How can you document real life when real life's getting more like fiction each day?

I talk a lot about being a crisis worker.  Why shouldn't I?  It's a core part of who I am.  So I am going to include that in this blog post because, well, that's who I am.  I don't know anything different.  I am really creeped out, y'all.  I really am.  Since when did being an advocate's worst nightmare become a key platform of one of our two political parties?  I'm pretty sure you can guess which one!

So in a recent twist of events, Mr. Mourdock, who is the Indiana GOP candidate for the Senate, said, "even when life begins with that horrible situation of rape, that's something that G-d intended to happen."  Honestly, just when I thought the bar for being a Republican candidate for anything was set pretty low, this dude comes along and makes it subterranean!  Does he really believe that G-d wants rape to happen?  I really wonder if he knows anyone who has ever faced the reality of sexual assault or abuse.  Considering that 1 in 3 women and 1 in 5 men have been victimized by sexual abuse according to the FBI uniform crime reports, he probably does.  We all do.  I wonder, if he knew anyone who had been pregnant because of rape, what would he say to them?

On second thought, maybe I don't want to know.  I do wish I could say that this man is an aberration, but sadly, he's just the tip of a big, ugly, right-wing iceberg.  You've got former GOP Presidential candidate Ron Paul prefacing a comment with something like, "Well, if it's the victim of an honest rape..." (as though most women would lie about it, which they do NOT).  You've got our current veep nominee, Paul Ryan, as not only one of the representatives who voted for the gutted House version of VAWA but also one of the co-sponsors who sought to redefine rape!  You heard me right.  In HR 3, or the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act," they actually wanted to redefine rape to "forcible rape."  In the same year that the FBI finally updated its definitions of the crime, no less!  Then, you've got Representative Todd Akin in Missouri, blathering about "legitimate rape."  Hell, here in my home state of Illinois, marital rape was not even considered a crime until 1996.  Now, dear readers, how many of you were born before 1996?  I'm willing to bet that the majority of you were born during a time when it was legal for a man to rape his wife!  The only reason why that changed was because, after the Violence Against Women Act got passed in 1994, marital rape was criminalized, and the states all had to amend their laws to treat it as such.  Oh, and did I mention that the Violence Against Women Act has still not been re-authorized?  It's normally been a bipartisan bill, but some congress members seem to think that denying LGBT and immigrant women protections is more important than preventing rape and domestic violence.  Can you guess which party most of them belong to?  

I am really horrified by this, as both a crisis advocate and a pro-choice activist.  Who do these men think they are?  Don't they know that women can take care of themselves, including their own reproductive health decisions?  And don't they know that those women's decisions have no bearing on their lives?  Why can't they leave us alone?  And do they know just how damaging their statements are to those who have, in fact, been raped?  Like I mentioned, it's a very common crime.  As a woman whose life has been impacted by sexual assault, I know that rape takes all the power and control and choices away from its victims.  Now, by restricting women's choices, these men are also taking women's power and control of their own lives away from women.  How stupid do these men think we are?  If they really want us to vote for them, why do they say things and wish to enact policies that are just so damaging to us?  (And by the way, do they know that men also can be the victims of rape or supporting those who have been victimized?  How do they think a male survivor of child abuse would interpret a line about "forcible rape"?  Their statements are damaging to everyone.)

The election is less than two weeks away.  No matter what state we are in or what party we espouse, we really can't afford to have politicians like that, who think that our own lives and rights are up for debate.  Because in the end, these are not just abstract issues like "when life begins" or something like that.  These are health issues that affect living, breathing, sentient women.  We don't need our reproductive rights to be debated--we just need those rights, period!   I really, really wonder, though, what these men would say if someone they know disclosed they'd been sexually assaulted.  Would they tell them "it's just what God intended"?  (And re-traumatize them more?  Yikes.)  I hope not.

My title for this blog post is from one of my favorite musicals, "Rent."  Mark the filmmaker sings it.  Though "Rent" was written before this time, I'm really starting to feel like the current political climate is feeling more and more like a certain work of fiction.  Namely, Margaret Atwood's dystopia, The Handmaid's Tale.  If that makes me an unwoman, hell, sign me up.  I'm sure I'll make some like-minded friends in the colonies.