Debbie Wasserman Schultz: GOP Abortion Bill Is A 'Violent Act Against Women'

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) on Monday blasted a GOP-sponsored piece of legislation designed to slash abortion access, eliminate federal abortion funding in all forms, and potentially change the definition of rape, as "a violent act against women."

In an interview with Raw Story, Wasserman Schultz called the bill, which controversially includes language to change the instances of so-called "rape" in which women can receive abortions, "absolutely outrageous."

As HuffPost's Jason Linkins reported Monday:

What's off the table? Well, if you are a woman coerced, drugged or otherwise incapacitated by a rapist, too bad! Also, if you are a young child, statutory rape is off the table, too, unless incest is involved. (The incest exception lapses for adults, crazily.)

Wasserman Schultz, a staunch pro-choice advocate, told Raw Story that the potential result of the legislation was unconscionable:

"It really is -- to suggest that there is some kind of rape that would be okay to force a woman to carry the resulting pregnancy to term, and abandon the principle that has been long held, an exception that has been settled for 30 years, is to me a violent act against women in and of itself," Wasserman Schultz said.

Comments

[hempster]

04:44 PM on 02/04/2011

Want to see what DWS is talking about see Jon Stewart for 2/3/11

The show does a skit on: what constitutes "a rape" and what constitutes "a rapish"

[Doug Nelson Mackdougal]

04:27 PM on 02/04/2011

Did you rape your wife, Anthony? That's what this article and this bill is about. Rape.

[Michelle in CT]

09:24 PM on 02/04/2011

Glad to be your 1st fan, Doug. I had thus far successfully resisted the urge to go there...but it was percolating.

[anthonybrown]

12:46 PM on 02/04/2011

Just remember, hiring a doctor to scrape my living daughter out of my wife's uterus (she wanted a boy, not a girl!), it is no way, shape, or form, to quote the headline, "a violent act against women." Not in the least! I think it is more like a huggy-kissy act toward my daughter.

But that's just me.

[Michelle in CT]

01:16 PM on 02/04/2011

Nobody said it was "nice", Anthony, or one of life's better experiences. But for all your kvetching you've not said WHY said abortion took place. It's you & your wife's business, not mine- but stop trying to enforce your anti-choice views here. You've been at this post for at least 2 days, saying the same juvenile crap. And I would guess that not many women on Huffpo would want to have a baby with you, either. So either make a sensible point, or go find something better to do.

[Topo19]

07:42 PM on 02/04/2011

F&F'd, Michelle in CT.

[dragonladywaltham]

08:05 AM on 02/04/2011

One Democratic women taking a stand FOR women while the Republican "flash in the pan" examples self promote.

[p456]

08:00 AM on 02/04/2011

You are getting what you did or did not vote for America. If you went out and voted for the tea-party and the GOP and if you stayed home on November 2nd this is your fault. So if this passes you only have yourself to blame. The GOP is telling you that all of the women you know including your daughters, wives, mothers, grandmothers, aunt's, female cousins and friends can be abused at any time and they have no rights or say so over their own bodies. They love to talk about human right's while at the same time attempting to deny them. They want to take us back to the good old day's before women had any rights. But these are the people you chose to run our nations congress so I guess this is what you all wanted to happen.

[kapalabhati]

11:30 AM on 02/04/2011

You got that right.

Moreover, if you vote Republican in the next election, say goodbye to any chance of a Supreme Court sympathetic to women's or reproductive rights.

[hempster]

04:50 PM on 02/04/2011

Hey I successfully "Flagged" You. Slip of the click. Sorry, don't even know what "Flagged" means.

What you are saying about these people is: they are hypocrites and need to be reminded so.

2012's around the corner. Make it an Obama Landslide Vote.

[JAT3]

07:15 AM on 02/04/2011

Although seemingly no men on the Dems have come out with support publicly. I would believe that the bill would get no traction from them in votes anyway. But more support would be very nice.

On a further note to consider of just how bad this proposal is by the GOP is. If they have it their way and babies go to fullterm-birth...

-with their desire to repeal HC. what happen to those of poor, low income or those without any HC due to lost job or lowered wages? So no only do you have the poor that cant take care of themselves, they can't even take care of a baby!
-I dont see any adoption rates currently skyrocketing.
-in long term...what burden doesnt it carry on a mother to know the truth of how that child was conceived? what if a child want to know where they came from...or who the father is when at a age they want to know or look and the current Dad doesn't look like them? What about a child stigmation may face growing up amongst peers if they were to findout?

