Childless Cat Lady (Taylor Swift)

Have you read the post READ around the world by TAYLOR SWIFT?

Directly after the 2024 Presidential Debate, Taylor Swift endorsed democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris. Her reason for endorsing Harris she said was due to a number of reasons, but we all know it is directly related to how horribly Donald Trump and JD Vance demean women, brown people, LGBT community, immigrants, well, EVERYONE.

Her picture accompanying her post was of her with a cat referencing JD Vance saying CHILDLESS CAT WOMEN do not have a stake in what happens to the country. Effectively saying, women without children vote does not mean anything. I believe Taylor Swift and other women who are SINGLE and CHILDLESS will prove him WRONG.

In the debate, Kamala Harris said America is tired of the OLD PLAYBOOK and it's time to turn the page. WE WON'T GO BACK! Saying women of a certain age who are not married and who do not have children IS a part of an old playbook instituted and perpetuated by MEN. 

If diamonds are a girl's best friend, then what is her enemy? If you answered time or her age, you would be correct if it was your answer before the 20th century.

If people could live forever in good health at a particular age, it would be 50, according to a 2013 Harris Poll. Gender and geography play a role in the age a person decides is the ideal age to remain for a lifetime. In the poll, men said the perfect age is 47, and women 53. In the Midwest, the perfect age is 50. In the East, it’s 53 and the West it’s 47. Notice, the perfect age is not under 30 like most would believe.

Aging is a natural and inevitable process that encompasses the gradual changes which occur in an individual's body and mind over time. For women, aging was not seen as attractive for them as it was and remains for men.  But do you know at what age a person looks the best? According to a study published in the Journal of Royal Society open access, people look their best in their 30's. There have been countless movies made, in the past, where a woman can be seen crying on her thirtieth birthday.

Today in the U.S., the median first age at marriage for women is 28. For men, it’s 30. From the 18th century up until the mid-20th century, the average age at first marriage dropped to a low of age 20 for women and age 22 for men. Then it began to rise again.

This an important piece of information because at one time, a woman, by her age alone, would be viewed as favorably as outdated milk if she was not married by a certain age. Like milk which has been in the refrigerator past its "use by date," society was reluctant to take a smell to check if it was still usable. A woman past a certain age was tossed out (by society), like the milk, not fit for consumption or use.

Before the 17th century, women who weren’t married were called maids, virgins or “puella,” the Latin word for “girl.” These words emphasized youth and chastity, and they presumed that women would only be single for a small portion of their life – a period of “pre-marriage.” But by the 17th century, new terms, such as “spinster” and “single woman,” emerged. If you were not married by a certain age, your youth was gone, and your virginal sensuality went out the door with it. Some would go as far to say it was the essence of femininity lost.

Spinning, making wool, was commonly done by unmarried women; hence the word came to denote an unmarried woman in legal documents from the 1600s to the early 1900s. By 1719, the word spinster was being used generically for woman still unmarried and beyond the usual age for it. As a denotation for unmarried women in a legal context, the term dates back to at least 1699, and was commonly used in banns of marriage of the Church of England where the prospective bride was described as a "spinster of this parish".

Age is a crucial part of the definition, according to Robin Lakoff's explanation in Language and Woman's Place: "If someone is a spinster, by implication she is not eligible [to marry]; she has had her chance and been passed by. Hence, a girl of twenty cannot be properly called a spinster: she still has a chance to be married". Yet other sources on terms describing a never-married woman indicate that the term applies to a woman as soon as she is of legal age or age of majority.

Fast forward to our present time, and women are met yet again with the idea if she is past a certain age and unmarried, then there must be a reason why men passed her by, and she is no longer a good marital prospect.

According to men who are listening to relationship advice about women in the Manosphere and Red Pill Community, woman's market value is at her highest between the ages of 16 and 25 (possibly up to 30 if she really takes care of herself and is lucky). During this age range, women are at their most attractive to men. They can rely on their looks and sexiness to attract guys (and often, manipulate men for their own gain.  

According to this group of men in this community, as a woman reaches 30 and beyond, her market value decreases, and she becomes less attractive to men. Once she reaches menopause, she's finished, and no man wants her anymore. 

Contrast this with how men age and what aging means to a man's market value. A young boy in his late teens or 20's is not yet his most attractive to women. He is still seen as a boy and not yet a man. As a man gets towards 30, his market value rapidly increases. He starts to look more manly in his appearance, and he starts to act more manly in his personality because he is maturing. Often, he has more career and financial success too. All these traits increase his market value and therefore his attractiveness towards women.

There is a time in a woman's life, also according to the manosphere, where she is considered, "Used Up.' This is when a girl can no longer pair-bond properly due to repeated failed relationships. This seems to reflect the condition of her 'heart' and has nothing to do with biology. But suggests, the innocent, youthful, even virginal quality of a young woman no longer exists due to experiences gained through relationships. This would make one assume, no one wants a jaded marital partner, so pass her by. Her time has expired.

