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“A dream you dream alone is only a dream; a dream you dream together is reality.” — Yoko Ono
“In my heart, I think a woman has two choices: either she’s a feminist or a masochist.” –Gloria Steinem
Jul
3
Sexual Abuse of Female Inmates in Oklahoma
Filed Under disability, misogyny, patriarchy, rape and sexual assault, sexual exploitation and harassment, violence against women and girls | Posted by Cara | Leave a Comment
Trigger Warning
There are some extremely horrifying allegations coming to of Oklahoma regarding the treatment of female inmates by male jailers. The allegations include sexual harassment, sexual assault, rape, and more:
Four former Delaware County jail female inmates have filed a civil lawsuit in Tulsa federal court accusing the sheriff of covering up such crimes as rape and sexual battery as well as blackmail attempts and death threats committed against them by jailers.
Those filing the suit Wednesday were Sherry England, Katrina Rogers, Cynthia Craig and Marie Watson.
Craig, 40, described in the lawsuit as “mentally disabled,” said then-reserve deputy Bill Sanders Sr. raped her several times in one day in a jail shower. Craig said she was afraid to scream because Sanders told her “he would send her down the river.” She said the deputy forced her to scrub her body while he watched.
. . .
England, 49, states in the lawsuit that jailers would “bargain” with female inmates. Inmates who exposed their breasts were given cigarettes, cupcakes, candy and personal items they could not obtain while they were in jail, England states.
England states that when she refused to show her breasts, she was shown “deliberate indifference to her medical needs.”
She states she is an epileptic who requires medication to prevent seizures. She states that she had five seizures during her 18 days in the jail.
There’s a lot more, and I recommend that you go read the entire article. Perhaps even more appalling than all of the allegations of abuse is the allegation that the sheriff rehired Sanders, the man responsible for a vast majority of the abuse mentioned in the lawsuit, despite his history of “sexual misconduct.”
Popularity: 1% [?]
Jul
2
Organization Pays Addicted Women to Undergo Permanent Sterilization
Filed Under anti-choice extremism, assholes, bigotry, class and economics, human rights, misogyny, patriarchy, pregnancy, reproductive justice, women’s health | Posted by Cara | 6 Comments
Cash for birth control may sound unusual, but it’s one woman’s crusade to stop drug addicts and alcoholics from giving birth.
Barbara Harris started “Project Prevention” after watching her four adopted children struggle with drug addiction at birth. Now teens, they’re helping spread her message across the United States.
Parked under a downtown Knoxville overpass Wednesday night sat a 30-foot RV with bold pictures on the outside of it.
The same people who drove it here passed out flyers and talked to anyone who would listen.
“My heart is for the children. These women have a choice, but children don’t,” Harris explains.
The organization pays women who are drug addicts or alcoholics a one time amount of $300 to get permanent birth control.
If they choose to get long-term birth control, $300 is paid out each year they use it.
Men can also get involved and get a one time amount of $300 for having a vasectomy.
Documented proof of a drug addiction or alcohol problem is mandatory to qualify.
What we’re looking at here is the exploitation of a vulnerable population of women. (While the program is open to men, less than 1% of those who have taken the deal have actually been men.) Because I don’t know about you, but I don’t know a whole lot of people who aren’t currently interested in permanent birth control who would suddenly become interested for a rather lousy $300. I can only imagine, in fact, that someone would take such a deal only if they were incredibly desperate for money (and not only because of addiction, but also because of unbearable living expenses, etc.).
And so when Harris dismisses the question of women using their $300 to buy drugs with “it’s their choice,” I really feel nothing but revulsion for her. When we’re talking about handing money to someone on the street, I agree with her — moralizing your decision to not give someone $5 as because they might spend it in ways you don’t like is pretty wrong. But taking something — something serious — from a person for a fairly small amount of money, knowing that they’re likely only doing it because they lack other options, and then doing it anyway? That’s an entirely different ballgame altogether.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Jun
29
Pregnancy As a Sign of Intimate Partner Abuse
Filed Under education and schools, pregnancy, rape and sexual assault, reproductive justice, violence against women and girls, women’s health | Posted by Cara | 8 Comments
There is a truly excellent article by Lynn Harris up right now at Alternet called When Partner Abuse Isn’t a Bruise But a Pregnant Belly. It’s about the way that intimate partner violence often takes the form of rape and other sexual coercion, and the dangerous implications of a failure to recognize as much.
