Apparently not content with merely being against allowing rape victims to choose whether to terminate a pregnancy resulting from the rape, Sarah Palin, as mayor of Wasilla, forced rape victims to pay for their own rape kits.
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.
Let's put this into perspective. One of the services that almost every American (with the exception of a few hardcore Libertarians, I suppose) agree that our government should provide is policing and investigation into crime, especially of a violent nature. Rape, one of the most difficult to prosecute, disproportionately affects women--young women, in fact. If Palin wants to play fierce mother hen in her stump speeches, I suggest she explain how it is that she wouldn't do everything in her mayoral power to make sure that rapists be caught and prosected.
A couple recent polls have showed Palin gaining support among married women with children... I have to imagine that a lot of that support is going to evaporate when these folks learn about Palin's paleolithic politics.
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