Lieberman supporting rapist rights in Connecticut

[tjwash]

U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, who often takes a conservative line on social issues, is facing a liberal Democratic primary challenge from wealthy Greenwich businessman Ned Lamont. But that hasn't stopped Lieberman from supporting the approach of the Catholic hospitals when it comes to contraceptives for rape victims.

Lieberman said he believes hospitals that refuse to give contraceptives to rape victims for "principled reasons" shouldn't be forced to do so. "In Connecticut, it shouldn't take more than a short ride to get to another hospital," he said.

Entire article at firedoglake

Can't say I'm surprised either. It goes along the same lines of refusing to dispense birth control on grounds of "moral principles", yet having no problem whatsoever of prescribing viagra.

[rpannier]

1. Nice.

Coming from the orthodox fundie. Glad he cares so much about women.

[dsc]

2. In what way is that supporting rapist rights?

[greyl]

6. Because male rapists rape to become fathers. /sarc

[Lerkfish]

12. I think its adding insult to injury to the rape victim

its making it that much more difficult for the victim.

[dsc]

15. It may well do that

which is certainly bad public policy, but that isn't supporting rapist's rights.

[Lerkfish]

22. I didn 't say it was...just to be clear.

[greyl]

38. So that's 3 of us that disagree with the OP title? nt

[Lerkfish]

41. yesm, I disagree with the title, but I do think this is VERY BAD in that

it revictimizes victims.

[tjwash]

14. As the Blue Crosses have been privatized...

...it's the Church that has been buying them up. The Nation did a story about this last year.

And all you want to do is complain about semantics?

If you have a problem with the way the article is worded, follow the link and take it up with them. I did the header word for word from the blog page.

[dsc]

16. It isn't semantics

it is dishonesty. Sorry, calling a person a supporter of rapist's rights isn't semantics. It is rank demogoguery. It is exactly what the right wing does to us when we support things like the exculsionary rule or oppose Bush's wire tapping. Lieberman may well be supporting bad public policy, I happen to think he is, but that is very different from supporting rapist's rights.

[salin]

28. While I understand your point... the stand does

take a stand for a rapists "parental rights" in the sense of preventing the victim the care that might prevent a preganancy (thus a state of "parenthood") from resulting from the rape. Certainly it is implied rather than overt, but putting the right of a *potential* fertilized egg, resulting from a rape simultaneously also supports the right to the father to have a child as a result of the rape. Agree with it or not, I think that is the logic being employed.

[dsc]

30. actually parenthood puts the rapist at a huge disadvantage

if for no other reason than the DNA the fetus contains. I would, with the exception of incest, find it hard to believe that any rapist would want the child to be born.

[salin]

34. sadly, we are still in an era

that tends to rule against rape victims - so thus the dna "evidence", unless the guy was caught with a mask on and a bloody knife, will often mean nothing per a rape case. This is only one example of types of violent assualts that our society currently seems to condone, by easily accepting very vague/flimsy beliefs of "she was complicit - and it was consensual - it is only after the fact regret driving her charges..."

[dsc]

36. sadly that is to a large extent true

but I still think it is a huge stretch.

[salin]

37. per direct intent, yes...

but per unintentional consequences, no. Unless all victims had easy access to other medical alternatives - the real result is forced pregancies, and thus an unintended consequence is the rapist as parent - with the parenthood (of the rapist and rape victim) rights superceding concerns for the rape victim being allowed treatment that makes the likelihood of said pregancy occuring as a result of the rape, much less.

[ecstatic]

43. Symbolism--The woman is raped a second time by the hospital

Like double teaming or something... It furthers the agenda of the original rapist, in my opinion.

[dsc]

55. No it doesn't

anything which might harm a woman after she has been raped doesn't necessarily help the rapist. To take one example, say a rapist stabs his victim who goes to the hospital and dies due to malpractice. The rapist is now on the hook for murder.

[LincolnMcGrath]

3. Can those rape victims feel the Joe-Mentum?

[MuseRider]

4. If he is ever raped

I hope he enjoys the short ride as much as he seems to think women should.

[tjwash]

7. Sorry pal, we don't do gunshot wounds here...

...crawl down the road a couple of miles to the urgent care will you?