I strongly recommend that you go and read it, because this is a major problem in our movements. So often, people supporting access to sex education and contraception also support measures to reduce intimate partner violence, and vice versa. But far too regularly, we also fail to tie those two movements together, and the connection is dangerously overlooked in many if not most pregnancy prevention efforts and intimate partner violence prevention efforts.
It’s a part of the reason why I so strongly feel and regularly advocate that anti-rape education needs to be a part of sexual health education. Of course, sexual violence is a sexual health issue. But from a strictly practical level, you can’t teach kids how to use condoms and expect that to be enough to prevent pregnancy and STDs on the whole. The current model, the way in which we teach teens (and adults!) how to use condoms and other contraception, almost always supposes that consensual sex makes up for all of the STDs and pregnancies they’re attempting to prevent. And it just plain doesn’t, as much as we wish it did.
And so we need to treat education about abuse — both proven programs that reduce the rates of abuse, but also lessons in how to identify and recognize abuse and to get help when it occurs — not as some kind of bonus aspect of sex education, or something to do if we can fit it in past the really important pregnancy prevention stuff. Rather, it’s necessary and integral part of sex education, just as much as condom use and the rest.
It’s something we need to address it in classrooms. And we also, as the article quite clearly proves, need to make sure to get the message out to doctors and nurses, as well. Otherwise, we’re only going to spend too much time poorly attempting to treat the symptoms of the problem rather than the problem itself. We’re going to keep on using tactics that in too many cases, just aren’t going to work.
Thanks to KaeLyn for the link.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Jun
26
Russian Trans Woman Murdered By Her Boyfriend
Filed Under Europe, International, LGBTQ, bigotry, misogyny, patriarchy, trans, transphobia and trans misogyny, violence against women and girls | Posted by Cara | 10 Comments
Trigger WarningVia Womanist Musings, I’ve just learned the devastating news that yet another trans woman has been murdered in an apparent hate crime. (Note: because of transphobia in the article, I am not quoting directly from it. Please read at your own discretion.)
The woman’s name was Kamilla; the only English language report I’ve been able to find does not give her last name. She had been living with a boyfriend of two years, named Vladimir. When Vladimir asked asked Kamilla to marry him, she declined. Apparently believing that she could not have possibly turned him down for her stated reason of not being ready to wed, he started going through her things, and found letters addressed to her former name. Upon further invasions of her privacy, he learned that she was trans.
Then he shot her dead.
Vladimir also slit his own wrists after murdering Kamilla. Of course he is still alive, and is now thankfully facing murder charges.
The circumstantial evidence quite clearly indicates that Vladimir murdered Kamilla because of transphobic and transmisogynistic hatred. And so, in fact, does the physical evidence. In his suicide note, Vladimir stated that he killed Kamilla because of her “betrayal.”
That’s right. Vladimir saw Kamilla being the person she was as a “betrayal” to him. And because the lives of trans individuals, and of just all women period, are seen as so expendable, he decided that the perceived “betrayal” was enough reason to take her life.
In other words, he saw his own cis gender identity as so much more valid than Kamilla’s gender identity that he decided she didn’t have the right to live. Instead of accepting her as the woman that she was, had always been, and had always presented herself as to him, or in fact instead of just walking away from the relationship, he decided to shoot her. When he learned that she was trans instead of cis, he didn’t only fail to continue seeing her as a woman. He failed to continue seeing her as human. And then in a supposed “last act,” he tried to pin his own actions on her.
I absolutely dread to see what the trial will be like. I imagine that the “trans panic” defense exists in Russia, too, and particularly judging from Vladimir’s note, it will almost certainly be used if he pleads not guilty. But I can only hope that the judicial system will recognize what Vladimir willfully ignored in his act of hatred: that Kamilla’s life, like all of our lives, had value and worth. And I hope that the most justice that can possibly be done will be done.