Biologically, many argue that women are in their reproductive prime age for women in their 20's to early 30's. This phase is often referred to as the "prime years." After surveying over 16,000 individuals across eight different countries who were all asked at what ages they think men and women are most beautiful, the data found the overall average age where women are found to be most attractive is 28. Women tend to experience accelerated aging around the ages of 30 and 50, according to a study that analyzed a wide range of molecular and physical markers. Science indicates there is a biological change in a woman's life, but not to the extent of warranting being labeled as "Used Up."

Podcaster Pearl Davis's (@JustPearlyThings) videos, is a strong supporter of the idea that a woman can only be high value until her late 30's. She has often voiced outrage against the body positivity movement because to her, weight has a lot to do with whether or not a woman is capable of being a worthy partner to a man. According to Davis, a high-value woman only ever wants a family and children, and if a woman doesn't want that, she's not worth much.  Female sexuality is another sore spot for many such high-value content creators. Jebediah Bila (@JebediahBilaLIVE), with a massive following of 125,000 subscribers, regularly speaks up about it. In her eyes, a woman's value is surely influenced by how active she is sexually and ruins her prospects at landing a good partner. Chances are the older the unmarried woman is, the higher the probability she has had numerous sex partners. Their goes the loss of that virginal quality again. You now must be labeled a spinster.

Women who were once called spinsters eventually started being called old maids. The term "old maid" is old-fashioned and derogatory, and it's not considered polite to use to describe a woman who is unmarried. However, in the past, a woman over the age of 25 who was unmarried was considered an old maid. In the 17th century, New Englanders also used the term "thornback" to describe single women over 25. In the late 1690s, the term old maid became common. The expression emphasizes the paradox of being old and yet still virginal and unmarried.

These unmarried women, who had to be labeled for society to know how to view and treat them had not only lost their youthful value, innocence, and desired virginal quality, they were viewed as unhappy also. It was unconceivable that an unmarried woman could be happy. The labels given, spinster and old maid, indicated the only thing she was able to do was spin yarn, cook, and/or clean. Her life compared to that of a married woman of that time who also spun yarn, cooked, and/or cleaned was that the married woman did it for husband and children while she was alone.

A 2014 Brookings Institute study on happiness and age found that people are least happy in their 20's, 30's, and early 40's, and steadily gain an appreciation for life as they age. Indeed, most women become increasingly happy after age 55, with their peak of happiness toward the very end of life! Aging is commonly measured by chronological age. As a convention, a person over age 65 is often referred to as elderly. Typically, muscle mass and strength increase steadily from birth and reach their peak at around 30 to 35 years of age. After that, muscle power and performance decline slowly and linearly at first, and then faster after age 65 for women and 70 for men.

The expiration dates on women were effectively taken of during the 20th century only to see a resurgence in this century. The value of a woman married or unmarried still revolves around how desired she is by men. If this is the standard to judge a woman's value or worth to a society, her marital suitability, then a majority of women are spinsters, old maids, and low-value women.

Since we live in a world guided by science, women do not have to embrace these labels. Men do not have such labels. Correction, I do believe there is a low value man, but the term is not part of the mainstream. With such an emphasis placed on female youthfulness, innocence, and virginity, it would seem our society would be ripe with pedophiles. The prevalence of pedophilic disorder is unknown, as the social stigma around it does not invite people to self-identify. Estimates of its prevalence range from one to five percent of the male. population. 

Thankfully, through showing and not just saying, women have shown they don't have to be thrown out by any obscure expiration date. Women choose at what age they want to marry if they marry at all. Lately, thanks to vice presidential nominee JD Vance, it's okay to be the unmarried cat lady. 

If you read my blog, you will notice I look at the way history has defined women and womanhood. History has not been kind to the ladies and for sure not to the single lady. I believe the greatest part about being a woman is how we define ourselves. We are always writing that history. Taylor Swift decided to let her voice and vote be known. We are at a time in history where women are deciding how they want to be defined in the future. The overwhelming sentiment, in unison by women is, WE WON'T GO BACK!

The Silence of Rape

     

    If you are paying attention to the news you have heard E. Jean Carroll has accused former president Donale Trump of raping her in Bergdorf Goodman department store in the mid-1990s and then defamed her when he denied her claim. Trump has denied the assault occured. E. Jean Carroll testified in sometimes searing detail about the day she says Donald trump raped her in a department store dressing room two decades before he became president, allegations the Republican has repeatedly and vehemently denied.

    What grabbed my attention about the case was the statement she did not go to the police or the hospital after the alledged assault. The statement suggest that IF she was so hurt by the rape as she claims, why was she SILENT about it.

