A Second Supplemental Post on the GOP Culture War on Women - Bobby Franklin

Not at the federal level this time, in the state of Georgia, a Republican legislator is trying to change a different part of the definitions relating to rape.  No, he's not going after the term forcible; he's trying to remove the word victim from the term rape victim - and he's throwing in the crimes of domestic violence and stalking as bonus crimes for which you aren't a victim if the crime happens to you, you're an 'accuser'. If you're a victim of any other crime, you're still referred to as the crime victim. These are the only crime exceptions.

To amend Titles 16 and 17 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to criminal law and criminal procedure, respectively, so as to change the term "victim" to the term "accuser" in the context of a number of statutes making reference to circumstances where there has not yet been a criminal conviction; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

According to the Rape Abuse and Incest National Network, rape happens dramatically more often to women, by men.  By that statistic, this can fairly be described as far more anti-women than it is directed to male victims, because ONLY women (or the few men that this would include) can be considered victims AFTER a conviction. Per RAINN:

Sexual assault is one of the most under reported crimes, with 60% still being left unreported.1
Males are the least likely to report a sexual assault, though they make up about 10% of all victims.1

What happens to Rapists When They are Caught and Prosecuted?

60% of rapes/sexual assaults are not reported to the police, according to a statistical average of the past 5 years.2 Those rapists, of course, never spend a day in prison. Factoring in unreported rapes, only about 6% of rapists ever serve a day in jail.

To put this in a better perspective, here is the graphic, also from RAINN, of the significance of no conviction, no rape, no victim:

And as we have seen from the recently dropped (for now) attempts to redefine rape as only occurring when there is evidence of force - cuts, bruises, broken bones - if a woman is not a rape victim per one of these very rare court convictions............a woman is merely an accuser, but not raped (or stalked, or domestically abused).  Anyone else here make the connection that this is about, in part, changing our definitions because we allow abortions for RAPE, incest and to save the life of the mother, for third trimester abortions and for federal (and usually state) funding.

And Georgia, tragically, has some of the highest incidence of forcible rape in the country, ranking 11th in forcible rapes.  Which makes the actions of this male Republican representative even more heinous.



Georgia state Representative
Bobby Franklin

Shame on you, Mr. Franklin,  Georgia Rep. for Marietta District 43.  Shame on you for declaring a culture war on women.  You're not the only person who should be ashamed Rep. Franklin; all of those 174 Republicans and Tea Partiers who signed on to co-sponsor the recently dropped legislation from the House of Representatives in DC should be just as ashamed as you are.  Because if it is not true that Republicans and Tea Partiers are actively PRO-rape, they certainly aren't as ANTI-rape as they should be, or as PRO-women victims.

Anyone want to take bets on how long it is before one of those 174 Republican members of the House of Representatives tries this at the federal level? Or that Speaker John Boehner will fast track it ahead of any useful legislation that would create jobs or benefit the economy, or benefit anyone other than corporations or the wealthy top 1%?  No takers? No surprise.  No surprise -- but how about a little outrage?