Rest in peace, Kamilla.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Jun
24
Strip Club Hires Kidnapped and Assaulted 14-Year-Old Girl, Then Sues Her
Filed Under courts, misogyny, patriarchy, rape and sexual assault, sex work, sexual exploitation and harassment, violence against women and girls | Posted by Cara | 10 Comments
This story comes straight out of the WTF files. A 14-year-old girl was allegedly kidnapped, sexually assaulted numerous times, and forced to perform at a strip club. Everyone involved agrees that the girl, who again is 14, did indeed perform there. There is absolutely no debate about that particular aspect at all, in fact. And yet, somehow the strip club is now suing the 14-year-old and her parents.
A strip club in Texas that hired a 14-year-old as an exotic dancer says it was swindled and is suing the seventh-grader and her parents.
The girl allegedly exposed her breasts while working at Cheetah Club in Corpus Christi, a violation of state law. Alan Yaffe, the club’s attorney, said the club didn’t know the girl was a minor and disputed the alleged sequence of events that led the teenager to work there in the first place.
“She came (into the club) with 6-inch stiletto heels and a miniskirt and looked just like a model from a Miss America’s contest,” Yaffe said.
Authorities say Leslie Campbell, 48, kidnapped the girl in San Antonio in March, took her to Corpus Christi and sexually assaulted her over the course of a week. He then allegedly gave her a false identification and forced her to strip at the club.
Yaffe called the story bogus, and the club is suing Campbell, the girl and her parents for unspecified damage in a lawsuit filed last week. It also wants a judge to declare that the club didn’t intend to hire a minor.
“There was no real kidnapping,” Yaffe told the San Antonio Express-News. “We’re the victims here, sir. My clients are the victims.”
The club and their lawyers, of course, are claiming that the girl looked “very mature” and so the club couldn’t possibly have known. Even state officials are refuting that claim by stating that the girl clearly looks to be her actual age. This, of course, is very likely true.
What seems to be missing though is the fact that even if she looked 25, it’s still the club’s responsibility to ensure that they do not have minors working in their clubs. When did “she looked older” become an excuse? (And when did “look at what she was wearing!” become the same as “she looked older”? Nice attempt at slut-shaming, though.) It’s not an excuse. Just like “I thought that we were following the fire safety code” and “it seemed like we paid our taxes” aren’t excuses either. Except, you know, this version involves an exploited child.
And then there are those exceedingly relevant charges of kidnapping, assault and forced work at the club. What’s most interesting of all is that Leslie Campbell, the man alleged to have kidnapped and assaulted the girl and forced her to work at the club, is also being sued. It would seem that if the club actually did have the grounds to sue anyone (and I don’t think they do — again, they’re the ones who illegally “hired” the girl), he would be the correct person. And yet, they also deny the sequence of events that led to the girl being hired by the club!
So, really, Cheetah Club, what is it? Did the girl seek “employment” at your establishment of her own free will, thus making her subject to your lawsuit, or did Campbell actually force her to work there, thus making him the one to blame? You can’t have it both ways.
Unless, of course, you think that a kidnapped, assaulted and essentially enslaved girl is actually to blame for her the crimes committed against her. Which is precisely what this whole thing reeked of from the very start.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Jun
19
64 Words for Aung San Suu Kyi
Filed Under International, action alert, feminism, human rights, violence against women and girls | Posted by Cara | 2 Comments
Aung San Suu Kyi is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and pro-democracy leader from Burma. She is also currently a political prisoner. For her political activities, she had been under house arrest for several years — until this May, when she was put into prison:
She is currently facing trial in Burma. She was on arrested on May 14th and is now being held in Insein Prison, a prison notorious for its terrible conditions and horrific treatment of prisoners. Aung San Suu Kyi is being tried for breaking the terms of her house arrest, which forbids visitors, after an American man, John Yettaw, swam across Inya Lake and refused to leave her house. Her trial began on 18th May.