[ZKMC]

05:53 AM on 02/04/2011

Thank you Congresswoman! Now why aren't the men standing up against this?

[Herkybird]

01:30 AM on 02/04/2011

I am a man I love Debbie's ideals and I don't even live in Florida. You go girl!

[twoto2]

01:15 AM on 02/04/2011

I am a man and I can say with certain that only a man would try to "change the definition of rape".
And because rape has NOTHING to do with sex it seems that is all comes down to money. I take t hat back, it IS all about money. A new low even for the GOP.

[G52]

07:08 AM on 02/04/2011

Yep, pretty outrageous!

[dzadzey]

08:53 PM on 02/03/2011

The inherent misogyny of H.R.3 is undeniable. And it leaves one wondering just what is going in between Christopher Smith's (R-NJ4) ears.

[Skunkman]

08:08 PM on 02/03/2011

She gets my vote -- metaphorically speaking. It would be nice to see some male Dems come out strongly against it, too.

Good Night HP Posters

Mike

[SabeWhat]

06:43 PM on 02/03/2011

Fact: 191 abortions paid for under Medicaid in 2006 because the pregnancies were the result of rape or incest (or because the life or health of the mother were at risk) cost two-tenths of a penny per taxpayer.

191 is 191 too many so rape needs to be redefined. GOP now wants to only fund ‘forcible rapes’ which would exclude:
- Incest that was not forced (child did not object)
- Date rape that was not forced (drugged and did not object)
- Impregnated comatose patients (they cannot object)

This is where the GOP ultimately wants to be:
- All forms of birth control are eliminated except abstinence and “the rhythm method”
- Law: “All and any activity of the organ that falls below the male belly button is good and should have unbridled freedom”.
- The female uterus is the direct property of the male and thus must be governed by him - he must control his linage and this is the only way.
- Ban abortions 100%, period, no exceptions
- Law: Husbands cannot rape their wives
- Make 90% of the Pharmacists ProLife thus refusing to issue and or sell birth control. In rural America make 100% ProLife thus banning the products and or medication from distribution in the county/city and in some states banned in the entire state (Kansas comes to mind) .
- Abortion is Murder thus charge and try the Mother and Physician with murder receiving the penalty that exists on the books for

[zanzig]

07:38 AM on 02/04/2011

After reading your post I'd really like to know how much the Vatican is funding the GOP.

[Michelle in CT]

01:03 PM on 02/04/2011

Agreed...and Alan Grayson got criticized for comparing them to the Taliban- don't know why; the closest thing America has to Sharia law is the GOP.

[Betsy Meier]

06:13 PM on 02/03/2011

The three sponsors of the bill are all from the state I live in. In fact Lamborn is my Representative and just doesn't get it. In Colorado Springs there is no way that a Democrat can possibly get elected much less a moderate Republican. This bill was the ultimate disgrace to women. I signed a petiton asking the three to reconsider their stand. Today I read that they had. I'm sure that Bachmann would go along with this bill. She's just as bad as these three are in my opinion.

[heckmepitus]

05:24 PM on 02/03/2011

The argument is over when a woman can have her abortion paid for by the taxpayers. There is nothing which stops a woman from paying for her own abortion. Though I think this may go too far, it does not stop or prohibit abortion or a woman's right to have her attacker criminally prosecuted¬.

[TheIndependenceParty]

05:57 PM on 02/03/2011

No, ... I'm sorry, but for many women on Medicaid or children on SChip, the money may not be there to have an abortion after legal rape, ... not the GOTP definition that they attempted to push onto the American People, but the local STATE defined definition of rape.

Teabaggers and their Republican masters love to shout state's rights, ... until they want to create a new definition for a crime that is out of their control, or touches their religious sensibilities.

They can not have it both ways.

[zanzig]

07:40 AM on 02/04/2011

So you're ok with the explicit discrimination that will result against poor women, who can't afford abortions?

[cyclebear]

03:59 PM on 02/03/2011

Love this girl......Run for president...we need you after President Obama completes his 8 year run.

[Michelle in CT]

04:36 PM on 02/03/2011

Agreed. And I loooove your Aragorn photo, also.

[Old Cav Trooper]

06:17 PM on 02/03/2011

Except maybe we should call her a lady.....