PressTV - For Native American women, sex assault is 'the norm'
The official number is bad enough: One in three American Indian women have experienced rape or attempted rape, a rate more than twice the national average. But it gets worse: One survey finds that in some rural villages, the rate of sexual violence is as much as 12 times the national rate, and interviews by the New York Times found that sexual assault is so common that few, if any, Native American women living on tribal reservations escape it. The Times article relays wrenching stories (the 19-year-old rape victim who never received a return phone call from tribal police), offers more heartbreaking statistics (just 10% of sex assaults on reservations are reported, and arrests are made in just 13% of those cases), and details the myriad problems contributing to the tragic situation: isolated villages; alcohol abuse and a breakdown of the family structure; a lack of sexual assault training.
“Today marks three years since the murder of Dr. George Tiller at his place of worship in Wichita, Kansas. Today and every day, we remember his commitment and courage to providing women and their families compassionate care.”
[TW:Rape] Oklahoma Doctor Refuses To Provide Rape Victim With Emergency Contraception
An Oklahoma emergency room doctor refused to provide emergency contraception to a 24-year-old female rape victim because the medication violated the health provider’s personal beliefs, a local CBS News affiliate reports. The hospital also denied the victim a rape kit, noting that it had no appropriate nurse on staff to administer the test.
“I will not give you emergency contraceptives because it goes against my beliefs,” the doctor allegedly told the rape victim and her mother, Rhonda. “She knew my daughter had just been raped. Her attitude was so judgmental and I felt that she was just judging my daughter,” Rhonda told the news station.
Emergency contraception’s effectiveness diminishes over time, and is most effective when taken immediately. Oklahoma law, however, shields providers from offering the perfectly legal medication under a “conscience clause” which could significantly hinder women’s access to contraception services. States across the nation have adopted similar restrictions and GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney has pledged to expand Bush-era rules permitting doctors to place their beliefs ahead of women’s health.
Fortunately, the young woman in Oklahoma ended up going to another hospital, where she received the medication she needed and the rape kit. But she would have had to go to two hospitals either way, since budget cuts have forced the state to resort to a system of rotating Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANE nurses).
I’m becoming increasingly enraged at healthcare providers who refuse to perform medical services that go against their beliefs. That they have the backing of politicians and the law to follow their conscience makes me furious.
As a nurse I can’t even imagine being in a position where I’d not be able to help a patient. I worked in behavioral health with perpetrators of terrible crimes and was able to focus on their medical needs above all else. I’ve worked with addicts who have done vile things to others to maintain their habit, and I was able to see the disease, regardless of who the patient was. This is what I expect from my healthcare providers. I expect my medical needs to be met without them having the right to pass judgement on me.
The unavailability of a nurse trained to deal with her crisis, requiring going to another hospital is devastating, but a reality of our screwed up healthcare system. However, what the doctor subjected her to is inexcusable. To further traumatize a rape victim while calling yourself a doctor is just about as low as one can get. Sadly, very little, if anything will probably happen to them for their behavior.
Every day I feel as if we’re devolving when it comes to women’s rights. We like to pretend that we are such a progressive country, but someone has to vote these assholes into office and support the shit they put out. Why do those of us who are rational have to fight so hard to be heard? The last time I checked, these lawmakers all had female relatives who were not producing children in Duggaresqe quantities, and I’m going to assume that they’re not foregoing sex to prevent pregnancies. The hypocrisy is so thick here. I’m thoroughly disgusted that I’m reading this article and watching this news story in America, in 2012. This is fucking depressing.
In response to American Apparel’s campaign using Californian farmworkers as an accessory in an ad (http://bit.ly/KFWcy4), DREAMer artivist Julio Salgado created his own campaign: “Undocumented Apparel”
Mother Jones’investigation into the FBI’s post-9/11 practice of creating the terrorists it is prosecuting. They have an amazing series of stories and infographics as part of the full series. Amazing work.
Aboriginal Press News Service (APNS): Tulsa, Okla., 1921: Justice continues to be denied
By Dolores Cox Published May 31, 2012 9:27 PM May 31 is the 91st anniversary of the “Race Riot” tragedy in Tulsa, Okla. It “was almost left out of history, not documented, passed over, wiped out!” stated Rep. Maxine Waters, of the Congressional Black Caucus. On that date in 1921, a rampage by…
(Source: workers.org)
Ten worst ‘ecocides’
From floating plastic islands and orbiting space junk to mountaintop removal and deep-sea mining, the worldwide destruction of ecosystems is worse now than at any other time.
- Alberta tar sands: Referred to as the most damaging project on the planet. According to Greenpeace, emissions from tar sands extraction could grow to between 127 and 140m tonnes by 2020, exceeding the current emissions of Austria, Portugal, Ireland and Denmark. If proposed expansion proceeds,it will result in the loss of vast tracts of boreal forest and peat bogs of a territory the size of England
- Deep-sea mining: The emerging underwater mineral extraction industry is sounding alarm bells among marine biologists, environmental scientists and campaigners such as Polly Higgins, who predict that mining for gold, silver and copper on the seabed will be the next great ecological disaster. The fragile marine ecosystem of the sea floor is a frontier that we know very little about
- The North Pacific gyre: A swirling island of 100m tonnes of plastic bits and bottle tops, spins clockwise from Hawaii to Japan. Also known as the Pacific trash vortex, it is estimated to be the size of Texas. This picture shows a laysan albatross (Diomedea immutabilis) giving a bottle cap to its chick
- The Niger delta: Fifty years of oil extraction in the Niger delta has scarred the Niger delta. Oil companies operated here for decades with very little environmental supervision and the delta, notoriously beset by conflict and poverty, has been steadily pushed towards ecological disaster. Villagers struggle to live off land and water poisoned by years of oil spills, and crops fail under the acid rain caused by gas flares
- The Dongria Kondh: Members of the Dongria Kondh tribe gather on top of the Niyamgiri mountain, which they worship as their living god, to protest against plans by Vedanta Resources to mine bauxite from that mountain. The mine will destroy the forests on which the Dongria Kondh depend and threaten the livelihoods of thousands of other Kondh tribal people living in the area. Vedanta denies allegations that the planned mine would violate the rights of thousands of people
- Mountaintop removal: Aerial of mountaintop removal coal mining site in West Virginia. Mountaintop mining involves a highly destructive practice of blasting through hundreds of feet of mountaintop to get at thin but valuable seams of coal
- Linfen, China: The most polluted city on earth. Located at the heart of a 12-mile industrial belt of iron foundries, smelting plants and cement factories, fed by the 50m tonnes of coal mined every year, unregulated because of rapid development
- Toxic dumping by Chevron Texaco in Ecuador: Chevron, formerly Texaco, is alleged to have dumped billions of gallons of crude oil and toxic waste waters into the Amazonian jungle over two decades. This oily pond is at the oil production site of Guanta, near the city of Lago Agrio. Ecuador’s recent bill of rights for nature has changed the legal status of nature from being simply property to being a right-bearing entity. Campaigners hope this will stop similar ecological disasters from happening again
- The Amazon: The razing of the Amazonian rainforest, a key stabiliser of the global climate system, by logging, mining, crop planting and beef production. Almost 60% of the region’s forests could be wiped out or severely damaged by 2030
- Space junk: From spent rockets to defunct satellites, the millions of pieces of orbital debris have reached a critical level. A computer-generated image released by the European Space Agency shows an approximation of 12,000 fragments in orbit around the Earth
“You might as well be dead. Seriously, if you always put limits on what you can do, physically or anything else, it’ll spread over into the rest of your life. It’ll spread into your work, into your morality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.”
- Bruce Lee
