Hi Marilyn,

Being raped is enough for a woman to deal with, so police response shouldn't make it worse. Yet, according to news reports, after a 21-year-old student was raped and went to the police for help, they proceeded to jail her for an outstanding warrant from a theft she committed as a juvenile.

But it doesn't stop there! A jail worker then prevented her from taking a second dose of emergency contraception allegedly because of a religious objection to birth control.

This is completely unacceptable. Please tell Governor Schwarzenegger that this can never happen again and that rape survivors in California should have access to emergency contraception!

After the fact, the jail worker who denied this woman contraception returned to work basically unpunished, after only a short paid leave. Any policy that allows jail workers to deny rape victims the solace of contraception is seriously flawed.

Please sign this petition to Governor Schwarzenegger to ensure rape survivors in California are not denied access to emergency contraception.

Thank you,

This indeed is a tragic situation.  However, I cannot sign the petition for the following reasons. 

Conception is the fertilization of an egg by a sperm.  Contraception means the prevention of the fertilization of the egg.  The term is incorrectly used in the original post.  The "contraceptive" (as mentioned there) does not prevent conception.  If conception has occurred, the "contraceptive" prevents implantation in the uterus.

Fertilization brings the 23 chromosomes in the sperm and the 23 chromosomes in the egg together to form a new human with 46 chromosomes.  A new life begins with this event. 

The "emergency contraceptive" ("morning after pill") actually prevents implantation (the attachment of the embryo to the endometrial lining of the uterine wall.  Thus, it ends a human life.

How many people get around this intellectually/emotionally, is to claim that the human life begins later than at conception.  Here are some claims of when a human life begins: at emplantation; when a certain stage of the embryo is reached; when the mother first senses movement; even, when the baby takes its first breath.

Now, I want to get to the rough part emotionally.  Someone disagreeing with my belief might say, "If your wife or daughter were raped, would you think the same?"  My answer is, "Yes, I still would hold that once a human life begins, it should not be terminated (killed). 

Someone who knows me might say, "But you have no daughter, and your wife is beyond childbearing age.  It's easy for you to say this."  And that person would be right.  However, I know of women who have been raped and deliberately have chosen not to take the "morning after pill."  Subsequently, they found that they were pregnant from the rape.  They chose not to have an abortion because of ther pro-life beliefs.

 

You may have noticed a few typographical errors in my previous post (Implantation was misspelled when it was used a second time.  A quotation mark was not used at the end of one statement.  A closed parenthesis mark was left out.)  I tried to correct these before clicking on "post."  However, problems occurred which would not let me make corrections, so I posted "as is."

Lawton

Hello Lawton,

I certainly understand your feelings and everything you said here...it is no problem that you can not sign the petition. I appreciate and respect your thoughts and opinions anyway!

Take care and God Bless,