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I-VAWA: Liberal Lies Tempt Women to Embrace a
Radical Agenda
The International Violence Against Women Act,
recently introduced in Congress, is a bill that
purports to curb partner violence around the world.
Who could ever be opposed to that?
But look more closely, and you’ll discover
a billion-dollar manifesto that is larded with
ideological assumptions, logical non-sequiturs, and
outright falsehoods. Many women may come to believe
its alarming statistics and demand its passage
– and that’s what makes this bill so
worrisome.
Behind its innocent-sounding name, the
International Violence Against Women Act will fund
“female empowerment” programs that would
serve to break up families, vilify men as abusers,
and leave millions of women dependent on the state.
The bill does that by defining domestic violence
expansively to include “coercion” and
“psychological harm,” convincing women to
call the police at sign of the first
sharply-uttered word, and then slapping a
restraining order on the couple that has the effect
of precluding partner counseling or
reconciliation.
I’m not going to claim that Democrats Sen.
John Kerry or Rep. Bill Delahunt of Massachusetts
truly desire to undermine the fundamental family
unit. But the fact is, their bill is awash in a sea
of Orwellian half-truths that are designed to scare
women out of the protective embrace of the
family.
If even half the bills’ 15 findings were
truthful, I might think about supporting the
International Violence Against Women Act. But it
turns out to be a sham, a scientific legerdemain
that calls to mind the United Nations’
now-discredited predictions on global warming.
Take I-VAWA’s leading claim that
“up to 70% of women in some countries
report having being victims of domestic violence at
some point in their lives.”
Two years ago University of New Hampshire
researcher Murray Straus published the results of a
survey of university-student dating violence in 32
countries around the world. The results? About a
quarter of the students acknowledged a slap, a
shove, or other type of partner violence in the
past year, and – get this – women were
more likely to be the aggressors than men.
The I-VAWA bill deftly omits mention of that
inconvenient truth.
Then there’s the indelicate qualifier,
“up to.” Exactly what does that mean?
Turns out the “up to 70%” points to
two obscure studies from Nicaragua and Papua New
Guinea -- and neither of the studies were
peer-reviewed. That’s the mistake the United
Nations global warming panel made when it warned
the Himalayan glaciers were doomed to melt by
2035.
The I-VAWA bill makes other claims that any
half-intelligent person would immediately recognize
as preposterous. Like the sky-is-falling claim that
“Violence against women dramatically
impedes progress in meeting all of our global
health goals.”
Really?
Around the world, the leading causes of death
are infectious diseases, heart conditions, and
cancer. So TB, malaria, and measles are all caused
by partner abuse? Cancer, too?
I know it sounds funny, but that’s what
Sen. Kerry and Rep. Delahunt want us to
believe.
Kerry and Delahunt also declaim that domestic
violence is contributing “dramatically”
to maternal mortality. Better tell that to the Pan
American Health Organization, because they’re
on record as saying, “It is not yet known what
proportion of maternal mortality is due to domestic
violence.”
Then there’s the old chestnut that
“1 in 4 women are abused during
pregnancy” – that one is calculated
to convince all the chivalrous souls out there to
jump on the I-VAWA bandwagon. But wait! The World
Health Organization’s 10-country survey of
domestic violence found the real figure is closer
to 4-12%, not one in four.
Weren’t liberals the ones who invented
fuzzy math?
Overall, the bill contains 15 findings. Of
the 15, none of them are objective, verifiable, and
truthful: www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.702
That’s right, the International Violence
Against Women Act, to put it delicately, is filled
with fibs. As a result of its ideologically-driven
recommendations, I-VAWA is more likely to harm than
help women: www.renewamerica.com/columns/roberts/100310
Can we at least give liberals an “E”
for Effort?
* * *
Carey
Roberts probes and lampoons political correctness.
His work has been published frequently in the
Washington Times, Townhall.com, LewRockwell.com,
ifeminists.net, Intellectual Conservative, and
elsewhere. He is a staff reporter for the New Media
Network. You can contact him at E-Mail
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