Palin Made Rape Victims Pay for Their Rape Kits

[strandinthewind]

We really don't need to know anything more about the Sarah Palin celebrity action figure.

We don't need to know where she buys her glasses, when she decided to start wearing her hair in an up-do or how she handles the demands of motherhood and government work.

We don't even need to hear her answers on energy policy, the Iraq war or God's will.

What an awful lot of voters really need to know about Palin may already have been revealed -- years ago -- by one dark and unforgivable policy instituted under her watch as mayor of the small town of Wasilla.

After taking office in 1996, she allowed the town's police department to begin charging rape victims for the forensic work done in their cases. She signed off on the budget that detailed the new police policy -- a directive instituted by her hand-picked police chief after she fired his predecessor. The unexplained reversal in Wasilla's procedure dictated that rape victims, unlike the victims of other crimes, now would have to pay for the investigative work done at the crime scene.

In a rape case, of course, the crime scene is the woman's body.

When Sarah Palin was mayor of Wasilla, the town suddenly started charging rape victims between $300 and $1200 to have the rapist's DNA and other forensic evidence taken, tested, cataloged and investigated.

That meant that women who came to local police for help after being battered, brutalized and victimized, faced one more violation. These women had to pay for the privilege of having their cases treated as crimes.

Palin's then-police chief Charlie Fannon defended this policy with the explanation that he wanted to save taxpayers' money. He said the raped women's insurance policies were billed -- when possible. In those cases, the women only had to pay the deductible. Of course, this being America, many women were uninsured, unprotected from both their attackers and the big bills.

Gee, thanks, guys.

Oddly enough, Fannon did not make the same kind of choice in other criminal cases. He did not make people injured by hit-and-run drivers or mugging victims or the families of murdered men and women cough up money to investigate their cases or collect evidence to catch their attackers.

It only happened in rape cases.

Hmmm.

Now, why would that be?

There is one terrible possibility: that this happened because somebody in charge in Wasilla -- either the police chief or the Mayor or both -- hails from the craziest corner of the pro-life community, the people who believe that birth control is abortion.

These people oppose paying for forensic work in rape cases because as part of that process -- as a final step in a humiliating and dehumanizing procedure -- a woman is typically asked if she would like a "morning after" pill, a medication that will prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in the lining of her uterus. The treatment is believed to be about 80% effective in preventing pregnancy.

Sarah Palin has not deigned to take questions from the unwashed masses in the media, but if she ever does, this might be a good place to begin.

Does she believe that giving a rape victim a "morning after" pill is committing murder? Does Palin believe that the taxpayers shouldn't pay for this or that police shouldn't offer this as a matter of course? Does she really believe that a woman should have to bear the child of her rapist?

We already know that's what she would want for her daughter.

During her successful gubernatorial campaign in 2006, Palin declared that she would not choose an abortion for her daughter -- then 14 years old -- even if the girl was raped and became pregnant. "I would choose life," Palin said.

Eric Croft suspects that these pro-life beliefs were the reason behind Wasilla's no pay police policy on rape victims.

He is the Democratic legislator who got the system changed by sponsoring a state proposal in 2000 that required local police departments in Alaska to pay for victims' "rape kits," as the evidence-gathering process is called. He wrote the bill with Wasilla's misguided police procedure in mind.

Croft told me that he was working at the time with a victim support group called "STAR" -- for Standing Together Against Rape. "We kept hearing reports out of the Mat-Su Valley that a police department there was charging for rape kits," Croft says. "We didn't know who it was."

Finally, a rape victim came forward with a copy of her insurance bill, which listed the rape kit charges filed by Wasilla police. Croft says his organization contacted the town's police chief who confirmed the policy but could not be convinced to change it.

Croft says he was dumbfounded. "I thought they'd be shamed out of it. But they weren't. They weren't."

So he proposed a change in state law. As a result, there were public hearings, public testimony and overwhelming public support. The bill passed unanimously. Democratic Governor Tony Knowles made a point of signing the bill into law in front of cameras outside a sexual assault clinic.

The amazing thing is that, through all of this, Palin herself apparently didn't speak publicly, didn't come out for or against her police chief's policy, didn't take responsibility for what her town was doing to already wounded women.

Part of what makes this suspicious is that Wasilla's policy is not the first time rape victims have found themselves in the crosshairs of the country's culture wars over abortion.

In fact, their bodies have long been a battleground.

Right-to-life groups around the country have often stepped into rape cases, fighting to make sure that pharmacists, police and medical personnel don't have to participate in procedures they deem "immoral."

From the Deep South to South Dakota, from Missouri to Arizona, rape victims have too long had to fight for the kind of equality and empathy that other crime victims can regularly expect.

The question of emergency contraception -- who gets it, who pays for it and who gets to decide -- is at the heart of this heated debate.

A few years ago, there was a dustup down here in Texas, when a pharmacist in a Dallas suburb refused to fill a rape victim's prescription for the "morning after" pill, saying that he couldn't dispense the medication "because it ends life. " This poor woman had to go to a different pharmacy in order to protect herself in the most personal, most private, most important way possible.

