As Salon has previously reported, the antiabortion amendments in the budget block funding for rape crisis centers that refer women to abortion service providers, impose mandatory ultrasounds on women seeking abortions, and, because of a provision blocking transfer agreements between abortion clinics and hospitals, could shutter four of the state's 12 abortion service providers.

The move was quickly denounced by state Democrats and reproductive rights advocates.

Continue Reading...

More from McCaskill's response in the Daily Beast:

Continue Reading...

As has been well documented on Salon and elsewhere, Hoinsky's "seduction guide" offers dubious and sexually predatory advice that many feminist writers (hi) have denounced for encouraging sexual assault and violence against women. But as one Redditor pointed out on Tuesday, the advice threads that didn't make it into Hoinsky's book proposal are far more troubling than those that did, as this archived "field report" from Hoinsky shows:

Continue Reading...

In a reveal that will surprise precisely no one, Hoinsky is very concerned by accusations that his book promotes sexual violence. "When someone accuses me of encouraging violence against women, or says something like, 'somebody is going to use this guide to rape a woman,' those are not allegations that I take lightly," he says. "In the intention of anything that I've written, there is nothing that encourages violence against women, that's absurd; I would never ever do that, that goes against every value that I have."

Continue Reading...

The father of a Norwood student says that after a wrestling tournament last year, three of his then 13-year-old son's teammates "bound him with duct tape and sodomized him with a pencil" on an empty school bus. The attack came to light when the victim's father heard one of the perpetrators bragging about it to his dad afterward. But that was just the start of the family's nightmare. The boy's father was the school's principal. Two of his attackers? The coach's sons.

Continue Reading...

After excerpts of Reddit threads in which Hoinsky instructs men to forcefully touch and otherwise pressure women into having sex began circulating on the Internet, people outraged by the book's premise began to call on Kickstarter to cancel the project.

But Kickstarter allowed it to proceed, calling the guide "abhorrent" but not in violation of "our current guidelines." The campaign exceeded its fundraising goal by 800 percent.

While Kickstarter admits it "missed the window" to cancel the project, it apologized for allowing a book that promotes sexual assault to be funded on its website and vowed to change policies to ensure it doesn't happen again:

Continue Reading...

Serena Williams has issued an apology for her "Rolling Stone" remark blaming the 16-year-old victim in the Steubenville rape case for getting sexually assaulted by Trent Mays and Ma'lik Richmond because of who she hung out with that night, what she had to drink and her alleged sexual history. In the statement, Williams distances herself from the remark ("what I supposedly said") and explains that she is "deeply sorry" for "what was written" in the article.

The statement in full:

What happened in Steubenville was a real shock for me. I was deeply saddened. For someone to be raped, and at only sixteen, is such a horrible tragedy! For both families involved – that of the rape victim and of the accused. I am currently reaching out to the girl’s family to let her know that I am deeply sorry for what was written in the Rolling Stone article. What was written – what I supposedly said – is insensitive and hurtful, and I by no means would say or insinuate that she was at all to blame.

I have fought all of my career for women’s equality, women’s equal rights, respect in their fields – anything I could do to support women I have done. My prayers and support always goes out to the rape victim. In this case, most especially, to an innocent sixteen year old child.

Continue Reading...

Let's examine his process, shall we?

Step 1: Frame an effort to curb rampant sexual assault in the military as a "war on men" 

If you thought that Sen. Claire McCaskill's, D-Mo., objections to the nomination of Lt. Gen. Susan Helms to vice commander of the Air Force Space Command were about Helms' decision to overturn -- against the advice of legal counsel -- the conviction of a captain twice accused of sexually assaulting women he served with, then you would be wrong, says Taranto.

Continue Reading...

He described the season as "not my cup of tea" and compared the viewing experience to “flipping through Instagram just watching your girlfriend blow everyone” and seeing a friend “Like” a photo of your ex-girlfriend with her new boyfriend on Facebook. But Harmon's rant went into the distinctively unfunny territory when he made a rape joke, saying: "There's something awesome about having all of those preconceived notions ripped away from you. It's exciting. There's something exciting about being held down and watching your family get raped on a beach. It's liberating. It makes you focus on what's important."

Harmon has since apologized to "Community" fans, the season 4 cast and crew -- but not before former "Community" writer Megan Ganz responded to Harmon's rape comment:

Continue Reading...

Alleged perpetrators Marvin Buhle and Michael Haas appeared in court on Sunday, and have each been charged with criminal sexual abuse and attempted criminal sexual assault.

According to Assistant State Attorney Bridget O’Brien, the alleged victim  and her boyfriend were visiting from out of town and found themselves at the same party as Buhle and Haas on Friday:

Haas and Buhle were at a party early Friday morning at a home on the 3900 block of West 109th Street in the Mount Greenwood neighborhood. The victim and her boyfriend were visiting from out of town and didn't know Haas or Buhle. The woman had too much to drink and her boyfriend took her upstairs to lie down in a bedroom. He stayed with her for a while then left the bedroom door open and went back to the party. Haas and Buhle allegedly told the other guests they were leaving and went upstairs. Later, the victim's boyfriend went to check on his girlfriend and found Haas standing in front of the now-closed bedroom door. The boyfriend opened the door and allegedly saw Buhle in a "push-up stance" on top of the victim. Buhle's pants were down and the previously clothed victim was naked from the waist down. The boyfriend screamed and Buhle tried to flee, but he was caught and detained until police arrived and arrested him in the early morning hours Friday.

