Over the past 15 years, at least, Americans have had to listen to some of the most bizarre comments, and outright lies, from Republican men explaining why they have the right to dominate women and control their bodies and reproductive health. Texas Governor Greg Abbot did precisely what every religious Republican control freak has done for over a decade and delivered an over-the-top justification for signing a religious bill into law giving fanatical religious Americans control over Texas’ women’s bodies.
There has been quite a bit of outrage over Abbot’s rape remarks over the past couple of days, but unfortunately he hasn’t been asked the right follow-up questions that would compel him to reveal the real reason white Republican men have been on a crusade to control American women.
When the subject of Texas’ abortion ban came up regarding its draconian inclusion of no exceptions for rape and incest, Abbot opened himself up for a proper verbal assault. He insinuated that six weeks after being raped is more than enough time for a woman to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, and that he had a better solution; he would put an end to rape because “it’s a crime.” He said:
“Let’s make something very clear: Rape is a crime. And Texas will work tirelessly to make sure that 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.”
So, fair enough. Everyone knows rape is a crime. But if Abbot thought he could do anything to stop it as Texas governor, then what the Hell has he been doing for the past six years?
According to Statista, there were nearly 15,000 rapes in Texas in 2019 alone; the most of any state in the nation.
It is noteworthy that in 2019 Abbot had been governor for three years. Where was he and why didn’t he “eliminate all rapists from the streets of Texas” before nearly 15,000 women suffered violent sexual assaults in 2019. If stopping rape was as easy a task as Abbot pretends it is, why didn’t he get up off his lazy behind and stop it during his first month in office in 2015?
And while he was at it, why didn’t he pursue men guilty of incest or monsters guilty of date or statuatory rape? It is as obvious to anyone with a pulse that most rapists are not carousing the streets of Texas as it is that Abbot cares nothing about supporting a woman’s basic human right to control her own body.
Then there is the little issue of married men raping their wives, what is commonly known as “”spousal or partner rape.” Everyone knows it occurs more than most people want to admit. If stopping rape is such an easy task, Abbot has had six long years to bring marital rape to a screeching halt, but he hasn’t and the reason is perfectly clear: because he is not the least bit interested in stopping, much less preventing, rape of any kind,
Also, if Abbot was being sincere, and only a fool believes he knows how to be honest, then he would have spent a day or so of the past six years stopping evangelical preachers from sexually molesting (raping) young girls. Despite the Herculean effort to cover up the clergy’s sexual predation problems, there has been no small number of reports and convictions of Texas religious leaders raping young girls. If Abbot was a stand up guy and meant what he said no-one would ever again see reports of Texas pastors being brought to justice, after the fact, for rape.
Abbot doesn’t care about women or girls being raped, few of the white Republican men attempting to control American women do. He has made that abundantly clear over the past six years.
In fact, according to records there are approximately 2,000 unprocessed rape kits sitting idle right now. If Abbot cared about rapists being held accountable for their filthy crimes against humanity, he would have issued an executive order upon being sworn in as Texas governor to immediately get the rape kits processed, go hunt down the perpetrators, and try them for rape. But he didn’t because getting rid of rapists only entered his mind when he was confronted with the hideous truth about Texas’ ban on abortion.
House Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) made some news by dressing down Abbot for his so-called “ignorance” about a woman’s biological functions regarding reproduction; everything she said was honest-to-dog truth. However true her remarks, they missed the point of this entire issue.
Whether a woman discovers she is pregnant at six days, six weeks or six months, no man has the right to control whether she carries the fetus to full term – not her husband, not her preacher, not her daddy, not her brother and certainly not the misogynist sitting in the governor’s mansion. For dog’s sake, Abbot is in his mid-sixties so he at least has a rudimentary understanding about human reproduction. He damn sure knows it can be initiated by a violent sexual assault; something he claims is a crime but something he has done nothing about for six years; including sitting idly by while rape kits sit unprocessed.
If Abbot wasn’t a liar, he would man up, stand up, and tell women on national television that he believes they do not have the right to control their own bodies, much less their reproductive health. In Abbot’s worldview, those rights belong to religious Republican men and that is the secondary reason there is any kind of assault on a woman’s right to choose. The primary reason, of course, is that Republican men are first and foremost misogynist pigs.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn't look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
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