Aung San Suu Kyi has committed no crime, she is the victim of crime, yet is currently facing a sentence of 3-5 years. The United Nations has ruled that Aung San Suu Kyi’s detention is illegal under international law, and also under Burmese law. The United Nations Security Council has also told the dictatorship that they must release Aung San Suu Kyi.
Political prisoners in Burma are routinely subjected to torture and often denied medical treatment. There are serious concerns for Aung San Suu Kyi’s health in these conditions, particularly as she has recently been seriously ill.
Today is Aung San Suu Kyi’s 64th birthday. To mark the day, her supporters are asking everyone who knows that her detention is wrong to write a 64 word message to and/or about her. You can submit your 64 words to their website. Mine are below:
Dear Aung San Suu Kyi: we have not forgotten you.You’re one of the bravest women this world has ever known. I hope for a day when your illegal, immoral detention will end. And I look to the day when your people will be free, and when the world will follow in their footsteps. It will come, even if it’s long after we’re gone.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Jun
18
The Advocate Misgenders Trans Woman
Filed Under LGBTQ, assholes, bigotry, discrimination, gender, media, trans, transphobia and trans misogyny | Posted by Cara | 11 Comments
It’s pretty well known that the Advocate, while billing itself as an LGBT news publication, doesn’t exactly give trans issues a whole lot of coverage at all. But taking a look at this latest move, one almost has to wonder whether silence is preferable.
A man and woman named Jason Stenson and Kimah Nelson got married in NY state. Why is it news? Because Kimah is also trans. Which means that outlets like the NY Post are reporting that the two have “duped” the state into certifying a “same-sex” marriage, and that the state is also claiming their marriage is not valid.
So how did the Advocate respond? By fighting back against the misgendering of Kimah Nelson and demanding better, more respectful reporting? By admonishing the state for their declaration that Kimah isn’t a woman? By just ignoring it entirely? Or, by perpetuating the misgendering themselves?
Sadly, if you guessed the last answer, you’d be correct.
Popularity: 6% [?]
Jun
17
UK Officials Assigned to Fight Rape Actually Promote Rape Myths
Filed Under Europe, International, assholes, courts, misogyny, patriarchy, rape and sexual assault, violence against women and girls | Posted by Cara | 9 Comments
It’s no big secret that the rape conviction rate in the UK is utterly and depressingly low. And that unfortunately is something that will not be fixed over night.
But, while I would never be so foolish as to become optimistic, I was indeed hopeful when I learned that the Home Office was working on a campaign to tackle violence against women and drive up rape conviction rates. Especially when I learned that prosecutors were going to start challenging rape myths in court, as a response to the Home Office survey.
Now, a Guardian article (h/t Gauntlet) gives us the disappointing and upsetting news that even that much was ill-founded.
We know that currently in nearly three-quarters of all reported rapes, the perpetrator is never charged and the case isn’t referred to the CPS. The reasons are numerous and have been debated in various arenas over the past few years. However, in a recent interview, Dave Gee, rape adviser to Acpo and the Home Office, admitted that Britain’s appalling conviction rates were often due to poor evidence-gathering and negative mindsets, which he said too often led to cases being “undermined rather than built up”.
Police forces across the UK and Wales have all been allocated “rape champions” to oversee the roll-out of their sexual violence action plans, to implement good practice guidelines and to tackle the “negative mindsets” within their forces. Along with specially trained officers, they have received sexual violence training and are part of the initiative that we have been assured will help to address the culture of disbelief that we know, from what women tell us, still exists. However, at the Home Office violence against women consultation in the east of England in May, a rape champion for one of the police forces in the east of England stated openly that “everyone knows most women and girls who report rape can’t be believed”.
It is truly concerning that rape champions, who oversee the training and work of the specially trained sexual offences officers in police forces, hold these views. It has long been acknowledged by Acpo that miscounting rape statistics – most specifically recording women’s withdrawal from the process as a false allegation – has not helped to change the police’s wrong assumptions that at least 25% of women reporting rape won’t be telling the truth, when in reality that figure is no more than for any other crime. If frontline officers are assuming that 25% of the women who come in to their stations to report rape “can’t be believed”, one wonders how this affects their response to all victims of this most serious of crimes.
