At a candidates’ debate last night, U.S. Senate candidate Richard Mourdock of Indiana expressed his belief that life begins at conception and that the only case in which he’d approve of a pregnant woman having an abortion was if her life was in danger. Then he added this: Life is that gift from God, and […]
Rape Is Rape Campaign
Will New Mexico Women Have to Contact Their Rapists in Order to Get Child Care?
As of Wednesday, New Mexico’s Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD) is considering a positive new amendment to its child-care assistance policy, which would exempt survivors of rape and incest from filing child-support claims against absent parents. Current policy dictates that all parents, if they want to receive state funds for child care, must file child-support […]
Rape is Rape Campaign: FBI Director Predicts “Forcible” Will Drop from Rape Definition by Spring
Last week we were excited to report that victory is finally in sight in the months-long Rape is Rape campaign: An FBI Advisory Policy Board unanimously recommended that the agency update the archaic definition of rape it uses in its Uniform Crime Report (UCR). The only hurdle that remained was final approval of the change […]
UPDATE: Another Victory in Rape Is Rape Campaign–Just One Hurdle Left!
Yesterday we reported that a critical vote on the fate of the “forcible rape” definition was scheduled to occur at the FBI Advisory Policy Board (APB) meeting in Albuquerque, N.M. As expected, the APB cast its vote. And it was unanimous in favor of adopting the new definition. After months of raising awareness and generating […]
UPDATE: FBI to Cast Key Vote on “Forcible Rape” Today
After a massive grassroots feminist campaign launched by the Women’s Law Project, the Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF) and Ms. urging the FBI to update its 82-year-old, impossibly narrow definition of “forcible rape” in the Uniform Crime Report (UCR), a key vote is scheduled to be cast today at an FBI Advisory Policy Board meeting in […]
UPDATE: Major Victory in “Rape Is Rape” Campaign
The “Rape is Rape” campaign, demanding that all rapes be counted in the FBI’s annual Uniform Crime Report (UCR), took a huge step forward yesterday at a crucial meeting of law enforcement officials. The Uniform Crime Report Subcommittee of the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) voted unanimously to expand its definition of rape in […]
Almost 100,000 Have Told the FBI That Rape Is Rape. Have You?
Nearly 100,000 people have signed onto the Ms. and Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF) campaign to change the FBI’s definition of “forcible” rape. After a Ms. investigative report found that the FBI’s fundamentally flawed definition excludes hundreds of thousands of rapes from the yearly Uniform Crime Report, Ms. and FMF started a Change.org petition urging the […]
Tell Your University: Rape Is Rape
It’s like the age-old question about a tree falling in the forest: If you report a sexual assault on your college campus, does anyone hear it? A study released last month by the Chicago Tribune found that only one arrest was made for every 14 reported sexual assaults on six Midwestern campuses that were surveyed. […]