In the News

By: Darius Dixon

March 29, 2012 11:33 AM EDT

 

A day after recounting the story of her own rape and childhood sexual assaults on the House floor, Rep. Gwen Moore said Thursday that violence against women is as “American as apple pie.”

 

“Violence against women is as American as apple pie,” the Wisconsin Democrat said on CNN. “That man that feels he has a right to abuse his wife, to beat her – you know, ask the pastor, ‘Where I do find that passage ‘wives obey your husbands’ in the Bible.’”

 

On Wednesday, Moore spoke on the House floor to describe her own rape as a way to highlight the importance of renewing and expanding the Violence Against Women Act.

 

“I think that my story, while it’s sad, is not rare,” she said. “One aspect of this is education. [In] this particular incident, I don’t think that any of the boys thought that they were doing anything wrong. I think that they thought it was just sort of rite of passage, and I think ignorance has really perpetuated violence against women.”

 

When asked why Democrats would add provisions to the bill that includes protections for lesbians, gays and illegal immigrants, Moore said “the reason these have been put in is because people have learned from best practices that these things are necessary.”

 

She also said on CNN that there has been an “explosion of teen violence.”

 

“I think that my example was an extreme one but I do think that many girls think that it’s perfectly okay to have boys slap them around a little bit or control them with their cell phones or go through their cell phones and all of this is violence,” Moore said.

 

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