3
2
2
By the very act of proposing a law that "penetrates the labia majora" the state legislators proposing the bill are, by current law, guilty of "Attempted " object sexual penetration." This is a Class 4 felony punishable by 5 to 20 years in prison and a $100,000 fine.
- 18.2-67.5. Attempted rape, forcible sodomy, object sexual penetration, aggravated sexual battery, and sexual battery.
A. An attempt to commit rape, forcible sodomy, or inanimate or animate
object sexual penetration shall be punishable as a Class 4 felony. Virginia Code
"Sanctioned Cruelty"
"History
is replete with reigns of terror during which powerful institutions
sanctioned atrocious behaviors. Consider the rape and plunder of
defeated populations during the Crusades of the Middle Ages, or the
execution of women during the Salem witch hunts in colonial America." FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, Feb 1992
The state sanctioned cruelty has already begun. Women who choose to have an abortion, for whatever reason, must now deal with the emotional turmoil of anticipating an object placed in their vagina for no purpose other than to satisfy the vulgar inclinations of the legislators who passed this bill. Women seeking to end a pregnancy arising out of trauma, e.g., rape, will be re-traumatized by the invasive procedure mandated by this bill,
The invasive procedure proposed by this bill, a clear violation of existing law, is intended to (a) discourage abortion and (b) punish and humiliate those who choose to have the procedure.
This Law is Not Unique
The mandatory invasion of a woman's body simply because she chooses to have an abortion is repellant and uncivilized. This law is not unique. Mark Adams pointed out that there are several processes sanctioned by the state for those in penal institutions. More than one million prison inmates have been raped, most anally, over the past twenty years. Juveniles have a high likelihood of raped within forty eight hours of placement in adult detention. Offensively invasive searches are routine. As Adams makes clear, the justice system is structured to allow all of this to go forward.
In the case of Virginia's law, there may be an opportunity to act. Existing law is clear. Actual and attempted "inanimate or animate object sexual penetration " [that] penetrates the labia majora" are crimes. The legislators either didn't know or didn't bother to reword the laws on "object sexual penetration." Their mere attempt to pass such a law is a crime. Any implementation of the law, starting with the first woman to seek an abortion, will compound the crime again and again.
It is difficult to fathom people who would even admit to fantasies similar to the events that this law creates. It is nearly impossible to imagine the type of people who would act in unison to make this the law -- one that will harass, humiliate, and traumatize women simply because they don't agree with those opposed to abortion.
END
This article may be reproduced with attribution of authorship and a link to this article.
1 | 2