    When there is an assault to cause harm or what is labled as a criminal assault, people look for PHYSICAL evidence that an assault has occurred. Is there a busted lip, scratches, black eye, broken bones, knife stab, or a bullet wound. For these outward appearances of an ASSAULT people have sympathy, wants to render aid, help you find a policeman, or take you to a hospital. The assaulted person can walk around with the physical evidence able to speak for itself. But in the case of rape, there may not be any physcal wounds visible. How is sympathy or a feeling of wanting justice stirred in others when physical wounds are not present? How do they JUDGE a person has been HURT when there is nothing physical to see?

    Another thing that comes to mind is, there was no CRY for help. After the alledged rape Ms. Carroll was SILENT. There is a Bible passage in the Old Testament that addresses the silence DURING a rape. Yes. The Bible addresses rape. Duetoronomy 22:23-27 “If there is a betrothed virgin, and a man meets her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. But if in the open country a man meets a young woman who is betrothed, and the man seizes her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die. But you shall do nothing to the young woman; she has committed no offense punishable by death. For this case is like that of a man attacking and murdering his neighbor, because he met her in the open country, and though the betrothed young woman cried for help there was no one to rescue her."

    The Bible passage says the woman was to CRY OUT for help if people are around but will not be faulted for NOT crying out if she is in a place where there are no people, but in both instances the man is to be punished for the crime of rape which is comparable to MURDER. The crying out part is BEFORE or DURING the rape. Why is it then women do not cry out , before, during, or after a rape?

    When a rape occurs there is a CHOICE a woman must make. If a man, larger and stronger than she is, is physically willing to assault her, she has to calculate, "Can my stregnth outmatch his?" We know automatically the answer is probably a no. Rape as you can imagine doesn't take place with people around. The lack of the presence of people is actually a prerequisite to being able to rape. Crying out when there is no one around is a moot point. Back to the calcultions a woman must make when faced with the realization, "This man is going to rape me."

     The woman pretty much knows the struggle to keep from being raped is lost based on the physical makeup of a man versus a woman. With this in mind, she knows her retaliation must be above his. Her defense has to be more brutal and violent to avoid being sexually assaulted. Her options are, 'cause greater harm.' To this critical point, a woman has to decide, "Am I capable of using a force that may lead to MURDER?"

    To many, mostly those never faced with a decision of such grave consequences, the choice will be, murder. It is assumed we all have it in us to take a life to protect our own life. But, if you ask an actual rape VICTIM what was going through their head at the time, you may be surprised at the answer.

    Many rapes are done by people the victim knows. Stranger rapes tend to be more physically violent leaving the outward physical assault evident. But, what about the "I thought I knew him rapes?" Do you want to kill a person whose family you may know or hangs out in your friend circle? Is it easy to kill the co-worker you associate with at work or work for and see daily? Or do the victim succomb with the thought, "It's easier to let it go agead and occur and be over with without resistence possibly causing me more harm than to KILL the person?" Does the victim think "My LESSER ASSAULT (I'm not saying it IS a lesser assault but society has) is better than me having to MURDER someone?"

     What about after the assault of rape? Why don't victims go strait to the police or hospital to report the assault? It's a strange thing rape victims do. They take a SHOWER after a rape. If a person is shot, they don't take a shower. If a person is stabbed they don't go take a shower. Rape victims tend to want to WASH what in their mind is the EVIDENCE left after a rape. The TOUCH itself. The MEMORY itself is what is trying to be washed away because there are no OUTWARD signs for people to run to in an effort to show compassion, help, or justice. There is nothing for the eye to rest on after a rape unless you want to look at her VAGINA. A woman would have to put her vagina on DISPLAY and say here is the evidence. She would have to put her vagina in your face for you to view the harm. The very intimate place of her, covered from view, given sight to only those she chooses, would have to be paraded around and pointed to to gain compassion and sympathy. WHO on earth wants to do that and the victim knows there is no one who wants to see that. People say, "This is where I was shot," but don't say, "This is where I was raped."

    So there is the silence of rape. The body itself can not speak and say LOOK I've been assaulted unless it was a physically violent rape where a beating took place more than likely from a struggle which did not nigate being raped. There is silence because rape does not take place in front of witnesses. The rapes usually take place where the victim felt safe with the rapist or in a safe surrounding. There is silence after the rape because proving an assault where the assault took place between your legs is not a place easily viewed by others. Photographs would have to be carried aroud and displayed by the victim. There is silence because the rapist is known by people the victim is friends with, acquainted with, work with, hope to work with, or are familiar with his family and social circle. There is silence because the victim thinks the trauma is over after the shower. They themselves look in the mirror and see no evidence of an assault. To a rape victim it can seem as though it almost didn't actually happen. It's almost to them as though they need MORE for it to have been a CRIME. Maybe because society, the judicial system, everyday life says only certian proof constituates injury. 

