Sarah Palin and Rape: I Say Vote for Your Vagina

In case anyone is still confused, more information has come out about Palin's anti-woman record. Even Republican women have to pause when they learn that when Sarah Palin was the mayor of Wasila, Texas she required women who had been raped to pay for their own rape kits in order for their rapes to be investigated.

I am not making this up!!!!!! It seems too horrid to be true but unfortunately it IS true! And no, its not an Alaskan tradition. Wasila was the only city in the state who did this.

What kind of a person asks the victims of a horrible crime of any kind to pay for their own investigation? What kind of woman subjects rape victims to further humiliation by asking them to come up with some cold hard cash for a painful and humiliating pelvic exam in the hopes that some evidence will be found? What was she thinking? Don't all women know that rape is always a threat? How many women don't have friends, sisters, mothers who have been raped? In a country where one in four women will be raped in her lifetime how did she manage to remain immune from compassion for the victims of sexual assault?

But, hey, it gets worse! She didn't stay a mayor! She became a governor and with all that power, did she do anything to protect rape victims? NO, but she had enough power to fire someone who did try to help rape victims. By her own account, her excuse for firing the man who refused to fire her trooper brother in law, was her anger about his intention to obtain federal funding for pursuing the most serious sex offenders, including violent child molesters. Thats right, she fired Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan for seeking to taking action against rape when she did told him not to.

According to the Huffington Post, Campaign officials claim to have fired Monegan because of insubordination and that "the last straw was a trip Monegan planned to Washington in July to seek federal money for investigating and prosecuting sexual assault cases."

Really? What exactly does she have against pursuing rapists?

Maybe, one might wonder, rape really isn't a big issue up in the hinterland? Maybe its too cold for women to get raped that far north? Maybe Palin was just prioritizing other issues more pressing in Alaska?

Think again. According to the FBI, Alaska has the highest rate of rape in the country. That's right, of all the states in the US, Alaska is the last place to go if you have a vagina. They have the HIGHEST RATE OF RAPE of all states.

And its not a new problem. According to the Alaska Family Violence Prevention Project, "since 1976, Alaska has ranked in the top five states in the nation for the highest rate of reported rape per capita." and " Alaska has 6 times the national average of reported child sexual assault." Sexual assault is even more of an issue in Alaska than anywhere else.

Palin may have a vagina but she won't protect yours. Or mine. Or my child's. Or anyone elses. Oh, and if you get raped in Palin's America, not only might you be required to pay for your own rape kit, but you will also be required to give birth to your rapist's child.