Woman raped and then arrested

[alexia]

I heard about this incident on the radio this morning and I'm so disgusted by it. A woman who attended the Gasparilla parade in Tampa was raped and then taken to a clinic to get checked out. The officer who was conducting the investigation discovered that she had a warrant out for her arrest, so he arrested her. But get this, her warrant was for something that happened when she was 17 -she's 21 now. She failed to appear in court about a grand theft accusation.
Here's the clincher. So, she gets arrested and then thrown in jail - after being raped! She was given the morning after pill at the clinic but needed a second pill, for it to work properly. But at this point, she was already in jail. The nurse on duty refused to give her the second pill because it was against her religious beliefs. She never did receive that second pill. Can you believe it?

I, for one, think that the nurse should be fired. Her religious beliefs should not influence her ability to do her job. It's completely unethical. Can you imagine if the woman became pregnant with the rapist's baby as a result?

http://www.baynews9.com/content/36/...n+says+she+was+raped,+gets+charged+on+warrant

 

[Mac]

Holy crap thats frikkin aweful, her lifes all messed up now because of incorrect justice. Goes to show how messed up our world is.

 

[ToriVerly]

Well I think people are allowed to refuse work if it violates their religious views...I'm not sure...some ministers can refuse to marry couples...but I still think she should have got the pill. The nurse is pretty stupid as she should realize that she wasn't asked to force the pill on the woman or something that actually makes her take it so if she does take it it's not the nurse's fault. And it's not her decision to prevent her from taking it. Lastly, an educated pro-lifer would know that the morning after pill isn't an abortion pill but really an ingested spermicide as the ova doesn't get fertilized for up to three days.

 

[Volrath]

Being arrested was just bad luck. That pill thing is downright apalling. A person's views on contraception should only apply to them. It's fine to say "I will never take the morning after pill because it is against my religious beliefs." (Though if, God forbid, someone like that does get raped and impregnated, I'm sure the situation suddenly looks a lot more complicated) Forcing others to abide by that personal choice is inexcusable. Cite the Bible all you want, but it won't have an effect on someone who doesn't believe in it. Hopefully the pressure from press coverage will force someone in that institution to provide her with the help she needs.

 

[catalyst]

That's screwed up. I mean, the jail thing is stuff catching up to the woman, but I thought it was illegal to refuse legal care, even if it conflicts with the caretaker's religious views. A minister can refuse because his job is his religion. A doctor of a Christian hospital can refuse patients and transfer them to a non-religious hospital, so long as it does not endanger the patient's life. However, this is not a religious medical area that the jail is in. This isn't a Christian jail, it's not a religious medical ward. That woman should get fired, and possibly prosecuted, for pressing her religious beliefs on the woman, and denying her appropriate medical care.

 

[alexia]

The thing that bugs me the most about this whole incident is that nobody stepped up and said, "this isn't right." If the nurse wasn't going to give her the pill, someone should have. If it needed to be someone with a medical background, then friggin' call someone else in. I am just so infuriated by this whole thing. Because if you think about it, the nurse was in a position of power and I feel that she abused it. The rape victim had no other alternative.

 

[macchia]

Becoming a victim does not suddenly make one's self innocent. I say this a lot, this is the perfect example. Being a rape victim doesnt grant her immunity from stealing a car.
The nurse, on the other hand, should be fired. Her baggage has nothing to do with her job.

 

[Wings]

Uh...yeah. Medical faculty have the right to deny any procedure based on religious conflict. The patient also has the right to request different medical personnel in lieu of a pending diagnosis/treatment (i.e. doctors, nurses, etc). Although I'm not too certain how these type of things work in prison, I do know that there had to have been more than one medically qualified person on the premises.

Anyway, apparently she made bail and is out of prison. I'm sure she is just running to the media to take the focus off her grand theft case and bring more attention to "I'm the victim".

EDIT: I'm sorry for not following the crowd here, but I'm not going to put anything up to assumption. The article states that she claimed she was raped however there is no indication whether or not a rape test had been performed to confirm.

EDIT #2: It never said that she stole a car. She was charged with grand theft (also known as grand larceny). It means that she stole property that has a greater value than [$$$].

Not to mention firing the nurse would be considered unlawful termination. You cannot fire someone on the basis of religious objection. Who knows, the nurse supervisor might of been Catholic. Correct me if I'm wrong here but Catholics do not believe in birth control. We will never know.

 

[macchia]

I dont see why that's the patient's concern. The nurse should simply tell the doctor she can't do it, then the doctor can get it himself or find a nurse who will. Why the hell should the patient care what some stranger thinks? Its nobody's business what someone chooses to do legally regaurdless of personal morality, and that whole situation should of been resolved seperate from the patient. I mean, if I were in this situation why the hell would I want to hear from some nurse refusing to do her job? That oh we have the pills, by "I personally, as complete stranger and one nurse of many, refuse to give you these pills you'll end up with anyway because I felt like making a scene instead of being an adult".