[MuseRider]

9. LOL

I can't imagine anyone with so little compassion as to ask the victim of a violent crime like rape to go elsewhere and then to have him suggest that it isn't a problem? I just can't get over how little men in this country regard women.

For clarity....some men.

I am waiting for the spring burka line to come out soon. I hope they are those pretty blue ones.

[Canuckistanian]

5. Cut him some slack

He's going for the pro-rape female demographic.

[Generic Other]

8. People who refuse to believe Joe's a democrat for good reasons

shouldn't be forced to change their minds. That man has a hole in his head that's leaking shit.

[NoGOP]

10. This what irritates me about organized religion........

Religion should be in church for those who choose to participate. It should not be in medical care, pharmacies, education, adoption or government.

[Fleshdancer]

26. I agree 100%

welcome to DU NoGOP :hi:

[Disorientedx3]

48. No place in medicine for religious bias

On my more surly days.. I've always wanted to tell the patient who is inappropriately demanding Viagra.. "But it must be GOD'S WILL that your penis is flacid. God's will be done!" :sarcasm:

[AndyA]

11. Lieberman - vote him out!

Joe Lieberman: "In Connecticut, it shouldn't take more than a short ride to get to another hospital."

I have a feeling a lot of people will be taking a short ride to their polling place this Fall to vote your sorry ass out of office! What a POS!!

[CTLawGuy]

47. I grew up in CT

there is one hospital (thankfully not Catholic) 20 minutes away (in Middletown)from where I lived and I think the next closest one is another 20 minutes away in Hartford.

This is sad becuase CTs public transportation is terrible. If that one hospital in Middletown were Catholic, then if the victim had no car, she would be shit out of luck trying to get to Hartford.

[elehhhhna]

13. So your raped beat up gals can hoof over to the bus route

and mosey over to another hospital?

[Caoimhe]

17. That's disgusting

I wish his wife or daughter (if he has one) would bitchslap the little smurf.

[HockeyMom]

18. This really hits home with me

My best friend from childhood was raped in the hallway of her apartment building. She was 12 years old coming home from Catholic School dressed in her uniform.

My friend suffered from the effects of that rape for decades. She was fortunate that she didn't conceive (yes, she had her period at 12) and that she was taken to a non sectarian hospital which administered preventive medications (yes, even back then) against conceiving a rapist's baby.

HOW could any one FORCE A CHILD to bear a RAPIST'S CHILD? I cannot begin to tell you the psychological damage my friend suffered just trying to get her life back on track and even to be able to TRUST ANY MALE. Imagine if she had to spend 9 months incubating a rapist's baby?

[American Tragedy]

20. My God. Sounds like the stuff of nightmares.

Incidentally, it's not uncommon at all to have periods by the age of twelve. I did, as did many of my friends. I knew at least one who started menstruating at ten.

[HockeyMom]

21. Yes, I was 10

It is quite common in the Latina ethnicities.

[Caoimhe]

23. Many, MANY girls hit puberty before 12

I was 11. And they keep getting younger and younger. It's time for idiots like Joe Lieberman to stop trying to tell rape victims that they are less important than idealogues who chose the wrong profession.

[left of center]

31. It hits home for me too, because someone very close to me

was gang raped as a teenager by three young men. She was fortunate to not become pregnant. It has now been many years but she still has the occassional nightmare.

My instinctive reaction is to wish such brutality on not just the perpetrators, but also on the people who would deny a rape victim emergency contraception or abortion. I also think this way toward people tampering with other intimate aspects of our lives like whether we decide to end our own lives peacefully rather than succumb to prolonged pain and agony.

Who people love.
With whom people have sex.
How people procrate.
How people die.

Just who really are the ones playing God here?!

There I'm feeling better having said that.

[Ian David]

19. That's fine, under a couple conditions...

1) They forgo all taxpayer funding
2) They stop meddling in the right of other institutions to provide emergency contraception

We'll stop telling them they have to provide it, if they stop trying to tell us that we can't.

[left of center]

25. Well said!!!!!

[Lars39]

49. In some communities there might not *be* another hospital.

Catholic hospitals have been merging with community hospitals.