First of all: how the hell does this guy still have his job? Can we get him fired, please? Preferably, yesterday?
Secondly, what kind of training are we really talking about if this is the view that those undergoing it walk away with? That “everybody knows” that women aren’t really raped, and are actually lying, vindictive whores? If this is the post-training attitude, I doubt that I even want to know what the attitude is pre-training. Though I suppose if, as suggested above, the general thought is that 25% of rape reports will be false, that’s actually an improvement over the rape champion’s assertion of most!
Popularity: 8% [?]
Jun
15
Man With Mental Disability Sentenced to 100 Years for Sexual Assault
Filed Under bigotry, courts, disability, discrimination, rape and sexual assault, stereotypes | Posted by Cara | 14 Comments
Recently, an 18-year-old man was convicted of sexually assaulting a six-year-old boy. Terrible story, surely, but one that is unfortunately not particularly unusual. That is, until you hear that the perpetrator has a mental disability. And that he received a 100 year sentence.
Attorneys and advocates are questioning why an 18-year-old East Texan with profound mental disabilities was sentenced to 100 years in prison in a child sex abuse case.
They say the case of Aaron Hart was mishandled from start to finish and raises questions over how to deal with the mentally disabled when they encounter the criminal justice system.
After a neighbor found Hart fondling her 6-year-old stepson in September, the East Texas teenager pleaded guilty to five counts, The Dallas Morning News reported Wednesday.
Hart has an IQ of 47 and was diagnosed as mentally disabled as a child. He never learned to read or write and speaks unsteadily. Despite being a target of bullies, he was courteous, well-behaved and earned money by doing chores for neighbors, supporters said. His parents say he’d never acted out sexually.
“He couldn’t understand the seriousness of what he did,” said his father, Robert Hart. “I never dreamed they would think about sending him to prison. When they said 100 years — it was terror, pure terror, to me.”
Aaron Hart pleaded guilty to charges including aggravated sexual assault and indecency by contact, and his case went to a jury for punishment. Jurors had the option of probation, former attorney Ben Massar told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
But during sentencing, Lamar County Judge Eric Clifford decided to stack the sentences against Hart after jurors settled on two five-year terms and three 30-year terms in February. At the time, Hart had already been on probation on a misdemeanor theft charge and had faced a misdemeanor charge of criminal mischief, Massar said.
This is going to require a big, deep breath on my part, because as I’m sure you all know, I’m not used to advocating lesser sentences for those who have committed acts of sexual violence. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever done it before in my life. But it’s exactly what I find myself needing to do right now, despite the fact that quite a few of you may strongly disagree.
And the reason I find myself having to do this is that I do not believe, not for a single solitary moment, that Aaron Hart was sentenced so harshly because of what he did. Every fiber of me believes that he was sentenced this way because of who he is — a person with a mental disability.
Popularity: 8% [?]
Jun
13
Police Arrest Rape Traffickers, Then Book Trafficked Women on Drug Charges
Filed Under assholes, bigotry, misogyny, patriarchy, rape and sexual assault, sex work, violence against women and girls | Posted by Cara | 8 Comments
A reader sent me this disgusting little story about a father and son who were running some sort of rape trade business together. The two men were roping women into working for them by saying they’d be providing massages, and then held the women captive so that they could sell the right to rape them — not “have sex with,” people, since we’re talking about women who had no choice in the matter — to other men. The two men were holding three different women captive; when they attempted to do the same to a fourth woman, she managed to call the police.
When detectives arrived at the motel, Charles, Timothy Lee and the three other women were not there. They later came to pick up the 20-year-old woman and were arrested by detectives, according to the statement. After the arrest, one of the women told police that she had been with Charles and Timothy Lee for the past few years and had not been allowed to leave.
Detectives said they believed Charles, Timothy and the three women had been in the Nashville area for the past few weeks.
