In 1994, John McCain voted against legislation -- pushed through Congress by Joe Biden -- that helped put an end to the practice of charging rape victims for sexual assault exams.
Biden's legislation required that state, local, and Indian governments provide the rape exams to victims free of charge as a condition of receiving federal funds under the Violence Against Women Act.
McCain not only opposed Biden's legislation, but also has voted against funding it as recently as October 2007.
Neat! Maybe Walnuts should spent less energy getting worked up about non-existent insults to his running mate and more working to stop actual threats to women's well being. And maybe the Dems should pull the muzzle off Biden and let him flog his own awesome record of working to end violence against women. Heck, it might just knock lipstick stories off the front page for all of fifteen minutes or so.
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Women Want Safety, not Biden's Abuse of Power
Senator Joe Biden proudly proclaims that he was beaten with impunity by his older sister as a youth. This is the same sister that raised his two sons after his wife and daughter were killed in an auto accident.
Biden has often claimed that the Violence against Women Act is the greatest achievement of his career. Yet he fails to recognize the role women play as perpetrators of violence against men and children. Hundreds of studies show that women commit acts of domestic violence as often as, or more often than men. It's a well established fact that a child is more likely to be killed by the mother than by the father, a neighbor, an acquaintance, a stranger or a sex offender. Many studies also show that lesbian women physically attack their intimate partners at least as often as heterosexual men.
As a result of Biden's Violence against Women Act, the federal government pays states to create laws effectively requiring that innocent men be removed from their homes and families without even an allegation of violence, with no legitimate standards of evidence, when a woman makes a claim that she is afraid.
Elaine Epstein, president of the Massachusetts Bar Association (1999), has said "the facts have become irrelevant... restraining orders are granted to virtually all who apply. Regarding divorce cases, she states "allegations of abuse are now used for tactical advantage". According to Epstein, who is also a former president of the Massachusetts Women’s Bar Association, restraining orders are doled out "like candy" and "in virtually all cases, no notice, meaningful hearing, or impartial weighing of evidence is to be had."
State restraining order laws are starting to fall because they're unconstitutional. The federal law behind them, written by Joe Biden, is likely to fall as well, not because it isn’t popular, but because it is clearly unconstitutional.
There is a rapidly growing activist community dedicated to addressing this issue. One of the focal points of this community is the Glenn Sacks blog, www.glennsacks.com .
Supporting Documentation
Here are some of the facts regarding Biden's abuse at the hand of his sister. During senate hearings held on December 11, 1990, Biden testified to the abuse.
http://www.ifeminists.net/introduction/editorials/2006/0503roberts.html
This recent CDC study indicates that women between the ages of 18 and 28 initiate reciprocal violence against their intimate partners about as often as men. It also indicates that women initiate non-reciprocal violence against their intimate partners more than twice as often as men.
http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/42/15/31-a
Here is a link to a bibliography of over 200 studies indicating that women are as violent as men in their intimate relationships:
http://www.csulb.edu/~mfiebert/assault.htm
According to the US Department of Justice, women also abuse, neglect and kill their children at significantly higher rates than men. Here’s some of the data on child homicides.
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/cm04/figure4_2.htm
Research clearly indicates that lesbian battery is at least as common as heterosexual battery.
http://www.glennsacks.com/domestic_violence_a_2.htm
http://www.musc.edu/vawprevention/lesbianrx/factsheet.shtml
http://lesbianlife.about.com/od/lesbianhealth/a/DVFactsMyths.htm
Cathy Young reports on the Elaine Epstein quote and the broader issue at Salon.com here:
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/1999/10/25/restraining_orders/
and provides in depth analysis here:
http://www.iwf.org/files/50c58dda09f16c86b2c652aa047944f6.pdf
Oh, look. My very own MRA! Awesome!
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