Mr. Canseco,
It is a terrible and terribly unfortunate fact that we live in a society where one in four women will experience sexual assault during her lifetime. And even more unfortunately, we live in a society that does everything it can to demean, belittle, dismiss, and silence those 25% of women who experience rape and sexual assault.
Regardless of one's personal politics with regard to reproductive choice, it is absolutely reprehensible for a government which is meant to protect all of its citizens -- and which fails utterly to do so for as many as 85% of the rape victims who have the courage to demand justice -- to abet the evils of rape culture. The No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion's artificial distinction between "forcible rape" and "all other kinds of rape which are no less rape because the victim was unable or unwilling to fight back" is nothing less than that -- a clear message to women that Congress does not care about us or our dignity not just as women, but as human beings.
As your constituent I urge you to vote against this message and to encourage your colleagues to do the same. This is not a partisan issue. This is not a religious issue. This is an issue of basic human decency.
Rachel K. Clair