 

[FlippyD]

I happen to agree with much that's been written. Upon my initial look into this story it seemed as though the event was spun to show the rape victim as innocent entirely based on the fact that she was raped. However, the nurse seemed to be out of line, I think. If she didn't want to do the job she should have found someone else to do it. And it's that self-righteous ignorance that makes people angry at the religious-folk.

I don't think she should be fired, but reprimanded somehow.

 

[alexia]

Now, supposedly, the nurse is denying the whole thing. She's claiming that the victim had the second pill in her personal effects and that the victim requested it. The nurse is claiming that she wasn't given any orders to give her the pill and she didn't have any papers that stated that the victim needed it. I really don't know who to believe.

I do agree that being a victim doesn't make you innocent of other crimes. But you have to take a careful look at the circumstances. Which is more heinous? Rape or grand larceny? It's not like she murdered someone.

As a follow up, the local mayor changed the policy yesterday. In extenuating circumstances, it will be left to the officer on duty's discretion on how to handle these types of situations.

And as for the whole "we don't know if she was raped" comment; no, we don't know, but what a cynical view to have.

 

[macchia]

Idunno, I mean with people like Heather Mills around using the resonating chovanism in PC life to be the 'victim' that deserves all of Mcartney's hard earned money, its hard not to approach a situation like this and think she simply said she was raped in order to get free birth control and a little pity in her court hearing. There are a lot of guys who swoon in those situations and just want to "save" people like that, but guys and girls who've been around know how cold and calculating some women can be to get out fo a sticky situation. Yes, its very cynical to just assume that, but its very naive to immediately believe it in a world like the one we live in.

 

[Roman Candle]

No, it's very cynical. And not really naieve at all. Don't you think that if someone was cold or ditzy enough to go into a police station and say "I've been raped" and take the test just for a free pill - which she could have gotten from a clinic - then the officer would have been able to tell that she was lying. I mean, it's not the kind of thing you just drop in to a conversation lightly - "By the way, mind if I have a pill? No? I've been raped - how 'bout now? Why thank you". If police officers were that stupid / emotionally blind, then you'd be in pretty dire streights.

 

[catalyst]

Uh...yeah. Medical faculty have the right to deny any procedure based on religious conflict.

Courts have previously rejected employee cases against employers for infringing upon their right to be religiously accomadated in various circumstances involving a person's physical or mental wellbeing, or their lifestyle. I found a letter to the senate which lists some of these cases.

http://www.aclu.org/religion/frb/16224leg20040602.html

As my teacher once said, "my right to swing my arm ends at the other person's face."

 

[Z-Row]

this is why we need seperation of church and medicine as well as church and state. ESPECIALLY if the state is funding both the hopsital AND police force.

 

[siggy]

Im religious and I still have no clue what the hell people think is wrong about taking the pills or using condmes. The bastard who raped her should be in jail as well wether she should or not. Was this in Cali? there kinda screwy down there. trying to pass a law to force peo-ple to use some special kind of ligh bulb saying the normal ones are harming the damn enviroment O.O F****ED UP!

 

[FlippyD]

I do agree that being a victim doesn't make you innocent of other crimes. But you have to take a careful look at the circumstances. Which is more heinous? Rape or grand larceny? It's not like she murdered someone.

Eeh, but still, she commited a crime. I'll go so far as to say that the issue of the physical attack on her person is the more pressing issue now, but it seems like she's using that as a way to sway the hearts of the court and lower whatever legal backlash she might face in the future.

I do feel sorry for her, but at the same time she still committed a crime and that must be dealt with as concise as possible when the time comes. This story almost reminds me of "Chicago" the musical (almost...)

Spoiler

In that musical/film the main character uses her fabricated pregnancy to win the hearts of Chicago and the court to cover up her previous crime. While the rape news story isn't as severe, it carries some of the same implications.

 

[catalyst]

I'm not sure anyone said she shouldn't be punished for the crime, but that committing the crime years ago shouldn't have prevented her getting the second pill.

On Chicago:

Spoiler

She did use a pregnancy to hide things, but it was more to give her the innocence that would make people think it was self-defense.

In this case, there is no excuse she could use for having stolen a car, no matter how innocent she tries to make herself seem.

The final scene in that musical was very well done, btw.

 

[whiteshadow]

Quote:"Correct me if I'm wrong here but Catholics do not believe in birth control."

Correction: Well, really only the extreme religious people would go that far. The type of crazy religious hipocritical fanatics who condemn and harrass athesis because they don't believe in god. I am brought up Catholic but we have never been like that. Some people have the wrong perception of Catholics and people who don't believe in birth control and all that stuff are usually like that not because they are Catholic, its because they are just extremists or have very strict moral value.

 

[Roman Candle]

When the Pope said that Catholics should not use birth control, then all Catholics were obliged not to use birth control. When the Pope said "In view of the AIDS epidemic, not using a condom is the greater sin", then Catholics were not obliged to not use birth control.