A Time for Change

There is a truly horrifying and extremely well written article from Alaska Reports on Sarah Palin and her “record” in Alaska.  The author states that Palin’s extreme pro-life views lead her to fire a qualified official who ran the police department and included rape kits with an emergency contraceptive in the Wasilla budget and to replace him with one who did not. If it is the contraceptive, and it must have been, the emergency contraceptive reduces the incidence of abortion in the case of rape, but that did not comport with her extreme views and regressive agenda.  Apparently the cost for the rape kit was passed on to the victim. Where does that happen?   That is just so disgusting on so many different levels.

That sort of cost cutting led a Democratic legislator who learned of the policy to draft a bill that was ultimately signed into law making it illegal for any law enforcement agency to bill a victim or a victim’s insurance company for the cost of examination to collect evidence of  sexual assault.  When signing the law, Governor Knowles said, “We would never bill the victim of a burglary for the cost of gathering evidence, nor should we bill rape victims just because the crime scene happens to be in their bodies.’ Unbelievably Palin’s police chief protested the law.  

I also had no idea that Alaska has the nation’s highest per capita rate for forcible rape.  According to the article, native Alaskans living in Anchorage were 9.7 times more likely to be sexually assaulted than others between 200o and 2003.   

Under Palin’s Administration, “Life Begins at Rape” for women unable to pay for their forensic evidence gathering. Justice is served to women who can afford it and denied for those who can’t. I live in Alaska-the wealthiest of the 50 states! Forcing rape victims to pay for their own forensic rape kits is something one would expect to find in a fundamentalist country overseas. I have outrage fatigue. I can’t decide which facet of this policy is more upsetting. Is it the denial of justice for the poor? Is it the punishment of women who had been raped? Is it the political policies of a woman so entrenched in the “Pro-Life” movement she would deny justice to a victim? This is not a “Pro-Life” policy. This is a “Pro-Rapist” policy, and forced pregnancy policy.

Instead of responding to what the author describes as an epidemic of rape in an appropriate way, the Palin administration enacted a law that it is illegal to sell the “Rapist No. 1 doll” from the Quentin Tarantino film “Grindhouse.” “So now if you’re raped, you can take comfort in knowing Alaska outlawed an action figure.”  I’d laugh, but because the situation is so sad and Palin so stupid, I just can’t.  

Great job Ms. Moore.  I wish more journalist had really investigated Palin’s policies in this manner. There wold have been 100 times the negative reaction than what she noticed had this come to light by the majority of American women.