have a national picture of the backlog.

Excerpt from commentary by Mariska Hargitay, founder of endthebacklog website:

As Polly Poskin, executive director of the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault, has said, "If you've got stacks of physical evidence of a crime, and you're not doing everything you can with the evidence, then you must be making a decision that this isn't a very serious crime." Beyond the obvious threat to public safety, beyond the wasted opportunities to both prosecute the guilty and exonerate the wrongly convicted, the backlog sends a devastating and inexcusable message to survivors: y byYou don't matter. What happened to you doesn't matter.

I have read that the rape victim may be informed about the emergency contraceptive pill but it is not handed out. It would be up to the victim to access it, Some hospitals with religious affiliation as well as pharmacists have been known to refuse to give the pill. I do not have any first hand or even indirect experience (like knowing someone who is went through this), this is what I’ve gleaned through articles and reports I’ve read. It’s estimated that between 17,000-32,000 people become pregnant through rape each year in the U.S. Texas. What a tragic statistic! Gov. Abbott said rape is against the law and he will eliminate it. I’m assuming he means in his own state, not quite sure how he plans to tackle such a huge issue. Or why he waited until an abortion law was passed before addressing the matter. The additional tragedy is anywhere from 70,000 to 100,000 rapes against women occur in the U.S. a year. That makes my heart ache. It’s an epidemic.

illimae, my state of Ohio has its own issues, but I still love it for many reasons, and you probably feel the same about Texas, and I just wanted you to know my comments on its governor and its laws aren’t personal towards you.