Obama’s Record on Protection Against Sexual Assault
The McCain campaign recently put out a disgraceful and dishonest ad against Obama when it comes to protecting children from sexual assault. The campaign ad claims Obama’s “one accomplishment” in the area of education was “legislation to teach ‘comprehensive sex education’ to kindergarteners.”
Announcer: Education Week says Obama “hasn’t made a significant mark on education.” That he’s “elusive” on accountability. “A staunch defender of the existing public school monopoly.” Obama’s one accomplishment? Legislation to teach “comprehensive sex education” to kindergarteners. Learning about sex before learning to read? Barack Obama. Wrong on education. Wrong for your family.
John McCain: I’m John McCain and I approved this message.
While the bill Obama supports does include the term “comprehensive sex education,” that is about all the McCain campaign got right. What this ad did was pick a quote to use against Obama to scare the voting population into thinking Obama supports five year olds being taught about sex, which is completely wrong.
The bill in question called for all sex education course materials to include information that would help students recognize, among other activities, inappropriate touching, sexual assault and rape:
Course material and instruction shall discuss and provide
for the development of positive communication skills to maintain healthy relationships and avoid unwanted sexual activity. … Course material and instruction shall teach pupils … how to say no to unwanted sexual advances … and shall include information about verbal, physical, and visual sexual harassment, including without limitation non-consensual sexual advances, non-consensual physical sexual contact, and rape by an acquaintance. The course material and instruction shall contain methods of preventing sexual assault by an acquaintance, including exercising good judgment and avoiding behavior that impairs one’s judgment.
This bill passed in the Health and Human Services Committee with Democrats; however, the measure died while in the Senate and since 2005, no action has been taken on it. The reason I believe that this happened is because people, such as McCain, understand the bill as “teaching sex education to five year olds” and not teaching five year olds the difference between someone showing them affection and mistaking that affection as love when that acquaintance (or family member) is sexually abusing that child. As it stands now, it is up to the parents to educate their children about inappropriate touching and behavior and what is dramatically wrong with that is that the parents (or parent) themselves could be the very people abusing that child. Children need to be taught the difference between affection and abuse and right now, there is no other way for children to learn the difference other than from their parents.
In a debate with Republican Alan Keyes for an open seat in the U.S. Senate in 2004 Obama clarified the reasoning behind this bill and why it was important:
Keyes, Oct. 21, 2004: Well, I had noticed that, in your voting, you had voted, at one point, that sex education should begin in kindergarten, and you justified it by saying that it would be “age-appropriate” sex education. [It] made me wonder just exactly what you think is “age-appropriate.”
Obama: We have a existing law that mandates sex education in the schools. We want to make sure that it’s medically accurate and age-appropriate. Now, I’ll give you an example, because I have a six-year-old daughter and a three-year-old daughter, and one of the things my wife and I talked to our daughter about is the possibility of somebody touching them inappropriately, and what that might mean. And that was included specifically in the law, so that kindergarteners are able to exercise some possible protection against abuse, because I have family members as well as friends who suffered abuse at that age. So, that’s the kind of stuff that I was talking about in that piece of legislation.
I do not understand why anyone would have a problem with this bill except for them believing that either sexual assault doesn’t exist within children or doesn’t exist at all. On both accounts, these people would be sadly mistaken.
As a person who was sexually abused repeatedly throughout my childhood, I wish that someone had informed me about the difference between affection and abuse. The “stranger danger” talk does not work and it never has; you can tell your children to be weary of the creepy man down the street but how do they know what is happening when it’s their grandparents, uncles, aunts, fathers and even mothers? They don’t and that is the reason why it took me nearly a decade to utter a word about my abuse and no one should ever have to go through that–Ever.
Barack Obama’s record on protection against sexual assault is stellar:
- Obama Passed The Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Database Act of 2005.
- Obama Passed A Bill To Protect Children From Known Sex Offenders.
- Obama Passed Law Expanding Rights Of Alleged Victims of Sexual Assault.
- Obama Passed A Law To Make Administering A Date Rape Drug Aggravated Battery As Well As An Aggravating Offense To Criminal Sexual Assault.
- Obama Passed A Law to Expand the Definitions of “Sex Offender” and “Sex Offense” and Mandate Offender Disclosure.
- Obama Passed Law to Require EMS For Sexual Assault Survivors To Include Coverage For Emergency Contraception.
- Obama Passed a Bill Eliminating Good Behavior Time For Sex Offenders.
- Obama Passed Law to Extend Statute Of Limitations On Certain Sexual Offenses.
- Obama Sponsored Illinois Senate Version Of The Bill That Would Seal Sexual Assault Victim’s Records.
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