I am flabbergasted by the chilling reports that as mayor of Wasilla Sarah Palin was involved in the decision to force victims of rape to pay for their own exams and rape kits. If this story is true, then every newspaper and "news" program should be talking about it. What can you say to that? If it's true then it is just about the most soulless act I think I have ever heard of a politician. If this story turns out to be false, then someone needs to offer a huge apology. This is evil stuff.
"Eight years ago, complaints about charging rape victims for medical exams in Wasilla prompted the Alaska Legislature to pass a bill -- signed into law by (former Governor Tony) Knowles -- that banned the practice statewide."
"There was one town in Alaska that was charging victims for this, and that was Wasilla," Knowles said"
UPDATE: I do not think the jury is out on this issue yet. The USA Today article indicates that some women did have to pay some fees although there are no numbers. It is still not completely clear what if any role Palin played in it, but at least one reporter dug into public records and called the former police chief. He indicated that the policy was put in place while she was mayor. While some of the earlier stories lacked detail, there seems to be sufficient evidence that the policy was changed under her watch.
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It's almost certainly not true, at least not the way it's being spun.
Really. Give this one up. It's a loser. There are lots of other valid reasons to slam Palin without resorting to this.
Oh, I think Palin didn't authorize or order it. She just didn't think it was important that the city pay for the kits; it was more important to save money.
This used to be standard practice in quite a few states and municipalities.
Irl Stambaugh, the police chief Palin fired during her first year in office says he did not bill the victims for the examinations. This was a practice was started by Palin's hand-picked chief Charlie Fannon. As his supervisor she bears a sizable chunk of responsibility for his actions. In politics responsibility flows upward, not down. If she was ignorant of Fannon's actions then we need to call her competence as an administrator into question.
The state law ending this practice was specifically aimed at Wasilla, according to the bill's author, Eric Croft, and the governor who signed the bill, Tony Knowles.
The rape examination can, but doesn't necessarily, include a morning after pill to stop a potential pregnancy. And, like any medical procedure during pregnancy, the exam has a slight risk of causing a miscarriage. Palin is an anti-abortion extremist; she has said she opposes abortion even for rape and/or incest. Early in her political career she was active in picketing and driving away the only abortion provider in the Susitna valley. Many anti-abortion zealots oppose morning after contraception and encourage pharmacists not to carry it. That doesn't prove that Palin supported the billing practice or that she was motivated by her anti-abortion zealotry, but it is grounds for asking more questions and not letting this issue die.
So what? So were segregation, forced sterilization of the mentally ill, and a lot of other nasty practices that most modern Americans wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. The commonness of wrongdoing doesn't make it any less wrong.
Oh, this gets better.
According to McCain's team, Palin did not fire Walt Monegan for failing to fire her ex-brother in law. No, she fired Monegan for insubordination. What was Monegan insubordinate about? Well, he went to Washington to lobby for funds to support an anti-sex crime initiative designed to fight rape and other sexual assault...as well as funding rape kits so local police wouldn't have to.
And, um, this is the "real" reason the McCain team is putting out....
Sorry... blew my blockquoting above. Paragraphs 1 and 4 should be blockquoted, 2, 3, and 5 are mine.
I wasn't aware that mayors in other Alaska cities and towns were being considered for vice president of the United States.
But, minusRusty, are you suggesting that poor judgment in other parts of Alaska somehow makes Palin's poor judgment acceptable? Surely you are joking!
The point is that it still hasn't been shown what involvement Palin had in any policies regarding charging back rape kits to either the victims or to their insurance companies, or how frequent the problem was in Wasilla while she was mayor, or even what the fallout was after her police chief made the statement that the criminal should be bearing the cost of his crime.
Furthermore, there has been no discussion on the practical matters of how hospitals go about billing for services, how those administrative tasks have to be re-worked in exceptional cases, if these exceptional cases are also extremely rare in the location in question (Wasilla), etc, etc, etc.
Doug, you are jumping to conclusions by implying that Palin has made a poor judgement on this matter. It hasn't even been demonstrated that she had any involvement, let alone made any judgement regarding rapekitgate.
I.e., attack her where its shown that she's actually made poor judgements. Don't be like those Republicans who whine about Obama not holding his hand over his heart during the pledge, when it was actually the Star Spangled Banner that was playing.
The investigation into Troopergate is a much more substantial issue as regards Palin's involvement. But until there is clear evidence that Palin was actually involved in some sort of policy decisionmaking regarding charging back rape victims or their insurance companies, this little episode should be put on the back burner, and not propogated as part of an inuendo campaign. The Republicans do enough of that for both parties.
David Rees knows what's up: http://www.236.com/video/2008/get_your_war_on_sarah_palin_an_9028.php
Maybe McCain is trying to create a rape based economy.
[I have previously posted with the screen name "Doug", as there is at least one other on ScienceBlogs, I have elected to change mine.]
minusRusty,
Certainly, because unlike most of the rape victims who have no right to claim ignorance of the law as a defense, government officials who do have easy access to legal code do have the right to claim ignorance as a defense.
As mayor of a small town it stands to reason that even if Palin didn't know she certainly should have known.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008
/2008-09-10-rape-exams_N.htm
Also, Palin's aptitude which generally shows a lack of concern regarding environmental and social responsibility is supportive evidence in my mind, that is, her past and present remarks and actions are in alignment with charging rape victims for evidence kits when possible.
As it is the practice of politicians generally to distort the truth, there are exceptions of course and I thank those that are honest but, Palin isn't honest; it would reach a certain level of irresponsibility on my part to judge Palin only on her remarks alone.
Palin isn't being charged with a crime but is being considered for a job where lack of judgment has cost the nation dearly in the recent past and presently. So, I feel it is important to include information that she should have known even if she didn't know it.
CNN did a report on this very subject today. The results: inclusive. There's no proof that Palin actually 'knew' that the city was charging rape victims for rape kits...BUT...as a line item on the city budget, it really makes you wonder. Is Palin guilty of signing a budget she didn't read thoroughly? And if so, what does that say about her competence?