    It is Mental Health Awareness Month as I write this post and we have to strongly KNOW that rape causes mental health issues sooner or later and you don't have to be in a straight jacket to prove you were harmed mentally by a rape. Some of the comments being made during the trial are OFFENSIVE. The most offending statement was by Trump himself. He said his accuser was NOT ATTRACTIVE and many people agreed. Rape is not about the VICTIM'S appearance, social standing, economic standing, physical proportions, beauty, or intelligence. Rape is about there being something WRONG with the rapist! There has been hurdle after hurdle for victims of rape to overcome and being called too UGLY to rape is just another one of the SHAMING of the victim that occurs with rape. Does anyone say, "He was to UGLY to shoot?"

    There is a SILENCE to rape that is birthed with the assault. The victim is too busy asking themselves, "Why Me. Is this My fault? Why didn't I see this coming? What do I do the next time I see him? What WILL happen if I say something? Why mention this to anyone, no one likes to hear stuff like this? Am I okay? Can I keep myself together." the SELF TALK is so much until it's hard to talk to others.

    Rape is such a LOW crime to the point people can't stomach it. Shootings and robberies are on the nightly news daily, but rape is not something that should come over the airwaves into respectable family homes. Bellow I've pasted some sexual assault facts by 32 Shocking Sexual Assault Statistics for 2023, by Jennifer Kuadli, March 30, 2023,32 Disheartening Sexual Assault Statistics for 2023 (legaljobs.io) 

General Statistics about Sexual Assault Although statistics on sexual assault can’t even begin to convey the suffering of victims and their families, they can offer a glimpse into the disturbing extent of the issue.

1. In 2019, over 652,676 women were raped.This figure excludes non-rape sexual assaults but includes date rape statistics; if included, data from non-rape sexual assaults would take the figure closer to the one million mark. What’s worse, it has been rising for the last decade at an annual rate of 2.9%, and this trend shows no sign of decreasing.

2. Over 40% of women in the US have encountered sexual violence. Sexual abuse, as shown by rape and sexual assault statistics, has affected 41.8% of women in the US who have been victimized by sexual violence other than rape.

3. Nearly 80% of female sexual assault victims experience their first assault before the age of 25. Exactly 79.6% of female victims who have experienced one or more completed rape did so before the age of 25.

4. Around 20% of American males have been the victim of sexual violence. According to Rainn statistics, outside of the correctional system, most rape victims are female. However, studies show that 21.4% of males in the US have been the victims of sexual violence and have experienced this outside of any prison facility.

5. A quarter of male victims of sexual assault were under 10 years of age. According to studies, an estimated total of 28% of male victims of sexual assault in the US will have experienced their first assault at 10 years of age or younger.

6. Rape Statistics show that less than 20% of rapes are reported. It is estimated that only 19% of rapes, completed or attempted, are reported annually. This figure runs consistently across the board. The general consensus is that rape is still considered something shameful, hence victim reluctance.

7. Women and men with disabilities face twice the risk of sexual assault than able-bodied individuals. Sadly, data gathered from watchdog organizations and US sexual assault statistics have found that disabled people were twice as likely to be victims of sexual assault than able-bodied people. Statistics of sexual abuse show that the majority of these heinous assaults were carried out in care environments (both facilities and home care). Yet, they were also reported as taking place during hospital or general practitioner sessions, as well as in individual therapy sessions.

8. Nearly 20,000 sexual assaults were reported in the military last year. A study on the level of sexual assault within the military from 2010 revealed sexual violence statistics that showed a figure of 3,577, of which only a quarter took place during deployment in combat zones. The study was repeated in 2019, and the sexual assault stats showed over 19,000 sexual assaults had now taken place in the US military.

9. 7.2% of all children surveyed in 2019 had been victims of sexual assault. Child sexual abuse statistics highlight the harrowing revelation that teens aged 14 to 17 were in the highest risk category for sexual assault, with more than one in four adolescents (27.3%) having been sexually victimized during their lifetimes.

10. Approximately 70 women commit suicide every day in the US following an act of sexual violence. Women sexual assault statistics reveal some extremely disturbing facts. An estimated 70 women commit suicide daily in the US, directly as a result of sexual violence. Worryingly, this figure has grown by 2.87% over the last year.

11. Sexual violence incidents, preceded by stalking, increased by 1.9% in 2019. According to statistics and sexual harassment facts from 2019, the incidents of stalking that led to sexual assaults have increased steadily over the last year. What makes this figure even more alarming is the fact that initiatives were put in place to prevent and protect victims from such occurrences. So, governmental legislation and thinking about the issue must be reviewed.

12. During 2019, 13% of all women in California were victims of rape. Sexual harassment statistics reflect a large percentage of Californian women have been reported as having been a victim to an attempted or completed rape in 2019. Current rape statistics by state show that 13% of all Californian women are in danger of being a victim of sexual assault.

13. Statistics show that 1 in 6 US women will be raped annually in the US. Surveys and rape statistics by gender have found that 1 in 6 American women, and 1 in 33 American men has experienced an attempted/completed rape as a child or adult. This disturbing figure has been predicted to rise exponentially over the next three years.