In addition to the sex trafficking charges, Charles Lee was booked on charges of tampering with evidence, for purposely breaking a cellphone that was believed to be used in the business.
Horrible story, and probably an extreme example of how misogynistic attitudes are passed down from generation to generation. That said, I didn’t really have a whole lot to add by the way of analysis. Until I came across this little tidbit at the end of the article:
Charles, Timothy Lee and the three women were all booked for misdemeanor marijuana possession, the statement said. Both the men are being held on bail.
Seriously? These women have been held against their will for years and raped by god only knows how many men, and quite likely abused in other ways as well. Finally, it looks as though the worst part of their nightmare just might be coming to an end, when police decide to add insult to injury with a criminal charge on their record.
First of all, it seems to me exceedingly unlikely that when you’re being held captive so that men can buy the right to rape you, you have a choice in the matter of whether or not illegal substances are in your possession. And it strikes me as incredibly bizarre and offensive that anyone would see it otherwise.
Secondly, I ultimately don’t really care whether or not the women were in possession of marijuana by their own choice. Because even if somehow they were, this would still be wildly unacceptable. These women were victims of a severe crime. To use the investigation of said crime as an excuse to charge the victims with a crime, one that does no harm to anyone, is absolutely ludicrous. And it’s yet another example of police managing to take a situation that you’d think couldn’t get any more awful, and just making it that little bit worse.
It’s also not a one-off occurrence, either. Women who have been trafficked are in fact routinely booked on prostitution charges themselves. Sex workers who report a robbery, rape or other assault are also often booked on prostitution charges — being one of many reasons why most of these women don’t report. And if police can’t get them on the prostitution charges, they’ll often go for a different ridiculous charge such as this one. Just because they can. Just because they’re looking for an excuse to harm these women and their futures further. Because they don’t see these women as human and worthy of their protection.
No, there’s actually nothing about this that is unusual. But acting as though it’s therefore not worth speaking up about is part of what allows it to continue.
Thanks to Kymberly for the link.
Popularity: 8% [?]
Jun
12
UK Survey on Intimate Partner Violence in Trans Communities
Filed Under Europe, International, LGBTQ, action alert, rape and sexual assault, trans, transphobia and trans misogyny, violence against women and girls | Posted by Cara | 2 Comments
Spectrum London, a UK peer support group for trans people, recently put out this press release:
Domestic Violence and abuse is in the limelight more than ever before. The levels of abuse to heterosexual women are 1 in 4 – the same figure experienced by LGBT people.
“Domestic violence is still invisible in our communities,” says Rita Hirani, CEO of Broken Rainbow, funded by the Home Office to run the national LGBT domestic violence helpline.
“Limited research in terms of domestic violence and abuse amongst transgendered people suggests the figure may even be higher,” adds Denise Anderson from Spectrum London, a peer support forum for all trans people and those questioning their gender.
In previous research carried out by Brighton’s Spectrum LGBT Forums Count Me In Too project, along with Press For Change’s research in their Endangered Penalties report, it was shown that an alarming figure of 64% of Trans people had experienced Domestic Violence at some time.
“This is a large percentage of transgendered people, one that when presented to various organisations brings looks of surprise and alarm, because many have not encountered transgendered people contacting them for assistance,” says Denise.
I was well aware that the levels of intimate partner violence committed against trans women were quite significantly higher than those committed against cis women. But the fact that 64% of all trans people have been the victims of such violence is still incredibly shocking to me, and I’m sure to a lot of other cis people. And it damn well ought to serve as a wake up call. Especially to cis feminists, in light of our recent discussion regarding transphobic/transmisogynistic exclusion of trans women from many women’s shelters.
This is even truer when we know from experience that rates of reported abuse of any kind are almost always lower than actual instances, not the other way around. There’s a lot resting on the way that questions are posed — was “domestic violence” defined/was the term actually used or was violence falling under that category instead described/was sexual violence committed by an intimate partner explicitly included in survey/much more — and even with an incredibly thoughtfully worded survey, there’s still always some number of instances of survival denial.
