Forced birth is local, pt. 1: what is the rape exception protocol, Sheriff Judd?

Individual local police officers are the new real-time gatekeepers of the "rape, incest, and human trafficking" exceptions to 6-week forced birth in a state that ended 85,000 pregnancies last year.

In Part 2, we’ll look at the so-called medical “exceptions,” which are just as cruel, mindless, and bureaucratic.

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Rep. Jennifer Canady, R-Lakeland’s 6-week forced birth law takes effect on May 1, no matter how desperate she is to run away from it.

This is real. This is happening. And Canady, like everyone else, is saddled with it.

What follows is the statutory text of the theoretical “rape, incest, and human trafficking exception” language in the law she sponsored. Note what I’ve circled. Whether or not Canady personally wrote the exception language, she is 100 percent responsible for it.

If you are a rape victim who discovers you are pregnant with your rapist’s fetus on May 1, you are still entitled to end your pregnancy until 15 weeks of pregnancy — in theory, on paper, in cheap political rhetoric.

In real life, nobody has any idea how the hell that will work; and the mechanics of seeking a rape exception look nightmarishly vague and bureaucratic.

Indeed, as of now, rape, incest, human trafficking exceptions will be granted entirely on the vibes individual police officers get in talking to women seeking to end a pregnancy after 6-weeks.

Endless official irresponsibility and moral cowardice

Canady and Polk County Sheriff Grady and State Attorney Brian Haas should have long ago issued a joint public information sheet titled: “If you need a rape, incest, or human trafficking pregnancy termination: What to do, who to call, what to expect.”

I would bet $10 that they will never do this. Forced birth is always somebody else’s problem for fake “pro-lifers.”

I know Jennifer Canady won’t do that because she’s a deeply unserious status hunting political nepo afraid to even mention her own 6-week forced birth law on her own campaign mailer. She has no interest in helping operationalize her fake beliefs in a responsible and vaguely humane way.

But I’m testing my hypothesis with Judd, Haas, and the Lakeland Police Department. I sent this email last Sunday to all three seeking clarification. Note the part in bold.

As you may know, forced birth at 6 weeks becomes Florida law within days. There is a so-called "rape exception" to the law. I'm copying it below. The "rape exception" language is very unclear on who has authority to grant the "rape exception."  And obviously, 6 weeks (or even 15 weeks) is not enough to legally adjudicate a rape accusation. 

Can you please share how your agencies will determine if a girl or woman is eligible for the "rape exception." What is the protocol a rape victim should follow? Who should they call for approval? How do you interpret your duties within the exception.  

If you have any public record related to the "rape exception" protocol, I'd like to see it. But I'm mostly interested in helping explain publicly to rape victims how they can legally end a pregnancy. So please help me in this public service. 

I haven’t received an official response yet from anyone. But I do have reason to believe that LPD, at least, is taking the question seriously. LPD, as a non-elected law enforcement agency, is in a bit of a different category that Judd and Haas, who should really take the lead on this.

The vibe exception: individual police officers decide in real time if you get a rape, incest, or human trafficking abortion

Of the many social bombs ticking within that vague language, here is the biggest:

Rape (sexual battery), incest, and human trafficking are legally defined crimes. There is not remotely enough time to adjudicate legally whether such crimes created the pregnancy that the alleged victim is racing to end by 15 weeks.

Thus, rape, incest, human trafficking exceptions will be granted entirely on vibes — not legal determinations.

The plain text of the law gives any individual police officer the authority/obligation to grant or deny a rape exception based on the content of his or her “police report.”

Does that police officer, in the moment, believe a rape accusation enough to define it as rape in writing? That’s the only question that really matters. What extraordinary personal power to hand anyone. Read the rape exception again for yourself if you doubt me. Note what I’ve circled:

A “police report” is just a report — it’s not an arrest or conviction. It verifies nothing, legally. It means nothing, legally. Same with a “medical record.”

It’s an expression of the vibes a police officer gets from the “evidence” immediately available. Same with a restraining order from a court.

Even the “easy” exception is a nightmare

Indeed, consider the most cut-and-dried, and rarest, form of rape: violent stranger abduction and sexual battery without a witness.

Most likely the victim reports it immediately and goes to the hospital. She has both a police record and a medical record documenting that she reported rape. Medical providers may see physical signs of rape when they examine her. But no one can really, legally verify that she was raped.

This victim would likely receive some kind of emergency contraception. Thus the “rape scenario” most people conjure when they hear “rape exception” isn’t even in part of the “rape exception” conversation in most instances.

Yet, what if the stranger victim doesn’t report the rape immediately? Trauma and misplaced shame does weird, painful things to people. And what if she finds herself pregnant after 6 weeks? How hard is that conversation with police when there is no medical record — and the clock is ticking toward Canady’s exception line.

Woman: I was raped. I don’t know by who. I need to end this pregnancy. I have a husband and children.

Cop taking police report: Um, ok. Are you sure? Sure this isn’t an affair gone bad?

Woman: Oh my god. Are you serious?

Cop taking police report: OK, ok, I’ll call it rape in my report.

And that’s the “easy” exception.

Expect those rape crime stats to jump

Florida openly, legally ends 85,000 pregnancies each year. See this article:

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Six-week forced birth creates an almost total barrier to open, legal pregnancy termination. Many/most women not seeking to get pregnant don’t even know they’re pregnant by 6 weeks. Once they discover they’re pregnant, the clock is racing toward the vicious, pointless, medically-absurd 15-week deadline.

