WASHINGTON, April 20, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vice President Joe Biden has come under criticism for attempting to stifle debate on the Violence Against Women Act reauthorization bill, currently up for consideration in Congress. These concerns arise from a Wednesday speech in which he claimed the current debate surrounding the VAWA bill S. 1925 "is truly sad" and questioned whether the bill "is even a debatable issue."
Biden's statement came two weeks after a Heritage Foundation report concluded the VAWA reauthorization bill currently being considered represents a "gross distortion of the original law" and is "fundamentally flawed." http://thf_media.s3.amazonaws.com/2012/pdf/bg2673.pdf
Women Against VAWA Excess (WAVE) charged Biden's statement amounted to "incendiary and false rhetoric." The group issued a challenge: "Mr. Biden, why won't you engage in a serious discussion of this bill?" http://womenagainstvawa.org/biden-renew-my-bill-or-more-men-will-beat-up-women/
One media account of the speech highlighted the one-sided nature of his remarks: "Biden, a champion of sexual equality, did not mention domestic violence against men or legal safeguards for defendants." http://dailycaller.com/2012/04/18/biden-suggests-gop-opposition-to-dem-bill-will-spur-domestic-violence/#ixzz1sVRm3VJx
Op-ed writer Robert Franklin views the Biden speech as part of a broader attempt to cover up serious problems with anti-violence policies. "When VAWA promotes mandatory arrest that probably increases the changes that a woman will be injured or killed in a DV incident, you know something's wrong with the law," he wrote in an April 19 column. http://www.fathersandfamilies.org/2012/04/19/republicans-dv-bill-mostly-unnoticed-by-msm-dems-dv-advocates/
Franklin also charged the domestic violence industry with placing ideology over victim safety, saying that "sav[ing] women's lives and promot[ing] their physical and emotional well-being takes a back seat to the political orthodoxy of the DV movement."
The Vice President deplored how the use of "psychological power…is the ugliest sin that man can commit." But the Centers for Disease Control recently reported that women are more likely than men to engage in psychological aggression with their intimate partners, with victimization rates of 18% among males compared to 14% in females. http://www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/pdf/NISVS_Report2010-a.pdf, Tables 4.9 and 4.10.
Almost anticipating the vice president's controversial remarks, the Heritage Foundation study observed:
"Instead of working to fix the bill's substantive problems, proponents of S.1925 are attempting to characterize opponents of the bill as anti-woman and pro-domestic violence—an absurd notion that stifles debate on the legislation's many problems."
Contact:
Teri Stoddard
Phone: 301-801-0608
Email: tstoddard@saveservices.org
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