FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION:
Are children and teenagers also victims of sexual assault? |
Newsletter: Summer 2004: March for Women’s LivesAnti-sexual assault advocates were among those who boarded buses early one morning last April for the long drive to Washington, DC to join the March for Women’s Lives. Several of the city’s rape crisis programs carried banners in the march, joining thousands of New Yorkers on buses sponsored by NOW NYC, Planned Parenthood, and other pro-choice organizations to be part of the capitol’s largest women’s rights rally.The presence of rape crisis programs signified the importance of reproductive freedom for survivors and advocates at a time when women’s reproductive rights are facing increasing threats, both at home and abroad. Irene Weiser, Executive Director of Stop Family Violence (www.StopFamilyViolence.org) penned an open letter to the sexual assault and domestic violence communities entitled “The Relationship Between Reproductive Rights And Violence Against Women,” posted on RAINNET, an online discussion sponsored by RAINN, the national sexual assault hotline. She wrote: “It is time that our organizations stand up and make that connection [between violence against women and reproductive rights] explicit… Right now, there are moves underway to make all abortion illegal in Michigan, Georgia, Iowa, Oklahoma, West Virginia and Kentucky - even in cases of rape or incest; even if the woman's health is at risk. “Our organizations must take a stand now for women's absolute right to bodily autonomy under all circumstances. Neither the government, nor the church, nor husbands, physicians or fathers should be entitled to force a woman to do something with her body that is against her will - not any more entitled than a rapist is. We can no longer stay out of the fray. The loss of reproductive rights is nothing less than the legalization of violence against women. Our silence will cost women - not just women seeking abortion, but all women - their lives.” The Alliance is proud to be a supporter of the March for Women’s Lives, and congratulates the women and men fighting for women’s rights. ← previous article | next article → |
Voices and Faces:
Karen Pomer and Helen 
"If we don't go on living, they might as well have killed us. We need to keep on living our lives."
Read more about Karen and Helen at The Voices and Faces Project »
SAYSO 2008 Album 6
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