14. Over 1.5 million women were raped by an intimate partner in 2019. Statistics on sexual harassment from the Department of Justice suggest that over 1.5 million women and 834,700 men are raped and/or physically assaulted annually by an intimate partner in the United States. This staggering figure is both disheartening and unnerving.  Experts have created focus groups to analyze and explore these sexual assault statistics by state in more depth.

Little Known Facts About Male Victims of Sexual Violence According to sexual assault statistics, males are also high-risk victims of sexual violence.

Which means that: Sexual abuse is not limited to females, and the abuse of boys has little to do with either the abuser’s or the victim’s sexual orientation.

Perhaps unsurprisingly: Male rape statistics show that most perpetrators of male sexual assault are men. These predators choose to rape both gay or straight men because rape is an act of aggression and domination, not of sexual desire.

Contrary to popular belief: Girls and women can most definitely be perpetrators of sexual violence toward males, and instances of this kind are more prevalent in society than most people realize.

In contradiction to the sweeping statement thinking of most people, male sexual assault statistics have now proved that most males who experience sexual assault (at any age) do not automatically go on to become sexual abusers.

In many cases: According to gun violence statistics, attackers can use various weapons, physical force, or even the threat of force to gain the upper hand. Others, according to rape victim statistics, may use blackmail or their position of authority to threaten someone into submission.

15. Approximately 16% of males in juvenile prisons have been sexually abused. A 2019 study by the US Center for Disease Control examined woman rape statistics in juvenile prisons for incidents and frequency of sexual violence. The results showed that 16% of males had been victims of sexual abuse, whereas over 60% of males in these facilities had encountered the threat of sexual violence.

16. In Florida alone, a staggering total of 1,477,000 men have been victim to sexual assault. In Florida, 20.4% of men, or 1,477,000 men, have been victimized by sexual violence over the last decade.

17. Over 25% of male sexual assault victims will experience their first assault before 10 years of age. According to sexual assault statistics 2019, studies and statistical analysis, in excess of 25% (27.8% to be exact) of male victims of sexual assault will probably experience their first attack by age 10 or younger.

18. Nearly 40% of adult males that experience sexual violence from an intimate partner are left with psychological scarring. Reports and studies on  US rape statistics show clearly that 39.7% of men who have experienced sexual assault from their partner such as rape, stalking or physical violence, are left with long term impacts such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other types of psychological injury.

19. New York statistics show that 18% of all rapes in the city involved a male victim. According to rape statistics, extensive studies, and focus groups, 2019 involved a record high of male rape victims within the city, with a record high figure of 18% - which is 5.7% higher than 2018.

Sexual Assault Effects on Society

20. Over 80% of sexual assaults are committed by an acquaintance. Relatives, teachers, religious leaders, former spouses - unfortunately, the list of possible attackers is one of people who will most often have a very intimate relationship with the victim. Statistics on rape indicate that this connection normally results in most rape victims shying away from reporting such incidents due to obligatory or emotional pressures.

21. Almost 95% of child victims knew their sexual attacker. Rape stats by RAINN show that the vast majority percentage (93.98%) of child victims in the US in 2019 were familiar with their attacker. In almost all of these cases, as reflected by teenage sexual assault statistics, the child had spent a significant amount of time (10 plus hours, in one full duration or segmented) with their attacker prior to the sexual assault taking place.

22. The rate of false rape claims in the US is well below the 10% average mark. Although false rape claims do happen, it is important to keep in mind that the majority of rape claims are legitimate, as sexual assault statistics reveal. In fact, data collated in 2019 from false rape statistics, shows that a combined rate of 6.9% of rape claims were false. 

23. Sexual assaults cost the US billions of dollars annually. Findings from college sexual assault statistics and other reports show that although sexual assaults take heinous tolls on their victims and cause terrible emotional damage, there is another cost that is rarely factored into such tragic events - the cost on society in financial terms. According to stats on sexual abuse, when we factor in the costs of funding and running sexual assault services, the resulting lower educational aspirations (a common affliction amongst adolescents who have been the victim of child abuse), and the cost of lost earnings of victims who have been traumatized to a point where they are unable to work, the costs on the US annually are in excess of $450 billion. A staggering figure on paper, and one that has, according to stats on sexual assault, been increasing yearly by 1.8% on average.

24. 69% of rape victims in the US are women aged between 12 to 34 years old. Sexual violence figures from 2019 were significantly higher compared to sexual assault statistics 2018. The 12-34 age bracket has been known to encompass the majority of rape victims in the US on an average year.

25. Transgender college students have a 5% higher rate of getting raped than other students. After conducting studies on sexual assault statistics by gender, US colleges have reported a rise in sexual attacks on transgender students. College rape statistics about transgender, genderqueer, and gender-nonconforming (TGQN) students have shown that in 2019 an average of 23% of students were in danger of being sexually assaulted, compared to 18% of non-TGQN students. These stats are concerning because they are significantly higher than college sexual assault statistics 2018, which means the problem is getting out of control.

