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Planned Parenthood will begin running a new ad on Thursday hitting Sarah Palin on the fact that, as mayor of Wasilla AK, she charged rape victims for emergency-room rape exam kits.
The ad is slated to run in the St. Louis MO, Madison WI, and DC/Northern Virginia markets. The ad begins with a testimonial from Gretchen, a rape victim. "I just didn’t think it would happen to me," the young woman says. "I was drugged and raped." Then an announcer states: "Under Mayor Sarah Palin, women like Gretchen were forced to pay up to $1,200 for the emergency exams used to prosecute their attackers." Tying Palin's policy to those of her presidential running-mate, the announcer then ads: "In the Senate, John McCain voted against legislation to protect women from these same heartless policies." Finally, Gretchen returns: "That is something to me that’s unthinkable. It scares me to death" (see Huffington Post, MSNBC).
Wasilla police have claimed that their intent was not to charge rape victims for their exams, but to charge victims' insurance companies. This claim has yet to be substantiated, however, and provides no answer for what might happen in cases where the victim has no insurance. In any case, police departments have no more business charging rape victims or their insurance companies for rape exams than they have charging for any other type of criminal investigation: this is why we pay taxes.
With a rape rate 2.5 times the national average, Alaska has the worst record of any state in rape and murder of women by men.
American women and all Americans should know about Palin's history of opposing fair treatment for rape victims.
Mark C. Eades
http://www.mceades.com
