Forty-two years ago, the Stonewall riot was sparked by a police round-up of trans women and drag queens. Now, a new anthology from AK Press, Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex, shines a bright light on how trans people are still “pathologized, terrorized and confined” by the U.S. justice system. Below, Captive […]
Search Results for: health care
Thought the Global Gag Rule Was History? Think Again
The Republicans have been awfully busy in their domestic war on women lately, but they’ve still found time to relaunch its global front. Yesterday a House committee voted to reinstate the Global Gag Rule. The rule, overturned by Obama during his first week in office, prohibited global NGO’s from receiving U.S. Agency for International Development […]
Orlando Update: Clinics Remain Open in Face of Anti-Abortion “Siege”
The weeklong Operation Rescue/Operation Save America (OR/OSA) “siege” of Orlando has just two days left, and area women’s health care providers have successfully remained open and operating throughout. The anti-abortion extremist group targeted seven different clinics over the course of the week, surrounding offices and harassing both staff and patients. Organizers from the Feminist Majority […]
Orlando “Siege” Fails to Draw Protesters, Yet Stalking Continues
A planned siege of seven Orlando-area abortion clinics by Operation Rescue/Operation Save America (OR/OSA) began this Saturday, but failed to draw the “hundreds” of anti-abortion protesters that organizers had called for. Only an estimated 40 or so individuals took part in anti-abortion protests Saturday, Sunday and Monday at the clinics–and that number included children brought […]
Anti-Abortion Extremists Descend on Orlando, FL and Germantown, MD
Despite a conviction just days ago for criminally stalking a Charlotte, N.C. physician, Operation Rescue/Operation Save America leader Flip Benham and his followers have traveled to Orlando, Fla., this weekend to stage a week-long “siege” of seven Orlando-area abortion clinics. In the past, such events have included targeting abortion providers–and stalking them–at their homes, as well as larger […]
The States’ War on Women
In recent months we’ve become well aware of how U.S. House Republicans are trying to decimate services of vital importance to women. Don’t take your eyes off your local statehouse, though: There, legislators have pushed the war on women equally far, cracking down on reproductive rights and cutting funding for education and health programs that […]
Veterans Affairs Office Decides To Trust Women About PTSD
A woman in the military is more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire. One in 5 women who seek veterans’ health care say they experienced sexual trauma during their service. We’ve known these shocking statistics for years now. Less discussed is the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) afflicting many […]
A woman in the military is more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire. One in 5 women who seek veterans’ health care say they experienced sexual trauma during their service.We’ve known these shocking statistics for years now. Less discussed is the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) afflicting many veterans who survive sexual violence: A startling study released yesterday found that 80 to 90 percent of New Mexican women veterans with PTSD say the cause was sexual assault, not warfare.
Despite this, victims of sexual violence have faced huge obstacles in securing military disability benefits, once required to submit proof the assault had occurred. But that may now be changing, thanks to yesterday’s revised policy from the Department of Veteran Affairs. After talks with Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), Secretary of Veteran Affairs General Allison Hickey announced that the agency will “ease [its] standards of proof” for sexual assault-related disability benefits.
Previously, a veteran suffering from sexual-assault-induced PTSD had to file an extensive paper trail–criminal reports, eyewitness accounts and medical records–in order to secure disability benefits. This was especially difficult because 4 out of 5 sexual assaults in the military go unreported (in the intensely hierarchical military, soldiers often fear the repercussions of reporting). No report means no immediate medical examination, making it near-impossible to later prove sexual assault.
Pingree introduced a bill in the House of Representatives in March asking the VA to ease barriers for sexual assault victims seeking disability benefits. She went on to hold meetings with Hickey to discuss administrative solutions, prompting the new rule change. On what spurred her advocacy, Pingree said:
I’ve heard the same story from far too many veterans. They were sexually assaulted while serving, but when they tried to get disability benefits it was too hard to prove the attack had occurred. Sometimes victims don’t report the incident because they don’t feel safe…but that shouldn’t be a reason for their benefits to be denied.
The rule change will shift the burden of proof from the victim to the VA office. Instead of requiring criminal reports and eyewitness accounts, VA offices will conduct personal interviews with the claimant, taking signs of mental distress and changes in behavior as proof of PTSD. They may also consider secondary evidence, such as a testimony from a family member or a journal entry about the incident. A claim of PTSD caused by sexual assault can be disproved only by “clear and convincing evidence to the contrary.”
The new rules mark another step in the U.S. government’s slowly improving stances on both sexual assault and trauma among service members. Until last year, the Department of Defense would only recognize PTSD that stemmed from direct enemy combat. Given that women are still technically barred from combat, though many are on the front lines, this meant that until 2010, women were largely excluded from receiving disability benefits.
While government policy is undoubtedly moving forward, there’s a long way to go. Government efforts to prevent sexual assault in the first place and prevent PTSD have been largely ineffective so far, with rates of sexual assault continuing to rise. We’ve known the statistics–yet it seems little has been done.
“I think the military would say they think they’re making progress,” Pingree said to a local NBC affliate. “We have to say, ‘Look, we have to keep pushing on this because you’re not making progress fast enough.'”
Photo from Flickr user expertinfantry licensed under Creative Commons 2.0.
Revision: This post has been updated correct the statistic on the number of veterans who have experienced sexual trauma in the military (it is not 1 in 3 women veterans, but 1 in 5 women who seek veterans’ health care.)
Abortion and the Slavery Analogy: Dangerous and Wrong
A few months ago in Georgia, dozens of anti-abortion billboards were placed in low-income neighborhoods with messages suggesting abortion is a racist conspiracy to kill or enslave women of color. The billboards, with slogans like “black children are an endangered species,” were paid for by Georgia Right to Life and the Radiance Foundation, a organization […]
GOP: We’re Pro-Woman Because We’re Pro-Business
One criticism that really irritates GOP lawmakers is the argument that their policies are bad for women, so every now and then conservative congresswomen band together to make the case that the “anti-woman” charge is unfair. Their defense generally goes something like this: GOP policies are good for America, and women are Americans, ergo Republicans […]