In fact, the very arbitrariness of the 15-week exception deadline and the vibe-based reality of the exceptions themselves offers a reasonably clear path to keeping de facto 15-week forced birth.

It creates a massive incentive for girls and women and their boyfriends to claim anonymous, never-to-be prosecuted rapes. It creates a massive incentive for girls/women to accuse their boyfriends/hook-ups of rape. That’s the ticket to ending an unwanted pregnancy. It comes with no obvious consequence that I can see.

Don’t shoot the messenger. I didn’t write this stupid and brutal law. I just read it.

Shutting down these incentives to declare rape depends on individual police officers and medical workers being willing to declare, without any evidence, that a woman or girl claiming a rape, incest, or human trafficking pregnancy is lying.

And because these exceptions are all crimes, a medical worker’s opinion is likely to be funneled to police anyway for investigation. There are all sorts of mandatory reporting requirements. And I suspect a cop can overrule the judgement of a medical provider.

Postcards from exception enforcement

Thus, if some specific powerful local person is not named the poobah of the Polk County forced birth exception clearinghouse, the gate-keepers of the “rape exception” will likely be the individual police officers and deputies who take statements from woman and girls and write reports.

The women and girls need those reports to end a pregnancy after 6 weeks. Think about the power balance of that. And let’s consider some scenarios of how this might play out in real life.

Each scenario involves individual police officers making a individual judgment in writing about the veracity of a girl/woman’s rape report. And the boy/man/rapist is very much a crucial character in the drama:

Seventeen-year-old girl pregnant. Unclear how she’s pregnant; but she has 17-year-old boyfriend.

Girl: I was raped. I need to end this pregnancy.

Cop: Really, you were raped? By whom.

Girl: I don’t know. It was a party. I was roofied.

Cop: I have to have a name.

Girl: Ok, it was actually my boyfriend, Bobby.

Cop: Now I don’t believe you.

Girl: It’s true.

Cop: Ok, I have to arrest him.

13-year-old girl pregnant by 20-year-old “boyfriend” and/or family acquaintance

Call this the Karl Malone scenario. It is quite common, as I understand the statistics etc.

Cop: We have a child abuse hotline report that you’re pregnant. Your obstetrician was obligated to report. You’re too young to give consent. You’ve been raped.

Girl’s Sketchy Parent: Does that mean she can have an abortion?

Cop: Yes, maybe, if she’s hurries. But she’s at 10 weeks now. And I need to know who raped her.

Girl: Nobody raped me. I love him.

Cop: He doesn’t love you; he’s a rapist. You’re too young to consent. If you don’t tell me his name, you can’t have an abortion. And I have to arrest him.

Sketchy Parent: But he’s a family acquaintance. We prefer to handle this internally. It’s not really rape, is it? But she’s too young to consent, so she can get an abortion, right?

25-year-old, self-declared human trafficking victim from another country

Woman, speaking in broken English: I’m pregnant with a client’s fetus. I need an abortion. I was able to sneak away from my trafficker/pimp this morning. Can you help?

Cop: Yes. But how do I know you’ve been human trafficked?

Woman: I’m telling you.

Cop: Who are the traffickers?

Woman: I can’t say. They’ll kill me. They’ll kill me if they know I’m talking to you. And I don’t want to be deported.

Cop: Well, you can’t have an abortion, unless, maybe you could do me a favor first.

16-year-old girl pregnant by her father

Girl: I’m pregnant by my Dad. I need an abortion

Cop: You’re what?

Girl: I know.

Cop: Ummmm, I’m really sorry.

Girl: Can I have an abortion?

Cop: I think we have to ask Kelli and John Stargel. They say a parent has to approve it.

Girl: My mom isn’t around. My Dad has to approve it?

Cop: I think so.

Girl: You think so?

Cop: I think you have to go to court, a least. Do you have a lawyer?

Girl: No, of course not. Does he get to come?

Cop: Probably. Listen, are you sure it was your Dad?

Girl: Oh my God. Seriously?

Local, local, local

In real life, come May 1, if you find yourself or a loved one or just a fellow human being in anything like these scenarios, you will likely need a lawyer or effective personal advocate to even have a shot at getting through that wall of passive legislative aggression.

If you find yourself denied by an individual police officer — or bounced between people claiming they have no authority to do anything — you need to call your local elected and public officials to help you.

Most have been publicly claiming they want this for years. They’re very very quiet now. But make them help you. They have the most power, platform, and responsibility to cut through gross and badly written state laws to get to specific local results.

And yes, I’m talking about you, Lakeland city commissioners and Polk County commissioners and maybe Polk School Board members.

Obtaining local rape, incest, and exceptions for pregnancy termination is now part of your constituent work. Remember, this is what you said you wanted.

Six-week forced birth and pregnancy termination is local.

Local women and girls seek it; local doctors perform it; local health care bureaucracies will consult their lawyers about; local cops will approve or deny it, based on what they write in incident reports to which there are no apparent appeals.

All that bullshit ya’ll never meant; all that bullshit Roe protected you from so you could bathe publicly in your cheap moral vanity; is now in your face in your community. It’s not somebody else’s responsibility. It’s yours.

I fully expect you to duck it. Prove me wrong.