[left of center]

24. It is too bad he said that, because I've always liked Lieberman.

I did not support him when he ran for the presidential nomination. Even though I agreed with him a lot, he could have never won.

That said, if he really made that comment, then he is opening the door to a very cold and dark place, a place where a hospital could turn away the poor or uninsured because "it shouldn't take more than a short ride to get to another hospital".

[salin]

29. Over the years the Sen. has seemed to pander

more and more to "morals voters" and loss his sense of the implications of some of his stands. Instead he comes off as pandering. While he is FAR from positions of the far right folks such as Santorum who has indicated that he would be in favor of a ban against birth control - he increasingly comes off as a bit too supportive of those political factions with theocratic tendencies.

[Katherine Brengle]

27. F* Lieberman.

[Dinger]

32. "yet having no problem whatsoever of prescribing viagra." . . . Touche!

Mind if I use it in a LTTE in my local paper?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

33. But, he will protect rape victims from video games. A real humanitarian.

[Horse with no Name]

35. No problem Joe

:sarcasm:
But what if the woman is beaten and injured so badly that she is admitted to said hospital and they refuse to give her the contraception?
How the hell is she supposed to get it then?

[greyl]

39. I think your thread title is misleading and irresponsible.

Wouldn't it be much more accurate, honest, and politically effective to say that Lieberman is Denying Rights to Rape Victims?

[Coexist]

45. that is the FDL article title.

Not the OPs.

[greyl]

51. It was posted with pride and not questioned by the OP. nt

[Coexist]

54. maybe this is a little "Clear Skies Initiative" of our own.

[DanCa]

40. Joementum bought and paid for by Sean Hannity.

No wonder why Hannity loves pappa joe so much. He's a fracking dino.

[ecstatic]

42. SMMFH--What about the mental anguish of the woman?

The worst part of his statement was that "it shouldn't take more than a short ride to get to another hospital." What if she doesn't have transportation? What if she's feeling suicidal and depressed? Wouldn't the refusal of the Hospital to prescribe her BIRTH CONTROL add to that anguish? When /If Democrats ever come into power, we need a law that makes it MANDATORY for so called health professionals to learn what emergency contraception actually is.

[Coexist]

44. this is insane - great FDL quote:

"It is outrageous and yet quite predictable that Lieberman once again provides "bi-partisan" cover to this especially ugly brand of religious extremist bullshit. His cloture vote put Alito on the Supreme Court and paved the way for what is happening today in South Dakota, Mississippi and Missouri."

[pdxmom]

46. Joe has obviously become a compassionate conservative. n/t

[Donailin]

50. look. whenever you post this shit about Lieberman

can you PLEASE remember to add these links at the bottom of the post:

http://nedlamont.com/

and

http://actblue.com/list/netrootscandidates


complaining won't do shit, we have to get rid of Joementum.

[saracat]

52. I really despise Lieberman but OP title is misleading.

Lieberman is only doing what he usually does and that is defending the rights of religions to practice its faith. I may disagree but he isn't defending rapists!

[in_cog_ni_to]

53. That's IT! The man must go!

"Principled reasons?" BULLSHIT! That's saying any Catholic woman who takes a contraceptive isn't principled...is it not? grr: WTF? Who the hell does he think he is? I can't wait until Zell Lieberman leaves the Dem party. He's a waste.

[RubyDuby in GA]

56. In Connecticut, it shouldn't take more than a short ride to get to

the polls to get rid of this man!

[Nutmegger]

57. No, it shouldn't.

I will gladly take my ten minutes stroll and VOTE THIS MAN OUT!

Bu-Bye Joementum!:hi:

[RazzleDazzle]

58. Let's call it Rapist's FATHERHOOD rights, shall we?

It's more accurate and a lot more to the point. It's also less un-American sounding because I too believe in the Constitution and while I want to see EVERY rapist brought to justice (and few of them are), I want them to get every Constitutional right they're entitled to as citizens and residents of the U.S. Difficult to say that, but I must.

And so far at least, their FATHERHOOD rights over their victims' fetuses aren't Constitutionally protected.

[roguevalley]

59. I hope people don't make those posts about how Lieberman isn't

so bad. He is.