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Joe Biden, Why Won’t You Stand Up for Rape Victims Worldwide?

| Reproaction

By: Lily Bolourian

During his time as a senator, Vice President Joe Biden wrote the Violence Against Women Act that became law in 1994. The law allocated an unprecedented amount of funds to prosecute violent crimes against women, established the Office on Violence Against Women within the Department of Justice, and funded many grant programs that offer counseling, legal, and medical services for victims of sexual and domestic violence.

Biden has never tip-toed around the issue of rape and has launched numerous initiatives aimed at changing the culture and conversation around sexual assault. In a passionate speech at the White House’s United State of Women Summit, he reiterated the importance of addressing sexual violence in our communities and vowed to continue this fight.

Joe Biden has made ending sexual violence his legacy but, despite repeated calls from advocates, the Obama Administration continues to deny abortion care to women raped in conflict by issuing an executive order clarifying the discriminatory Helms Amendment to allow U.S. foreign funds to aid in abortion care for victims of rape and incest. This directly contradicts the work that the administration has done to make the world a better place for women and girls.

At the White House’s State of Women Summit, President Obama spoke to the importance of supporting rape survivors worldwide, saying, “we’ve implemented a comprehensive strategy to end gender-based violence around the world, from prevention, to treating survivors, to bringing perpetrators to justice. And we’re helping to remove barriers that prevent women from participating fully in their societies.” Disappointingly, President Obama’s words don’t quite match his actions, as women are still being denied care after rape as a result of his choice to not take executive action on Helms.

In 2013, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 2122 addressing the crisis women and girls face in conflict areas. Included in the resolution is a provision that says: “Recognizing the importance of Member States and United Nations entities seeking to ensure humanitarian aid and funding includes provision for the full range of medical, legal, psychosocial and livelihood services to women affected by armed conflict and post-conflict situations, and noting the need for access to the full range of sexual and reproductive health services, including regarding pregnancies resulting from rape, without discrimination.” This means that as it stands today, the United States’ policy on foreign aid does not measure up to the United Nations standards for humane treatment of women and girls worldwide.

In June, Congress heard the testimony of Nadia Murad, a Yazidi woman who was held as a sex slave by Daesh in Iraq for months before managing to escape. Ms. Murad testified to horrors she underwent during her captivity, including repeated sexual assaults by multiple men. She shined light on the fact that Daesh has an estimated 3,500 slaves, most of whom are Yazidi women and girls. Rape has been used as a weapon of war for centuries. For the women who escape these crimes against humanity, it is reprehensible that the position of the Obama Administration, and therefore the United States as a whole, is to continue to deny them proper post-rape care. That is injustice of the highest form being carried out in our names.

Sexual violence must be addressed in a comprehensive matter. We cannot pick and choose whose rape matters more – whether sexual violence occurs by an unapologetic predator on a college campus in Stanford or by a terror group in Chibok, every woman deserves to be treated with humanity and dignity and to be given access to meaningful care.

Borders can have dangerous consequences for women and girls and discriminatory policies such as the anti-abortion Helms Amendment bring that injustice to the surface. The geography of an individual must not determine whether they live or die or their quality of life. The policy of this administration cannot be to watch crimes against humanity occur to women globally and choose to withdraw the most basic of help.

The Vice President has been bold in his support of survivors in the past, which is why it is so heartbreaking to see him stand idly by as women are denied basic care after undergoing the torture of sexual assault abroad. This is an area where Obama and Biden can offer tangible, substantive aid for women and girls raped in conflict without having to go through Congress. If Vice President Biden wants to cement a long legacy on combatting sexual violence girls then he must walk the walk and tell President Obama to act on Helms immediately.

In an address to the GRAMMY Awards in 2015, President Obama famously said, “It’s on us – all of us – to create a culture where violence isn’t tolerated, where survivors are supported, and where all our young people – men and women – can go as far as their talents and their dreams will take them.”

Biden and Obama have the chance now to support rape survivors by interpreting the Helms Amendment to include customary exceptions on rape, incest, and life endangerment to the abortion funding ban. “It’s on us” as a society to address the epidemic of violence against women and #ItsOnHim to clarify Helms and save women and girls’ lives.

P.S. Sign our petition urging the White House to take executive action on Helms!

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