Raped by My Stepfather: A Survivor of Illegal Abortion On Why Safe, Legal Abortion is Essential

[mfcorey1]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/10/26/1150951/-Raped-by-My-Stepfather-A-Survivor-of-Illegal-Abortion-On-Why-Safe-Legal-Abortion-is-Essential

snip


This week, Indiana GOP Senate candidate Richard Mourdock argued in a debate that women who have been raped should not have access to abortion services because their pregnancies are a "gift from god." As a survivor of childhood sexual violence, I disagree with him completely.


My name is Dawn Hill. Though I am old now, there was a time when I was young and carefree as you perhaps are now or can remember being in your childhood. Childhood should be a happy and carefree time for all our children, but my mother found her new husband, my stepfather, much more important. He forever took the joy away from my life when I was just 11 years old: He began molesting me and continued until he began raping me when I was 13.


Mr. Mourdock last night said: "I came to realize life is that gift from God, even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape. It is something that God intended to happen."


I became pregnant, contrary to the "scientific theories" of many modern Republicans. Not only was the experience loathsome and painful, it was also impossible for me to deal with or talk about because of the times: in the fifties, abortion was illegal. Illegal in the same way the Republican Party platform states it wants to make abortion now by constitutional amendment and just as Presidential candidate Mitt Romney has suggested casually he would "be delighted" to return to.


Please, take a moment to travel back to the fifties with me.


My mother took me to Mexico, where anyone could get an abortion for a price. I have blocked out many memories associated with this entire experience, but I remember the pain. Illegal abortions are not the simple safe vacuum procedure used today by legal abortion providers. Oh, no: They were a "dilatation and curettage."


This means that my cervix was mechanically opened by insertion of larger and larger metal "dilators" until it was opened enough to get a sort of sharpened spoon inside my 13-year-old uterus, while strangers looked at my exposed parts that were theretofore called "private."

[salin]

1. I am a survivor. This story is so much more horrendous than mine

My experience shaped more than a decade of my life (and like the author of this article, this PSTD can be overcome - with serious therapy.)

This story is so moving, it has to be read, shared, read and shared more. It isn't enough to rec. this story. Please type something (even if it is just a kick) in order to keep the story front and center, in the hopes that some of the readers of this thread will push the story into their own network of people. This story needs to be understood - and contemplated - in the light of Murdoch and other GOP "rape is ordained (implied) because regardless of the context of conception... life is sacred."

[mfcorey1]

18. My heart to your heart for your strength. nt

[NYFlip]

2. Kick

[2theleft]

3. Kick! n/t

[Tsiyu]

4. Kick

Something that continually astounds me:

Preachers in the US will scream and froth at the mouth over every perceived "evil,"
yet you will never hear a preacher, priest, pastor, reverend, minister, rabbi, imam,
( or whatever one's spiritual leader may be called ) even whisper about this topic.

And this is the ultimate evil that a vile, selfish, narcissistic sociopath can do to a child; it is soul killing for many children.

But not a peep from the "moral elite."

All those "Christian" lawmakers would like to protect the fruit of the woman's womb in utero , but I'll be good and goddamned if they'll protect the woman or that babe once delivered.

It's amazing, huh?

[mfcorey1]

10. And where are you on the idiot chain?

[LittlestStar]

6. She's lucky she had a mother who would take her to Mexico.

Really.

[Indpndnt]

11. We won't miss your filth, troll.

Get back to the droolers in the freeper cesspool. They miss you. We won't.

[Lars39]

14. I bet cost was a factor...cheaper in Mexico.

There will always be a need, whether legal or not, whatever country.

[LittlestStar]

16. Mexico has never allowed legal abortions. What planet are you from?

[Carolina]

20. The second part

your screen name is so appropriate.

Now crawl back to the cave from whence you sprang.

[WinkyDink]

22. "Just as easy"?? Vile.

[mstinamotorcity2]

23. You my friend are a

JACKASS!!!!!!!! You know nothing and it seems that you are of the wrong gender. Most women even pro life will not say something so stupid!!!!!!!!Back in the fifties which you were probably not a part of, women were doing whatever to get rid of those unwanted pregnancies. You dsc dumby reek of IGNORANCE!!!!! Got a problem???? I got solutions!!!!!Find yourself another Forum to spout ignorance!!!!!!!

[ohheckyeah]

7. Kick n/t

[ProfessionalLeftist]

8. KICK! n/t

[luv_mykatz]

12. Kicking.

[mfcorey1]

13. Trolls are out in force tonight. Desperation? I think so. LOL@them. nt

[Indpndnt]

15. They've got nothing else to do other than hunker down and wait for us to come get their guns.

And bibles. They lost their sanity long ago. Intelligence never entered into the picture. Obviously, common decency escaped them, too.

[niyad]

17. k and r

[cali]

19. this is heartbreaking but it buys into the repuke right wing meme

The reason that women should have access to safe abortions, to birth control, and other reproductive services is because women should have the right to make their own decisions about their bodies. Period.

[Carolina]

21. K&R

When I was a resident in OB-GYN a long time ago, one of my first deliveries is forever seared in my mind.

The girl was only 12 years old and the pregnancy was a result of molestation by her stepfather. She had had no prenatal care, was terrified and the baby was stillborn. After all was said and done, the nurses and I quietly spoke of how all of us were glad that the baby of this travesty did not not survive. Social services and psychiatry were called on this case so that the 12 year old victim could be removed from that awful home and get necessary couseling as well

There are many stories like this and not simply from the past, either. This continues to this day. And those who deny incest and rape and who would force a female to bear that child resulting from such MUST BE STOPPED!

[Sadiedog]

28. 12 years old!

Oh my God! This brought me to tears! I am so glad that something good came out of it. A child hurt like that makes me feel so crazy mad!

[GardeningGal]

24. Definitely needs to be read.

Hard to understand how some men can molest young girls and put them through this type of trauma.

[Odin2005]

25. !!!!!!!!!

[LiberalLoner]

26. K&R from another survivor. I'm lucky, I didn't get pregnant.

[kansasobama]

27. We just cannot allow this to happen

If government does not say anything, this is the beginning of a sad history.

We have to stop this now. We need a government that speaks up for women. We cannot have Romney...