Sunday blogging highlights

Not that much is happening in blog land that caught my attention. However, my trip through the virtual world of words and images landed two significant sources of information on current events. Which demonstrates that Bobby Somerby of the Daily Howler was too lazy (or Y chromosome challenged) to find out exactly how the Stupid Stupakistan Amendment to the House Men’s Health care bill will impact women. See:

Is it the Y chromosome?

published on Saturday 14 November at The Confluence.

First there is a blog which is a resource on the Stupid Stupak Amendment impact on women:

Why The Stupak Amendment Is A Monumental Setback For Abortion Access

One of the few exceptions that Stupid Stupak has listed in his misogynistic amendment is rape — violent rape. Well there is some current research about RAPIST — as in who these creeps really are. In the words of the author of this article called Meet the Predators:

The vast majority of the offenses are being committed by a relatively small group of men, somewhere between 4% and 8% of the population, who do it again … and again … and again. That just doesn’t square with the notion of innocent mistake. Further, since the repeaters are also responsible for a hugely disproportionate share of the intimate partner violence, child beating and child sexual abuse, the notion that these predators are somehow confused good guys does not square with the data. Most of the raping is done by guys who like to rape, and to abuse, assault and violate. If we could get the one-in-twelve or one-in-25 repeat rapists out of the population (that is a lot of men — perhaps six or twelve million men in the U.S. alone) or find a way to stop them from hurting others, most sexual assault, and a lot of intimate partner violence and child abuse, would go away. Really.

The author of the above quote reviews two major research studies in which two different groups of men respond to questions about the men’s sexual experiences. One group is from a college setting and the other is from Navy Enlisted men.

I have taken a look at two large-sample surverys of undetected rapists. One is Repeat Rape and Multiple Offending Among Undetected Rapists by David Lesak and Paul M. Miller, published in Violence and Victims, Vol 17, No. 1, 2002 (Lisak & Miller 2002). The other is Reports of Rape Reperpetration by Newly Enlisted Male Navy Personnel by Stephanie K. McWhorter, et al., published in Violence and Victims, Vol, 24, No. 2, 2009 (McWhorter 2009).

Since this happens to be where my academic training was consentrated — doing behavioral research and reading thousands of pages of academic journals — this author’s reporting of these studies seems accurate.

Now to tie these somewhat different blog subjects together in order to make sense of the culture we live in and the sort of biases that the religious right has tossed up to assult women’s right to control their own bodies.

The  paragraph which ties the subject matter of the two blogs above can be found in these key word quoted below from a paragraph from the blog Wonk Room :  “Plans in the Exchange can only cover abortions in the case of rape or incest. . .”

Why The Stupak Amendment Is A Monumental Setback For Abortion Access

1. It effectively bans coverage for most abortions from all public and private health plans in the Exchange: In addition to prohibiting direct government funding for abortion, it also prohibits public money from being spent on any plan that covers abortion even if paid for entirely with private premiums. Therefore, no plan that covers abortion services can operate in the Exchange unless its subscribers can afford to pay 100% of their premiums with no assistance from government “affordability credits.” As the vast majority of Americans in the Exchange will need to use some of these credits, it is highly unlikely any plan will want to offer abortion coverage (unless they decide to use it as a convenient proxy to discriminate against low- and moderate-income Americans who tend to have more health care needs and incur higher costs).

2. It includes only extremely narrow exceptions: Plans in the Exchange can only cover abortions in the case of rape or incest or “where a woman suffers from a physical disorder, physical injury, or physical illness that would, as certified by a physician, place the woman in danger of death.” Given insurance companies’ dexterity in denying claims, we can predict what they’ll do with that language. Cases that are excluded: where the health but not the life of the woman is threatened by the pregnancy, severe fetal abnormalities, mental illness or anguish that will lead to suicide or self-harm, and the numerous other reasons women need to have an abortion.

From the blog: Yes means Yes and the article titled: Meet the Predators — we better understand why most rapes go unreported. At present only 6% of rapists sever any jail time. So what chance would a rape victim have with the Stupid Stupak amendment? COAT HANGER TIME. If the Stupakistan misogynists in the House (and their female enablers) get away with this travesty they will be guilty of murder and enabling rapists.

Here’s the bottom line to the Stupack ammendment thanks to “Jessica Arons, Director of the Women’s Health and Rights Program at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.”

One in three women will have an abortion in their lifetime. Eighty-seven percent of employer plans offer abortion coverage. None of that will matter if the Senate takes its cues from the House. In every other way, this bill will expand access to health care. But for millions of women, they are about to lose coverage they currently have and often need.

The Wonk Room has so kindly provided a photo of Stupid Stupack, in case anyone is inclined to use the copy and paste function to print out his photo for use on a dart board. Just click the link for the complete article WITH Stupid Stupak’s photo to do with what you will — use your IMAGINATION!