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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsExperts say Governor Abbott's rape comments perpetuate a dangerous stereotype about sexual violence
A Texas law went into effect this month that bans abortions at six weeks with no exceptions for rape and incest, making it one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country. When a reporter Tuesday asked Texas Gov. Greg Abbott how the law will impact rape and incest survivors, he said he intends to eliminate rape in his state.
Rape is a crime, and Texas will work tirelessly to make sure we eliminate all rapists from the streets of Texas by aggressively going out and arresting them and prosecuting them and getting them off the streets," he said Tuesday. "So goal No. 1 in the state of Texas is to eliminate rape so that no woman, no person, will be a victim of rape."
Sexual violence experts say Abbott's approach is fundamentally flawed. When leaders suggest it's possible to end sexual assault by capturing or containing all the rapists, they fail to comprehend the ubiquity of rape and the powerful cultural forces shaping a society that minimizes sexual violence, excuses perpetrators and blames victims.
Fear and shame prevent most rape survivors from reporting their assaults to police, which makes identifying perpetrators a challenge. And often those perpetrators are not lurking on "the streets" they're in women's homes and workplaces, in their doctors' offices and college dorms.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2021/09/10/texas-abortion-law-abbott-defends-dangerous-rape-comment/8262874002/
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Abbott isn't ignorant, he's just an a**hole
JT45242
(2,173 posts)hypocritical liar.
Jilly_in_VA
(9,852 posts)in another thread on the subject. What a fucjing hypocrite.
greymattermom
(5,751 posts)from all male Texans? Will they be required to give samples at birth? At puberty? He will need that to eliminate repeat rape.
JohnSJ
(91,937 posts)the republican party who have been raping the country since reagan.
Response to Jilly_in_VA (Original post)
Stuart G This message was self-deleted by its author.
halfulglas
(1,654 posts)When it was it was implied that it was some stranger following you or somebody jumping out of the bushes. Maybe somebody who broke into the home. The suggestion that somebody in your own family would or could rape was unheard of. The idea that "something bad could happen" on a date, it was pretty much implied that we were responsible for letting it get that far. But all these years later, apparently, that's still the official position in Texas. (Actually I know it's not just Texas but for the moment they are the most egregious.)
Jilly_in_VA
(9,852 posts)"Date rape? Whazzat?" Let alone marital rape, because there was no such thing until Greta Rideout came along and stood up for a lot of us (and why she's my hero).
LetMyPeopleVote
(143,998 posts)Greg is a racist idiot who is not very bright
Link to tweet
Abbott's rape quote is par for the course: 10 more stupid, offensive statements from Texas' governor
Posted By Sanford Nowlin on Thu, Sep 9, 2021 at 1:05 pm
Greg Abbott: Apparently, he's not just against rapists. Judging from his own words, he's not fond of immigrants, equal pay for women, LGBTQ people or reporters either. - INSTAGRAM / @GOVABBOTT
Instagram / @govabbott
Greg Abbott: Apparently, he's not just against rapists. Judging from his own words, he's not fond of immigrants, equal pay for women, LGBTQ people or reporters either.
Gov. Greg Abbott made national headlines this week when he tried to dismiss a reporter's question about Texas' new abortion ban making no exception for rape and incest by saying the state will "elminate all rapists from the streets."
Commentators and Democratic politicians ripped Abbott for avoiding the question, showing insensitivity to sexual assault victims and showing that he doesn't understand the first goddamn thing about rape.
But many Texans recognize that Abbott's ghoulish statement wasn't a one-time gaffe. The guy's political career has been full of similarly outrageous claims, often based on conspiracy theories, debunked lies and bigotry meant to pander to the state's far-right base.
Here are 10 statements Abbott has made since his days at Texas Attorney General that rival the callousness of his wrongheaded rape comment.
1. Oops, did I say that? In 2019, the day before a white-supremacist shooter at an El Paso Walmart carried out the deadliest attack on U.S. Latinos in recent memory, Abbotts gubernatorial campaign sent out a fundraising letter urging fellow Republicans to DEFEND TEXAS NOW from immigrants and take matters into our own hands. Although Abbott later said in Nixonesque fashion that "mistakes were made" with the mailer, the gov has since doubled down on rhetoric likening border crossings to an "invasion."
2. Democratic nuclear winter. In 2013, when North Korea announced Austin was one of its potential targets for a nuclear strike, then-attorney general Abbott said in a speech that Democrats posed an even greater existential threat to the state than an ICMB from the rogue nation. The threat that were getting is the threat from the Obama administration and his political machine, Abbott said.
3. Burning up the 'Pants on Fire' charts. During 2016, his second year as governor, Abbott had the dubious distinction of landing at No. 8 among that years most-clicked Texas Truth-O-Meter fact checks from the organization Politifact. His statement that "voter fraud is rampant" in Texas a charge utterly without merit then and now earned him a "Pants on Fire" rating, reserved for "incorrect and ridiculous" claims. The governor has since repeated that allegation as he championed Texas' new voter restriction law, which has widely been decried by civil rights groups.
4. Not the way to win over South Texas voters. During his stint as Texas AG, Abbott in 2014 rationalized a call for more law enforcement along the border by suggesting that South Texas communities were rife with "third-world" corruption. The creeping corruption resembles third-world country practices that erode the social fabric of our communities and destroy Texans trust and confidence in government, he said, drawing angry pushback from border lawmakers.
5. I'll take that sando with a side of homophobia, please. Hours after Chick-fil-A announced in 2019 that it would stop funding a pair of Christian groups criticized for being anti-LGBTQ, the governor tweeted a link to a news report on the decision and added, "I'm headed to Bill Miller's tonight," suggesting he'd prefer not to spend his cash at the chicken chain if it won't fund groups trafficking in bigotry.