This picture by ThinkProgress, should go viral:
These senators just voted against a bill that makes stalking
illegal.
Think about how tone-deaf you have to be to vote against this bill.
In order to put pressure on the Republican House to pass it, let it be known what this bill does:
Victims can call for help. The National Domestic Violence Hotline was established as part of VAWA. It currently serves over 22,000 victims a month and has taken a total of 3 million calls.
Law enforcement officers are trained to help victims. 500,000 law enforcement officials, judges, and prosecutors a year are trained with VAWA funding to help domestic abuse victims.
Partner violence and homicides fell. From the year before VAWA’s passage until 2008, the number of women being killed by partners dropped 43 percent, and partner violence against women fell 53 percent.
Stalking became illegal. Before VAWA, stalking was not a federal crime. The law established stalking as a felony offense.
Rape is rape, no exceptions. Since the passage of VAWA, each state in the United States has updated its laws so that rape by a partner is treated equally to rape by a stranger.
Whatever Marco Rubio says in his State of the Union Rebuttal, let it be said in the context of his vote here. So whatever principles he will espouse, they have no place for the safety of women in this country.