26. Bisexual women are more than twice as likely to victims of rape than straight women. Of all the women at the greatest risk from sexual assault in the US, bisexual women are statistically in the danger zone. Sexual abuse statistics show that 46% of bisexual women reported being a victim of sexual assault in 2019, compared to 17% of straight women.

Furthermore, sexual assault on college campuses statistics show an interesting correlation, which reveals that bisexual men face similar issues, with 47% of them being victims of sexual violence, compared to 21% of heterosexual men.

27. The majority (90%) of rape victims are female. Findings from sexual assault reporting statistics have unsurprisingly revealed that women make up the vast majority of rape victims. This figure reflects rape statistics US and includes adult victims but excludes juvenile victims, who, if included, would total 82% of all rape victims.

28. An American is sexually assaulted every 93 seconds. Sexual assaults are on the rise throughout the whole of the US. On average, state by state comparative analysis (including rape statistics by race data) shows that there are approximately 325,566 victims of rape and sexual assault (age 12 or older) in the US every year.

29. People with disabilities are twice as likely to be victims of rape and sexual assault as those without disabilities. Both males and females with disabilities experienced higher rates of victimization than able-bodied males and females. Surprisingly, rape statistics in the US show that those with a type of cognitive-functioning disability were at higher risk of violent victimization than those with any other type of disability.

30. Girls and women between the ages of 16 and 19 are 4x more likely than girls and women in other age groups to be assaulted or raped. Results gathered from numerous studies show that campus sexual assault statistics have found patterns on the locale of victims. In general, 46% of sexual assault victims were sleeping or performing another activity at home when they were victimized.

Nearly 23% were traveling to and from school or work, shopping, or running errands. Some 19% were working when they were, 9% were attending school, and 19% were doing some other activity.

31. One out of every six American females is a victim of attempted or completed sexual assault.According to sexual assault facts, one out of every six American women will most probably be the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime. This ratio has doubled in the last five years, and analysts predict the same to happen over the course of the next half a decade.

1 in 33 American men (about 3% of the total percentage of women sexually assaulted) have experienced an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime. This figure has increased by 22.4% over the last five years.

32. For every 1000 rapes in the US, 995 perpetrators will go unpunished. Studies covering unreported sexual assault statistics show that the overwhelming majority of perpetrators will escape punishment of any kind. US rape stats show that too many victims are afraid to follow through with the legalities of their claim, leading to perpetrators escaping punishment of any form.

Roevember and Beyond

 

All the talk today, and possibly for years to come, will be about the overturning of Roe vs Wade by the Supreme Court (06/24/22). Women are up in arms in what they consider an assault on their health care choices and rights. Many are sounding the alarm of a return to back alley abortions where many women lost their lives in a desparate attempt to get rid of an unwanted pregnancy. Women are pushing for a ROEVEMBER when they head to the voting polls to vote against those enacting laws making medical choices for women and limiting their healthcare choices. Hostages currently in the Israel - Hamas conflict, are being raped and inpregnated, and by U.S. laws, will be forced to continue the pregnancy of the rapist once released.

But will women really return to extreme and archaic means of aborting an unwanted pregnancy? Over fifty-one years ago, before the advancements in technology, women had to resort to dangerous practices and "gimmicks" to end pregnancies. The advancement of medical information and application at speeds and accuracies unimaginable in the day of back alley abortions, is now at the fingertips of women. Will HOME HERBAL ABORTIONS be a viable alternative for women seeking to end a pregnancy? Will the internet's medical offerings be the "go to" for desparate women wanting to end a pregnancy? As with the opiod epidemic, will there be a "health crises" of poisinings from attempt to end pregnancies herbally? (Most women do not admit to their physician to taking at home remedies to end pregnancies when seeking treatment when it goes wrong).

The internet has been a source for bomb making and the ability to make lethal weapons for several years now. Will it be the go to source for abortion needs? Will there be a rise in hollistic abortions or apothecary services as a healthy/safe alternative and a new choice in women's health care due to laws restricting doctors from performing abortions? Let's look to the past in determining a new possible path for the future.

Here I am today at the only abortion clinic in Jackson, MS as pro life and pro abortion activists make their voices known to women who enter the facility for a sceduled surgical abortion. When medical facilities offering safe surgical abortions were being closed down due to federal rulings, women began searching the internet for viable means of terminating pregnancies. Fear and desparation gave way to entertaining alternatives to keeping unwanted pregnancies. Women were immediately transported, if only in their minds, to the era of pre - Roe v Wade.

In “Eve’s Herbs: A History of Contraception and Abortion in the West,” the author, John M. Riddle, posits that while we may think of ancient and medieval people as superstitious and prone to rely on useless remedies when it came to abortion, many knew what they were doing. The historian illustrates how their methods, most commonly drugs taken orally, were developed through careful observation of nature (noticing, for example, which plants caused livestock to bear fewer offspring), experimentation, and the accumulation of botanical knowledge passed down by word-of-mouth, and also occasionally in written form, including a text by a thirteenth-century physician, Peter of Spain, who later became Pope John XXI!

