"When a mother’s life is in danger, I’m not going to make that decision. Incest is so rare, I mean, it’s so rare. But the rape thing…you know, I know a woman who was raped and kept her child, gave it up for adoption, she doesn’t regret it. In fact, she’s a big pro-life proponent. But on the rape thing, it’s like, how does putting more violence onto a woman’s body and taking the life of an innocent child that’s the consequence of this crime, how does that make it better? You know what I mean?"  John Koster, Republican running for Congress, in answering a question. 

First: even in America, having a baby is more dangerous than having a midterm abortion. Pregnancy is often a time that domestic violence begins or worsens. But being pregnant is always dangerous because you are trying to grow a second person inside you. And the baby could die, or get stuck, or cause you to bleed to death. Pregnancy is always an invasion of your body. Happy pregnant people like sharing their body for nine months. But I thought nine months was a long time to share my bladder and lung space. And suddenly mom’s needs are second to possible harm to fetus from prescriptions, any OTC pills, lunch meat, coffee, carousels, you name it. Nine months is a long time to live in pain: nausea, headache, backache, carpal tunnel, diabetes, bloody noses. Constant doctor’s visits. New wardrobe. Bigger shoes. And the grand finale: pushing a seven-pound baby out of a whole normally the size of a quarter.  Considering the obvious forced labor to the mother of bearing a child she did not want, I think the Supreme Court should have based the Constitutional right to a choice of bearing a pregnancy on the 13^th Amendment: Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Second: Incest is so rare? I hope that Koster knows more than me on incest being rare – sexual assault rates have been falling and maybe suddenly incest is rare? I will grant that many victims of incest are not old enough or the right gender to get pregnant, and we are only discussing pregnancies from incest.  Incest is not nearly rare enough! 

Third: “The Rape Thing.” Letting a rape victim chose an abortion is giving her back control of her body not "putting more violence on it." Any forced abortion would be horrible, and probably does happen in some domestic violence situations, but we are talking about giving the woman the choice. The "Rape Thing" can be physically painful but its major pain is the loss of control of your most intimate privacy. They need to be allowed to control their own bodies, and they might not want to have to prioritize the needs of a fetus for the next nine months while they recover. Women who survive rape need to be trusted to make their best choices for them.

And, like, Koster sounds like a Valley girl, you know what I mean?

Washington County Rape

Dear County Attorney Brock, Sheriff Dunbar and others at Washington
County Jail,

Thank you for being willing to talk about Martin Medrano and sexual
assaults in the Washington County Jail in a way that protects the
rights of the accused and balances the many competing interests.  I
want to thank the jail staff for taking Medrano to the hospital after
Medrano said that he was sexually assaulted by another inmate. I am
glad that Dunbar properly reported the sexual assault and Medrano was
taken to counseling despite the lack of physical evidence of the rape.
Often sexual assault does not leave physical evidence - especially
since after someone is raped sometimes the first thing they do is try
to scrub themselves clean.

I can understand that as law enforcement, Dunbar is looking for a
consistent story from a credible source. A Spanish-speaking, male,
undocumented immigrant who has committed crimes himself is not the
easiest victim to work with - would a jury ever believe him? No one
wants to think that horrific sexual assaults happen here in Iowa. Of
course, that also makes Medrano an excellent target for a rapist to
sexually assault and get away with it.

Unfortunately rape is such a traumatic experience that it is common
for survivors to struggle to remember and verbalize what happened.
Scientists explain that under intense trauma our brain works
differently and does not form our usual orderly memories with accurate
times and words. Science has also shown that survivors of sexual
assault sometimes crave alcohol because the brain's hormones are
trying to rebalance. Healing from sexual assault is often a long
process in which survivors sometimes feel better, and then suffer from
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms again later.

My concern, as well as Medrano's concern, is that rape victims should be
believed even when they have a hard time describing what happened.
Many rape victims never report because they are concerned that they
will not be believed,  and they know that they might be dragged
through the mud themselves. The accused rapist will claim it was
consensual activity, and that the victim is a liar. While it is
important to respect the accused as innocent until proven guilty, we
also need to remember that it is in all of our best interests if
rapists are brought to trial. That is why Congress created the u-visa
program, so that crimes can be successfully reported and prosecuted
even when the most vulnerable people are attacked. Statistically
rapists will continue assaulting people until they are caught and
stopped. Statistically, rape is much more often unreported than
falsely reported.

Sheriff Dunbar chose to not sign the u-visa and give Martin Medrano
five years of legal status in the United States.  I feel
that the rape prosecution is more important than Medrano's
undocumented entry and working. Without the U-visa, it seems likely that this
alleged rapist will never be confronted. Fortunately we live in a democracy
where we can contact our elected leaders and express our opinions, and
of course eventually vote for people whose values reflect our own.

Sincerely,
Miriam Timmer-Hackert
Coralville, IA
319-331-8416

I wish there was an easy way for me to attach the graph on reporting
statistics found at RAINN,
http://www.rainn.org/get-information/statistics/reporting-rates
The statistics are:
Out of every 100 rapes:
46 get reported to police.
12 lead to an arrest.
9 get prosecuted.
5 lead to a felony conviction.
3 rapists will spend even a day in prison.
The other 97 rapists walk free.

Justice Department, National Crime Victimization Survey: 2006-2010
FBI, Uniform Crime Reports: 2006-2010
National Center for Policy Analysis, Crime and Punishment in America, 1999
Department of Justice, Felony Defendents in Large Urban Counties:
average of 2002-2006