By now you’ve all heard of the case of the Missouri Health Department forcing Planned Parenthood doctors to perform medically unnecessary pelvic exams on any woman exercising her legal right to an abortion. For anyone who doesn’t know, a pelvic exam is an invasive, horrible procedure, which is sometimes medically necessary, including on the day of a surgical abortion, which would easily constitute a “rape” when forced on an unwilling woman.
This is not the first time Republicans have tried such a law or rule requiring women to be medially raped if they choose to get an abortion, but it needs to be the last. Republicans in Virginia a few years ago tried to pass a similar law requiring a “transvaginal ultrasound”, having essentially the same affect, just with a piece of medical equipment instead of the doctor’s fingers. Public blowback killed that bill before it was passed.
In Missouri, however, the rule did come down from the Health Department and Planned Parenthood doctors were forced to essentially rape over 100 women before they simply refused to comply with the law any more and Republicans, again facing public blowback, eventually dropped it. But the damage is done and now somebody needs to pay for that.
Republicans now need to pay for the forced rapes of over 100 women, forcing doctors at Planned Parenthood to be unwilling participants in those rapes and forcing staff at Planned Parenthood to unwillingly facilitate and witness those rapes. I not only hope these women, the doctors and the staff all sue the hell out of the stated for the emotional trauma they were all put through, what I really hope is the criminal charges are brought against everyone involved in making this the law. You DO NOT get to punish people for doing something legal. You DO NOT get to say, “You want an abortion because you were raped? Well, you’re going to get raped again as the price of getting an abortion.” This was not only an egregious violation of the rights of these women, the doctors and the staff, it was criminal mandated rape and someone, especially Randall Williams, Director of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services who enacted the rule, and Gov. Mike Parson, who defended it as being “necessary”, needs to go to prison for this.
Let me put that plainly. If we do not SEND THE PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE TO PRISON, Republicans will do this again and again and again because, in their messed up little heads, it’s okay to force a woman to endure a medical rape for exercising her legal rights, and it’s okay to force doctors to medically rape women. Because that’s what it is when you require a doctor to perform a medically unnecessary, extremely invasive medical procedure involving sticking things inside of you. If there is no reason to perform the procedure then IT IS A RAPE! If people don’t go to prison for this it will continue to happen. We need to send a very clear message to Republicans. It’s okay to try to change the law, but it is NEVER okay to mandate the mass rape of women you disagree with!