The plants, which caused pregnancies to end were put in different classifications as to what affect they caused within the body. Certain chemicals within plants or herbs were noted to cause miscarriages or interrupt the nature pattern of menstruation. Detailed documentation of plants and outcomes each plant causes has been available and used for centuries. Modern medicine developed drugs which mimic "treatments" nature offered FIRST for centuries. The medical field also classified the drugs the pharmacidcal companies manufactured and made available for women's healthcare needs. Many plants ingested to terminate pregnancies, did not reliably do so.

An abortifacient ("that which will cause a miscarriage" from Latin: abortus "miscarriage" and faciens "making") is a substance that induces abortion. Common abortifacients used in performing medical abortions include mifepristone, which is typically used in conjunction with misoprostol in a two-step approach. Misoprostol (discussed above) is also used to treat peptic ulcers in patients who have had gastric or intestinal damage from use of NSAIDs. Synthetic oxytocin, which is routinely used safely during term labor, is also commonly used to induce abortion in the second or third trimester. Both synthetic oxytocin (Pitocin) and dinoprostone (Cervidil, Prepidil) are routinely used during healthy, term labor. Pitocin is used to induce and strengthen contractions, and Cervidil is used to prepare the cervix for labor by inducing softening and widening of this opening to the uterus. When used this way, neither medication is considered an abortifacient. However, the same drugs can be used to induce an abortion, particularly after 12 weeks of pregnancy. Methotrexate, a drug often used for management of rheumatoid arthritis, can induce abortion.

Emmenagogues are defined in herbal medicine as herbs capable of stimulating the menstrual flow even when it is not due and are also to be avoided during pregnancy. For centuries, herbal abortifacients have been made from infusions or oils of plants such as pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium), angelica (Angelica species) which I have planted in my flower garden at the moment, and tansy (Tanacetum vulgare). 

Such preparations are no more likely to terminate a pregnancy than they are to induce potentially lethal reactions such as vomiting, hemorrhages, and convulsions in the women who take them. Overconsumption of pennyroyal and mugwort, for example, can cause liver failure, according to Ryan Marino, the medical director of toxicology and addiction at the University Hospitals in Cleveland. Several extreme cases of herbal poisoning among his patients, including some who suffered seizures have been noted with Pennyroyal. Truly effective abortifacients were not developed until the end of the 20th century, when the biochemical processes behind cell division and growth and the role of hormones in reproductive processes were understood. 

The medical literature of classical antiquity often refers to pharmacological use of plants and herbs) means of abortion; abortifacients are mentioned, and sometimes described in detail, in the works of Aristotle, Caelius Aurelianus, Celsus, Dioscorides, Galen, Hippocrates, Oribasius, Paul of Aegina, Pliny, Theodorus Priscianus, Soranus of Ephesus, and others.

In ancient Babylonian texts, scholars have described multiple written prescriptions or instructions for ending pregnancies. Some of these instructions were explicitly for ingesting ingredients to end a pregnancy, whereas other cuneiform texts discuss the ingestion of ingredients to return a missed menstrual period (which is used repeatedly throughout history as a coded reference to abortion).

"To make a pregnant woman lose her foetus: ...Grind nabruqqu plant, let her drink it with wine on an empty stomach, [then her foetus will be aborted]."

The ancient Greek colony of Cyrene at one time had an economy based almost entirely on the production and export of the plant silphium, which had uses ranging from food to a salve for feral dog bites. It was also considered a powerful abortifacient used to "purge the uterus". Silphium figured so prominently in the wealth of Cyrene that the plant appeared on coins minted there.

The ancient city of Cyrene in modern-day Libya was famous for a plant called silphium that grew nowhere else. Silphium was the wonder herb of the classical world. It was a type of fennel, sort of like celery, or maybe parsley, with heart-shaped leaves. The Greeks and later the Romans imported it in massive quantities. They served it in fancy meals like stewed flamingo. They used it to cure growths in the anus and the bites of wild dogs. Men used it as an aphrodisiac. And women used it to, as Hippocrates and Pliny and other doctors at the time delicately put it, “purge the uterus.” Of course, not everyone could afford silphium. The Greek physician Dioscorides wrote down a recipe for “abortion wine” that contained ingredients that could be gathered closer to home—hellebore, squirting cucumber, and scammony—but neglected to mention quantities.

For Aboriginal people in Australia, plants such as giant boat-lip orchid (Cymbidium madidum), quinine bush (Petalostigma pubescens), or blue-leaved mallee (Eucalyptus gamophylla) were ingested, inserted into the body, or were smoked with Cooktown ironwood (Erythrophleum chlorostachys). In the Middle Ages, women who wanted to restore their cycles were instructed to eat, among other things, crushed ants, the saliva of camels, and tail hairs of black-tail deer dissolved in bear fat. But herbs were generally considered more helpful, not just in Europe, but everywhere in the world: blue cohosh, calamus, horseradish, and red cedar in North America; Peruvian bark in South America; the boat-lip orchid, blue-leaved mallee, and Cooktown ironweed in Australia.

