Proposed New Mexico Bill Criminalizes Abortions From Rape Claiming 'Tampering With Evidence'

A Republican lawmaker in New Mexico introduced a bill on Wednesday that would legally require victims of rape to carry their pregnancies to term in order to use the fetus as evidence for a sexual assault trial.


House Bill 206, introduced by state Rep. Cathrynn Brown (R), would charge a rape victim who ended her pregnancy with a third-degree felony for "tampering with evidence."


“Tampering with evidence shall include procuring or facilitating an abortion, or compelling or coercing another to obtain an abortion, of a fetus that is the result of criminal sexual penetration or incest with the intent to destroy evidence of the crime," the bill says.


Third-degree felonies in New Mexico carry a sentence of up to three years in prison.


Pat Davis of ProgressNow New Mexico, a progressive nonprofit opposing the bill, called it "blatantly unconstitutional" on Thursday.

Full Article on Huff Post

TYT - Forcible Rape: New Mexico Considers Outrageous Policy

http://youtu.be/Iz6MLy8LIvc

NY Times - Indian Gang Rape Victim's Essay Goes Viral 29 Years After Publication - “I Fought For My Life...And Won”

THIRTY-TWO years ago, when I was 17 and living in Bombay, I was gang raped and nearly killed. Three years later, outraged at the silence and misconceptions around rape, I wrote a fiery essay under my own name describing my experience (warning PDF download) for an Indian women’s magazine. It created a stir in the women’s movement — and in my family — and then it quietly disappeared. Then, last week, I looked at my e-mail and there it was. As part of the outpouring of public rage after a young woman’s rape and death in Delhi, somebody posted the article online and it went viral. Since then, I have received a deluge of messages from people expressing their support.


It’s not exactly pleasant to be a symbol of rape. I’m not an expert, nor do I represent all victims of rape. All I can offer is that — unlike the young woman who died in December two weeks after being brutally gang raped, and so many others — my story didn’t end, and I can continue to tell it.

Full Article - NY Times

Violence Against Women Act Expires Without A Vote From Senate

After the "legitimate rape" statement and the gang rape widely publicized after an Ohio football team was targeted by hackers here in America also note the bus incident in India that afterwards started protests that ended in police violence, it's really hard to believe that the US government is not taking issues such as this seriously. Such a shame, especially seeing as how this will most likely get little to no mass media airplay.

Huffington Post
"The House leadership would not bring it up, just like they wouldn't bring up funding for Sandy [hurricane damage] last night," said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), a key backer of the Senate version of the bill, in an interview with HuffPost. "I think they are still so kowtowing to the extreme on the right that they're not even listening to the moderates, and particularly the women, in their caucus who are saying they support this."

Full Article

You can also check out a more personal first hand perspective over at Feministing.com's website.