Sarah Palin: A Woman Who Doesn't Like Women

Update: So I am behind the times: Huffington Post blogger Eric Schmeltzer has already posted about this. Check out what he wrote.

Update 2: CNN picks up the story.

A new ABC poll shows white women shifting twenty points towards McCain/Palin. Are white women charmed by Rudy Guiliani and Fred Thompson? Unlikely. They look at Sarah Palin and see a sister.

Women may love Sarah Palin, but she doesn't love them back. We already knew that she opposes abortion even in the case of rape (and incest), but now a more shocking development. What could be more shocking than the fact that Sarah Palin wants to impose her religious beliefs on rape victims and force them to bear their rapists' children? Or that she proudly said that if her own daughter was raped, she would force her to carry the fetus to term? If you were raped in Sarah Palin's Wasilla, you would have to pay for the cost of the rape kit. As Op-Edna explains,

A rape kit is a sexual assault forensic evidence kit, used to collect DNA that can be used in criminal proceedings to assist in the conviction of those who commit sex crimes. The kit is performed as soon as possible after a sexual assault or attack has been committed. It is usually humiliating and uncomfortable for the victim-imagine enduring that and then paying $1200 just so that the criminal who assaulted you might be caught.

While the Alaska State Troopers and most municipal police agencies have covered the cost of exams, which cost between $300 to $1,200 apiece, the Wasilla police department does charge the victims of sexual assault for the tests.

It was only under a Democratic Governor, Tony Knowles, that the state passed a law prohibiting local police departments from continuing this degrading practice.

Palin didn't hesitate to fire Wasilla's police chief for insufficient loyalty. Laura McGann notes that a judge ruled Palin was within her rights to terminate the police chief, as she did not require cause. That means that if Palin objected to the Wasilla Police Department's policy of treating the crime of rape as an inconvenience, she could have easily changed the policy or found a new police chief who would.

Palin found refusal to ban books, insufficient loyalty, and refusal to terminate an employee at odds with her family all valid reasons to fire municipal and state employees. But the tactless, insensitive, ugly practice of requiring a rape victim to pay for her own rape kit didn't warrant any action. It's a telling commentary on the hostility Sarah Palin has to women's issues, even as she benefits from female enthusiasm due to her historic nomination.

A final point. Alaska has very low taxes. No state sales tax, no state income tax. The state pays each resident out of something called The Permanent Fund. In 2007, if you lived in Alaska more than eleven months, you got paid $1,654.00. So it's not like the citizens of Alaska were so tapped out that asking rape victims to pay for their own rape kits was a tragic yet justifiable decision dictated by harsh economic realities. Nope. Turns out asking city residents for a few bucks to avoid further humiliating rape victims wasn't something that Sarah Palin was interested in.

Follow Bart Motes on Twitter: www.twitter.com/bmotes

Comments

[TCNYC]

Alaska has long had one of the highest incidences of rape of all of the states in this nation. Perhaps instead of waxing poetic about abortion rights or who should bear the cost of rape kits, Palin should be focusing on reducing the number of rapes that occur. That will surely reduce the need for discussions about abortion and rape kit costs. Wouldn't you say?

And perhaps there is an argument to be made that if "choices" were taken away from women who became pregnant in Alaska, as the result of rape, the suicide rate (also highest in Alaska) may also increase. But what do I know? After all, I'm just a woman.

http://www.humanitynews.net/index.php/main/more/news_article_alaskas_social_indicators_continue_to_decline/

[RobertZJohnson]

Bart, do you people understand this issue or not?!? Alaska had reform on this issue before Illinois. And when Illinois passed laws it was only for women who could not afford to pay.

And, North Carolina still charging victims.

Rather than complain about Alaska 8 yrs ago, complain about North Carolina today.

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/941202.html

[Bart Motes - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks for the question. I think I understand that Wasilla was one of the only towns in Alaska to charge rape victims for their rape kits. I think I understand that Sarah Palin spent public funds on redecorating her office but couldn't be bothered to spend to help rape victims avoid further humiliation. I think I understand that she fired one police chief because he refused to sign a loyalty oath, but hired another who didn't think that rape was a particularly serious crime.

Now what is that you don't understand?

[icmountainpeaks]

Palin and women
As mayor of Wasilla, Sara Palin charged victims of rape for the forensic testing and collection of evidence, rape kit. The troopers and most muni agencies covered the cost. Not the city of Wasilla, the police dept charged for the rape kit. Governor Tony Knowles an man put a stop to this in 2000. Sara appointed police Chief f Charlie Fannon he disagreed with the law. “The law will require the city and communities to come up with more funds to cover the costs of the forensic exams.” Knowles signs sexual assault bill frontiersman 5/23/2000
http://www.frontiersman.com/articles/2000/05/23/news.txt
Recently she replaced the police commissioner with Chuck Kopp. He has a prior work record of sexual harassment that he was reprimanded for. Sara is obviously for abstinence only education, No abortion even in the case of rape, and incest Alaska is 1 in the country for rape and incest.
While its great she went back to work 3 days after having her child, what message does that send to bonding families, healing mothers and employers not happy with maternity leave. Sara has signed up with a man who has consistently voted against equal pay for women. Is she really a woman or is she a man trapped in a woman body with lipstick

[ElizabethMN]

I heard this on MSNBC last night. I have also heard that Alaska has one of the highest rape/incest/suicide rates in the nation. There are a lot of mental health issues when you have sunf or 6 months and darkness for 6 months of the year.

In any event, I'll be interested in seeing this flushed out more. It's SO SHOCKING it is hard to believe, even as much as I despise every fiber of Sarah Palin's policy decisions and unethical behavior.

[Ridgemore]

Hillary may have paved way for Palin’s acceptance.
Does Exposure to Powerful Women Reduce Prejudice?
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/18230

[SunFresh]

Having had terrible self esteem as the only black girl in my elementary school, I thought a lot of absolutely ascanine things about white people. I used to think the they were so pristine that they never passed gas. Then I lived with a white girl my first year of college and was CLEARLY mistaken.

I think I've adopted a new assumption that white women need to prove false:

White women in never get raped or have abortions, nor do they have friends that have been raped or have had abortions.

[RoveRoveRoveYourBoat]

...I heard she shoots them from helicopters and offers a bounty for their right leg.

[omarkhyam1951]

This STICKS of political mudslinging. Why does this sound so much like a desparate attempt to distort facts at the last moment? Why was this not brought up when she was running for election as governor?

[OpEdna]

"Last moment?" She was tapped as the VP nominee less than two weeks ago. Ask John McCain about last minute, and why he didn't properly vett his candidate.

Or better yet, don't ask him, because people aren't allowed to question the Republican ticket this year.

[Karisma]

What Women in their right mind would vote for McCain with Sarah Palin on the ticket?

[musikate]

Ok, 2 things:
1) It was brought up when she ran for governer. The article in the Frontiersman http://www.frontiersman.com/articles/2000/05/23/news.txt is from 2000.
2) Just because it is amazingly anti-woman does not mean it is not true. You conservatives are going to have to rebut the FACTS, not just state how incredible they seem to you. Are you saying the article is false? Fine. Give us the evidence. Show us the laws on the Wasilla books. Get a statement from Palin's hand-picked police chief that the statement in the Frontiersman:

"Wasilla Police Chief Charlie Fannon does not agree with the new legislation, saying the law will require the city and communities to come up with more funds to cover the costs of the forensic exams.

'In the past weve charged the cost of exams to the victims insurance company when possible. I just dont want to see any more burden put on the taxpayer,' Fannon said."
...is not true. Then we will let the story go. Not until then!