One Survivor's Story
Speaking out in support of Compassionate Care for
Rape Victims
Interview
on
PP: Tell me what you thought of how
Mark Gundrum acted when you testified.
[during the public hearing in the Assembly Judiciary
Committee on
Linda: I was very unsettled, upset, when
I noticed during my testimony that Representative Gundrum did not listen to me.
He was turned next to him talking to Representative Kramer the entire time.
PP: How did he act when you talked to
him in the hallway afterwards?
Linda: As though he were irritated and
really couldn’t be bothered.
PP: What were you trying to tell him,
when you were in the hallway, when you were in the hearing? What were you
trying to convey to him?
Linda: How important it is to understand
the word compassion for rape victims and the Compassionate Care for Rape
Victims Bill. To look into his heart, and try to understand something that he
could never possibly go through in his life. It didn't seem as though he
understood the word compassion in compassionate care.
PP: If you were to see him right now,
what would you say to him?
Linda: What part do you not understand
in the word compassion?
PP: How long have you been testifying
about this?
Linda: Two years. Two years, and every
hearing, every day that goes by, I feel assaulted again because that's what it
is when no one cares. That someone chooses to listen to a handful of others who
it has not ever happened to, but it could happen to. That part they don't see. It could be them.
It could be a sister, a mother, a daughter. Representative Gundrum has four
daughters, and I just don’t understand why he can’t see beyond his own nest.
PP: How does it make you feel that he
passed an amendment that makes the bill completely ineffective?
Linda: Violated. Violated. It's all this
work that we've done, not for ourselves, but to help others for when it happens
to them. He
just dismisses it like it's a child falling on the playground and bruising
their knee. Oh their moms can take them to the drugstore, to the pharmacy. But when it happens… Until a compassionate
person puts out their hand to you, I just can't describe quite how you feel.
It's numb, there's a numbness in your brain. There’s pain. There's fear. You
can't think straight. You just want to run and hide and cry and never come out
of that hiding place. I wish that
I had had the time that I could've talked more; maybe I could've gotten him to
understand that we waited and waited all day long. We were given a couple of minutes,
and he couldn't even pay attention when all I took was a couple of minutes of
his time.
PP: You said you feel numb. Would you
really be able to just go to a pharmacy and get [emergency contraception] for
yourself if you may not even know that it exists?
Linda: No. When it happened to me, if
someone had not stopped and picked me up on the side of the road and taken me
to the emergency room, I would have wandered out in the woods all night until
someone did find me. Someone had to rescue me and take me to the emergency room
and to the police station. How could I
have gone to a pharmacy even if it had been available [over the counter] then? I
couldn't have. I don’t think I'm any different, any weaker than any other rape
victim. It has nothing to do with strength or weakness of the victim. It's not
about the act; it's not about the victim. It’s about the perpetrator of the
crime.
PP: What do you have to say to other
members of the Assembly? Should they vote on the bill in its original form?
What do you ask of them to help protect women in
Linda: They need to pass the bill in its
original form. It's not asking that much. Whether or not it passes should not
depend on a handful of people whose beliefs are misguided and wrong. It's about medical fact. It's not about someone's misguided beliefs. I
hope they do pass it as written because that's the only effective way to help the
rape victims in the state of
PP: Is there any message that you have
for other activists? For the other women like you that have been out there,
testifying? Do you think it’s time to give up or do you have to keep trying?
Linda: Keep fighting. Shed
your tears, dry them up and keep fighting until we get what we need.
PP: Is there anything else you want
to say?
Linda: I thank God every day for Planned
Parenthood and the work that they do for all of us.
on audio recording