When the story became public, dozens of outraged Texas women showed up outside the pharmacy with signs saying, "Rape violates my morals."

Those same women -- and thousands more who feel the same way -- could be headed for a Republican rally soon if Sarah doesn't start talking.

Her partner in the old policy seems to have gone to ground.

Charles Fannon, the former police chief, now has a disconnected home phone number.

And Sarah Palin seems to be in the process of completely disconnecting herself from the policy.

Palin's spokeswoman, Maria Comella, told USA Today in an e-mail last week that the Governor "does not believe, nor has she ever believed that rape victims should have to pay for an evidence-gathering test.

"Governor Palin's position could not be more clear. To suggest otherwise is a deliberate misrepresentation of her commitment to supporting victims and bringing violent criminals to justice."

According to USA Today, Comilla would not answer other questions, including when Palin learned of Wasilla's policy or whether she tried to change it.

Maybe this is all some kind of unthinkable misunderstanding. Maybe Palin didn't know this was happening, didn't hear about it even the whole state joined the conversation, maybe this tough-talking Mayor couldn't control her police chief.

Maybe she has changed over the years, maybe she now recognizes the immorality of treating rape victims this way.

Whatever the answer -- before we vote -- before we are treated to another story about her taste in shoes or her time as Governor, would someone please pin Palin down and ask her what the hell was going on with rape victims in Wasilla?

And more importantly, why?

This person who says she's prepared to be a heartbeat away from the presidency could clear this whole thing up in a heartbeat.

Why won't she?

When Palin's name was announced as McCain's vice-presidential pick, I initially viewed her as some kind of sop to disgruntled Clinton supporters, somebody who was supposed to appeal to those of us who would rather have seen Hillary at the head of the ticket.

In the campaign, Palin has been presented as a kind of born-again Christian comic book hero -- the ultimate in multi-tasking mothers -- a woman who flies around the country in labor, kills big animals in the woods and dictates the details of other people's lives while juggling babies, Bibles and bullets.

It is beginning to look like she may be something colder, creepier and more complicated.

She has run Alaska like Dick Cheney in drag, a person who thrives on secrecy, loyalty and control.

On foreign policy, she's reminiscent of George W. Bush, without the sparkling curiosity.

And if she worked to deny rape victims emergency contraception, she is women voters' worst nightmare -- she is Phyllis Schlaffly with PMS, power and an automatic weapon.

It is long past time to figure out who Sarah Palin really is.

Getting answers on how and why she allowed her hometown to adopt a policy towards crime victims that was so beyond the pale, so outside the bounds of human decency, so heartless is a good place to begin.

In the end, it may be all we need to know.

Like Sarah Palin, I believe in the power of prayer.

I am praying that reporters can pull themselves out of the fetal position and start asking Palin some hard questions -- about hers.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mary-m..._b_126670.html

[strandinthewind]

I deliberately chose this artice because it expresses outrage, which I felt was warranted.

This just makes me conclude again, that Palin is Falwell with a vagina. In fact, given that she thought it was okay to charge women in any way for a rape kit makes me believe she is not a woman at all.

On edit and to be clear - Chief Fannon did say that he believed the criminal should be held responsible for the costs, which run from $5,000-$14,000 per year for all assault cases, which I 100% support if the man is convicted. However, making the woman/rape victim front the cost even one penny much less have that on her record with her insurance company is outrageous.

[strandinthewind]

Palin's town used to bill victims for rape kits

By Ken Dilanian and Matt Kelley, USA TODAY

WASILLA, Alaska — In 2000, Alaska lawmakers learned that rural police agencies had been billing rape victims or their insurance companies $500 to $1,200 for the costs of the forensic medical examinations used to gather evidence. They quickly passed a law prohibiting the practice.

According to the sponsor, Democrat Eric Croft, the law was aimed in part at Wasilla, where now-Gov. Sarah Palin was mayor. When it was signed, Wasilla's police chief expressed displeasure.

"In the past, we've charged the cost of exams to the victims' insurance company when possible," then-chief Charlie Fannon told the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman, the local newspaper. "I just don't want to see any more burden put on the taxpayer."

Now that Palin is the Republican nominee for vice president, Democrats such as former Alaska governor Tony Knowles — who signed the rape-kit bill into law and was defeated by Palin in 2006 — are raising the issue to question Palin's commitment to women's issues and crime victims. Palin appointed Fannon after firing his predecessor shortly after she took office in 1996.

"In retrospect, I would have asked the female working-mother mayor of that town why her police chief was against this," said Croft, the former Anchorage state representative.

Palin spokeswoman Maria Comella said in an e-mail that the governor "does not believe, nor has she ever believed, that rape victims should have to pay for an evidence-gathering test."

"Gov. Palin's position could not be more clear," she said. "To suggest otherwise is a deliberate misrepresentation of her commitment to supporting victims and bringing violent criminals to justice."