Historically, the First Nations, people of eastern Canada used Sanguinaria canadensis (bloodwort) and Juniperus virginiana to induce abortions

According to Virgil Vogel, a historian of the indigenous societies of North America, the Ojibwe used blue cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides) as an abortifacient, and the Quinault used thistle for the same purpose. The appendix to Vogel's book lists red cedar (Juniperus virginiana), American pennyroyal (Hedeoma pulegioides), tansy, Canada wild ginger (Asarum canadense), and several other herbs as abortifacients used by various North American Indian tribes. The anthropologist Daniel Moerman wrote that calamus (Acorus calamus), which was one of the ten most common medicinal drugs of Native American societies, was used as an abortifacient by the Lenape, Cree, Mohegan, Sioux, and other tribes; and he listed more than one hundred substances used as abortifacients by Native Americans.

The historian Angus McLaren, writing about Canadian women between 1870 and 1920, states that "A woman would first seek to 'put herself right' by drinking an infusion of one of the traditional abortifacients, such as tansy, quinine, pennyroyal, rue, black hellebore, ergot of rye, sabin, or cotton root."

During the American slavery period, 18th and 19th centuries, cotton root bark was used in folk remedies to induce a miscarriage. Cotton root bark was historically used by indigenous North American tribes as an emmenagogue and abortifacient. Its use as an emmenagogue was adopted by the Eclectic physicians, and as an abortifacient by southern physicians into the 1800s. The plant has a profound history, reportedly used as an abortifacient by female slaves in the United States who were frequently victims of rape by their “masters,” and consequently, experienced unwanted pregnancies.

In the 19th century Madame Restell provided mail-order abortifacients and surgical abortion to pregnant clients in New York.

Early 20th-century newspaper advertisements included coded advertisements for abortifacient substances which would solve menstrual "irregularities." Between 1919 and 1934 the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued legal restraints against fifty-seven "feminine hygiene products" including "Blair's Female Tablets" and "Madame LeRoy's Regulative Pills."

The peacock flower (or flos pavonis) is an arresting plant, standing nine feet tall in full bloom, with brilliant red and yellow blossoms. But it’s more than beautiful; it’s an abortifacient, too. One of the most striking records of the plant comes from German-born botanical illustrator Maria Sibylla Merian who, in her 1705 book Metamorphosis of the Insects of Surinam, recounts “The Indians, who are not treated well by their Dutch masters, use the seeds [of this plant] to abort their children, so that their children will not become slaves like they are.” Two other naturalists had also discovered the peacock flower’s use as an abortifacient in the West Indies. Michel Descourtilz, a Frenchman, had observed its same use in Haiti, writing with disdain of the “ill intentions of the ‘negress’ who aborted their offspring.” Another remarked on the “guilty practice of preventing pregnancy by use of herbs” and was surprised that slave women used them effectively, that the “drinks did not destroy health.”

Commonly accepted abortifacients and emmenagogic herbs include (but are not limited to) tansy, thuja, safflower, scotch broom, rue, angelica, mugwort, wormwood, yarrow, and essential oil of pennyroyal. “Black Cohosh Root (Cimicifuga racemosa) is a relaxant and normalizer of female reproductive system. Eases painful and delayed menses, ovarian cramps, or womb cramps.” It’s best for, among other things — aborting a baby.

It took me only five minutes to find this history of herbal plants used to abort pregnancies throughout history. If I were in need of terminating a pregnancy the amount of information about the chemicals and their combinations and actions on the body could easily be found and researched. Access to materials such as medication, herbs, and chemical compounds is easier to obtain in our consumer economy. 

Of course, there is always danger in self medicating any health condition and we witnessed that first-hand with people turning to unsafe ingestion of medicine and herbs in an effort to fight off or prevent Covid-19 (Coronavirus) infection. But, nevertheless, people do turn to home remedies, herbs, and what is considered hollistic treatments. 

The internet has become a resource rich enviroment for almost anything a person has a desire to research and learn. There will be great sources of information and misinformation found on the internet. We will not know in which direction this wind of change regarding abortion will blow women when it comes to unwanted pregnancies. Only time will tell. Below was another online site I found that goes into detail on using herbs to abort a pregnancy with doses and pros and cons on using each herb. Notice it is a D.I.Y. (do it yourself) guide. How many women will be turning to such care? Have women been left to "Do It Yourself" in this area of medical health? A major reason Roe v Wade was inacted into law was to keep desparate women wanting to end a pregancy safe from dying trying to end an unwanted pregnancy. 

Herbal Abortion
a woman’s d.i.y. guide by Annwen

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/annwen-herbal-abortion

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