So that’s at least two-thirds of UK trans people who have been the victims of intimate partner violence in their lives, and quite likely even more. And since they rarely are in other instances, I seriously doubt that the numbers are significantly lower in the U.S.
These extraordinarily high rates of violence are why Spectrum London is conducting their own survey:
With this in mind Spectrum London along with Broken Rainbow feel it is time to revisit this subject, consulting Transgendered people, investigating if these levels are more indicative of a wider audience nationally. The survey hopes to confirm previous research, and raise awareness to agencies and service providers of the issues surrounding domestic violence in the transgendered communities.
“With increased awareness of these issues to support organisations, we hope transgendered people will feel more comfortable to be able to report issues of a domestic violence nature, knowing support is available,” says Denise.
The Online survey can be found here:
http://www.questionpro.com/akira/TakeSurvey?id=1012451
The survey will be open from 1st June 2009 until the 1st September 2009. We will then collate the information and will be presenting the findings from early October.
All trans people in the UK are highly encouraged to participate, regardless of whether or not they themselves have experienced domestic violence. And to everyone reading this, don’t forget to spread the word.
Popularity: 8% [?]
Jun
11
Late Abortion Care Will Return to Kansas
Filed Under abortion, anti-choice extremism, pregnancy, reproductive justice, women’s health | Posted by Cara | 4 Comments
When I learned the other day that Dr. Tiller’s clinic Women’s Health Care Services would not reopen with new providers, I found the news extremely depressing and lamented the significantly reduced access to much-needed, and sometimes life-saving, abortion care.
Now, against the odds, it turns out that another brave abortion provider is stepping in to take Dr. Tiller’s place, and provide late abortions in Kansas (h/t):
A Nebraska doctor said Wednesday that he will perform third-term abortions in Kansas after the slaying of abortion provider George Tiller, but would not say whether he will open a new facility or offer the procedure at an existing practice.
Dr. LeRoy Carhart declined to discuss his plans in detail during a telephone interview with The Associated Press, but insisted “there will be a place in Kansas for the later second- and the medically indicated third-trimester patients very soon.”
“I just think that until everything is in place, it’s something that doesn’t need to be talked about” in detail, Carhart said a day after Tiller’s family announced his Wichita clinic was permanently shutting its doors.
Tiller’s clinic was one of the only facilities in the country that performed third-trimester abortions. Carhart has run his own clinic in Bellevue, Neb., since 1985, but had performed late-term abortions at Tiller’s clinic because of Nebraska’s more restrictive abortion laws.
Dr. Carhart was a long-term friend and colleague of Dr. Tiller, and had worked with him on past occasions. He had also previously been a part of plans to reopen Dr. Tiller’s clinic and provide services there along with two other doctors, before Dr. Tiller’s family ultimately decided that the facility would not reopen. Apparently determined to ensure that late abortions are still available in the state (which has significantly less restrictive late abortion laws than many others), he has now developed alternate plans. And I know that I, surely along with countless other advocates, am breathing a huge sigh of relief. The women and otherwise identifying people (some intersex and genderqueer individuals and trans men, for example) who will unfortunately need late abortion services have likely just been spared a lot of additional pain and/or health risk.
Dr. Carhart also has a long history as a reproductive rights hero. He has been an abortion provider since 1985, has long provided late abortions himself, and reports an increase in patients at his clinic since Dr. Tiller’s murder less than two weeks ago. And you may recognize his name from the infamous Gonzales v. Carhart Supreme Court case, which upheld the ban on so-called “partial birth” abortions. Dr. Carhart had challenged the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act on the basis that it provided no exception for a patient’s health. Though the case was lost at the highest level, it was a correct and absolutely necessary challenge. Now, he is stepping in to fill Dr. Tiller’s shoes, knowing full well the kind of terror that is almost certainly awaiting him, merely for his determination to provide a legal medical service.
So, thank you Dr. Carhart. I am beyond grateful for your strong commitment to reproductive health and rights. And I can only believe that Dr. Tiller would be extremely pleased.
Popularity: 8% [?]
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“Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less.” — Susan B. Anthony