Comella would not answer other questions, including when Palin learned of Wasilla's policy or whether she tried to change it. The campaign cited the governor's record on domestic violence, including increasing funding for shelters.

Knowles criticized Palin to USA TODAY, and again Wednesday in a teleconference organized by Democrats. "It seems like one of those pieces of legislation that you can't imagine it would ever have to be written," he said.

Until the 2000 legislation, local law enforcement agencies in Alaska could pass along the cost of the exams, which are needed to obtain an attacker's DNA evidence. Rape victims in several areas of Alaska, including the Matanuska-Susitna Valley where Wasilla is, complained about being charged for the tests, victims' advocate Lauree Hugonin, of the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, told state House committees, records show.

In cases when insurance companies are billed, the victims pay a deductible.

Fannon told the Frontiersman that the tests would cost the department up to $14,000 per year. He said he would rather force rapists to pay for the tests, not taxpayers. Fannon, who is no longer police chief, could not be reached for comment Wednesday; his home phone number has been disconnected.

It is not known how many rape victims in Wasilla were required to pay for some or all of the medical exams, but a legislative staffer who worked on the bill for Croft said it happened. "It was more than a couple of cases, and it was standard practice in Wasilla," Peggy Wilcox said, who now works for the Alaska Public Employees Association. "If you were raped in Wasilla, this was going to happen to you."

After calling Wasilla Mayor Dianne Keller for comment Tuesday, USA TODAY was instructed to submit a public records request, under which the city has 10 days to respond. As of Wednesday, the city had not responded to a request for records reflecting Wasilla's prior policy, including when it took effect and the cost to sexual assault victims.

In 2000, there were 497 rapes reported in Alaska, FBI statistics show. That's a rate of 79.3 per 100,000 residents, the highest in the nation.

Nationally, victims' advocates have for years reported scattered instances of rape victims being required to pay for their forensic tests, says Ilse Knecht of the National Center for Victims of Crime in Washington. Those complaints have subsided somewhat after Congress in 2005 passed a law requiring states to provide rape exams free of charge or reimburse victims for the costs, says Knecht, whose group supported the provision.

"The reason we passed the legislation was that we saw it was prevalent enough to be a pretty considerable problem," Knecht says. "There are no other victims of crime that end up being billed for evidence collection."

The Senate version of the legislation that included the rape-exam provision was sponsored by Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, the Democratic vice presidential nominee. Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama was one of 58 co-sponsors; Republican presidential nominee John McCain was not.

Matt Kelley reported from Washington

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politic...pe-exams_N.htm

___________________________________________

Here is a more fair and balanced artice.

This is still outrageous that a woman would in any way support this practice. I just do not know how it is a "burden put on the taxpayer" to investigate a crime, which is what his fukcing job is.

[BombaySapphire3]

"Dick Cheney in drag?!" They stole my line!But anyway this creature ,this disgusting sow of a woman is just too much to be believed .ANY woman who is planning to vote the McCain/Palin ticket that was a Hillary supporter really needs to seriously look at the record of this pig in lipstick..I just don't understand how they could do it.

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by BombaySapphire3

. . . I just don't understand how they could do it.

Moreover, let one of them get raped and let's see how fast they choose to abort. That anyone would take away that right just astounds me.

[estranged4life]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

We really don't need to know anything more about the Sarah Palin celebrity action figure.

it isnt as cool as my Freddie Mercury, yes, Freddie Mercury action figure:

[Sorceress]

Every woman in America needs to know about this--those who are considering voting for McCain/Palin AND those who already know better but need to spread the word about this woman's misogyny.

[estranged4life]

More I read about palin, the more Palin does seem familiar...

...Just...cant...put...my...finger...on...it:

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by Sorceress

Every woman in America needs to know about this--those who are considering voting for McCain/Palin AND those who already know better but need to spread the word about this woman's misogyny.

Can you imagine limping into a police station with the rapist's fluid still dripping from your likely torn vagina - and then while in tears with likely the thought of death in your mind, some cop asks you for your not only your insurance card, but $50 in cash for the deductible.

I mean what did they do when people could not pay?


Also - Brian J. you are killin me with that

[BombaySapphire3]

Originally Posted by estranged4life

More I read about palin, the more Palin does seem familiar...

...Just...cant...put...my...finger...on...it:

As much as I can't stand him I believe in Palin we have much more of a fanatic..this crazy b*tch is a true believer ,a fringe nutcase..Any respect I once had for gramps McCain has gone down the crapper with this terrible choice.

[estranged4life]

"I Can see Russia from my house"

[estranged4life]

ended up with this frikkin' card:

[estranged4life]

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by BombaySapphire3

As much as I can't stand him I believe in Palin we have much more of a fanatic..this crazy b*tch is a true believer ,a fringe nutcase..Any respect I once had for gramps McCain has gone down the crapper with this terrible choice.

I never thought W was a true far right religious nutcase. I pretty much have always thought W and Cheney used that faction to achieve their own goals.

[estranged4life]

Sidekick!!!