Continue Reading...

"NARAL, Planned Parenthood and the taxpayer-funded abortion lobby is attacking me for one reason -- I'm 100 percent unapologetically pro-life and I won't back down," Franks wrote to supporters in an email, the Arizona Republic reports. "Will you contribute $25, $50, $100, or even $500 right now to help me fight back?"

“Now they will spend whatever it takes to destroy me, remove me from Congress, and stop me from protecting any more unborn children," he continued.

Franks was referring to comments he made during a House Judiciary Committee debate on his bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks. Democrats were pushing an amendment to create an exception for rape or incest, which ultimately failed. “Before, when my friends on the left side of the aisle here tried to make rape and incest the subject — because, you know, the incidence of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low,” Franks said, the Washington Post reported.

Continue Reading...

Franks made the comments in a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, during the debate on his bill to ban abortion after 20 weeks at the national level. Franks was voicing his objections to an amendment that would create an exception for rape or incest. “Before, when my friends on the left side of the aisle here tried to make rape and incest the subject — because, you know, the incidence of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low,” he said.

The Huffington Post reports:

Continue Reading...

“I think that he’s a moron and he proves that stupid has no specific political affiliation,” Gomez told ABC News.

“I have no idea what goes into the mind of a moron like that,” he continued. “These kinds of comments only come from a moron and they shouldn’t be tolerated one bit.”

Continue Reading...

“Before, when my friends on the left side of the aisle here tried to make rape and incest the subject — because, you know, the incidence of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low,” Franks said, according to the Washington Post. He continued: “But when you make that exception, there’s usually a requirement to report the rape within 48 hours. And in this case that’s impossible because this is in the sixth month of gestation. And that’s what completely negates and vitiates the purpose for such an amendment.”

Continue Reading...

Military sexual assault presents a terrible conundrum for an elected Republican. One has to agree that rape is bad, especially after what happened to Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock. One has to concede that we should work toward the safety of our service members. And mostly, Republicans in Congress managed this incredible feat, even while generally rejecting the remedy that advocates for service member survivors recommend, taking serious crimes out of the chain of command. But there were eruptions: Saxby Chambliss became instantly notorious (again) for blurting out, “Gee whiz, the hormone level created by nature sets in place the possibility for these types of things to occur.”

Continue Reading...

The teens are most often assaulted by staff members working at the facilities, and fully 20 percent of those victimized by the men and women charged with protecting and counseling them said they had been violated on more than 10 occasions.

Continue Reading...

The military leadership present on Tuesday seemed ill prepared for the senators' line of questioning, and resistant to many of their proposed reforms, as the New York Times reports:

Continue Reading...

As West pointed out in her piece "How to Make A Rape Joke," feminists have argued that rape jokes are never funny, while comics argue that anything can be funny in the right light -- though West's stance is that neither is quite true. In her piece, she wrote: "The world is full of terrible things, including rape, and it is okay to joke about them. But the best comics use their art to call bullshit on those terrible parts of life and make them better, not worse."

During the debate, she explained that comedians have a responsibility to handle jokes about offensive topics carefully. Referring to the Tosh incident, in which the comedian told a heckler that it would be funny is she was gang-raped "right now," West said:

Continue Reading...

"She woke up at the football house the next morning with little recall of what had occurred. She learned from friends and social media that three football players were claiming to have had sexual intercourse with her while she was incapacitated," Susan Burke, the woman's attorney, said in a statement. The woman reported the alleged assault but was pressured by members of the football team not to cooperate with the initial investigation, according to Burke. While no charges were filed after the initial investigation, the woman was disciplined for consuming alcohol.

In early 2013, the woman sought additional legal counsel and the Navy re-opened the case. "Over time, the midshipman [student] began to recover from the trauma, and became angered at the lack of justice and retaliation in her case," Burke said.

Continue Reading...

I am a 27-year-old female. I was sexually abused on several instances when I was very young (and raped on one of those occasions). I've otherwise had a stable upbringing and have fantastic parents, but I never received any help for the past abuses and kept everything to myself until last year when I began seeing a therapist after a series of stressful events. As you can imagine, growing up I experienced long stretches of depression and anxiety, and I always felt that I was different in some way. I've also had trouble establishing and maintaining relationships of any kind but never really understood why or the extent to which my past was affecting my behavior.

It was only when I started dating fairly recently that I realized how difficult it was for me to fully reveal myself to others and trust that others would accept me. I receive a decent amount of interest from men, but it is usually short-lived. Things tend to fizzle out when I become extremely anxious and insecure, which in turn make me very closed off and avoidant, and by this point men realize (I assume) that there is something not quite right or normal about me.

Continue Reading...