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Child Marriage And The Republican Party


debrand

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http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpa ... pdate.html

This should have been a bipartisan bill. The fact that it failed because of trumped up charges of abortion is mind boggling. Not only is this disgusting but it makes me wonder how Republicans keep getting voted into office. I understand that some people are more conservative fiscally but I don't know anyone who is for children being married and raped.

In case you missed it, S. 987 (The International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act) failed to pass last night. Despite unanimously passing the Senate, it only garnered a 241-166 majority in the House. Since House rules were in suspension, the bill needed a two-thirds majority to pass.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who sponsored the bill, had a blunt response in a late-night press release:

The action on the House floor stopping the Child Marriage bill tonight will endanger the lives of millions of women and girls around the world. These young girls, enslaved in marriage, will be brutalized and many will die when their young bodies are torn apart while giving birth. Those who voted to continue this barbaric practice brought shame to Capitol Hill.

His frustration makes sense: the corresponding House Bill had 112 co-sponsors! What the heck happened?

In the hours before the vote, Republicans circulated a memo to pro-life members of Congress alleging that the bill could fund abortions and use child marriage "to overturn pro-life laws." It also reiterated concerns over the bill's cost. When it came time for a vote, a number of the bill's pro-life supporters in both parties abandoned ship. Even co-sponsors of the corresponding House bill (H.R. 2103), like Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) and Lee Terry (R-Neb.), voted against it.

Time for the facts. First of all, S. 987 is short--the body of the bill is around ten pages long--and does not mention abortion ("family planning" isn't in there either). A quick read suffices to show that the bill is not dealing with abortion.

Second, as I noted yesterday, it does not appropriate any additional funding. It requires that the President and the State Department make child marriage a core part of American international development strategy. One more time: this means that this bill can't provide funding for abortion. It's not a appropriations bill. Nonetheless, some Republicans appear determined to showcase their conservative credentials at all costs--even when the facts make it unnecessary, even when the world's most vulnerable children bear the bill.

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Yet again, another example of why these people are not pro-life, they are pro-fetus.

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There is nothing for them to gain by voting against this bill so I can only guess that they are even more antiwoman than I thought. Do these people hate women? Why start the rumor that the bill was about abortion?

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This has more to do with not wanting twelve year olds to be married, and trying to give birth before their bodies have matured enough. Anybody against this bill should read about little girls who have labored for days only to give birth to a dead baby and find that they've developed a fistula and can't control their bowels, bladder or both. Some of these poor girls are maimed for life from nerve damage and other's die because they are too small to give birth vaginally and don't live near enough to a hospital to obtain a c-section. These asshats should read about the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital.

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That is absolutely sickening. I hope they find out who started that memo and throw him (a woman can't hate other women this much, can she?) out of office.

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That is absolutely sickening. I hope they find out who started that memo and throw him (a woman can't hate other women this much, can she?) out of office.

Yes, sadly a woman can hate other women that much.

Maybe I'm too logical but I like to know the whys behind people's actions so I want to know what this person gained from sending out the memo

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I wonder how the vote would have gone if it was to prevent young boys being married to older men? Of course, thank a deity, that doesn't happen legally anywhere, but I'll bet that bill would have passed unanimously.

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