As a small but vocal and vicious cadre on the Left ramps up its attacks on due process and shifts the goalposts of standards of evidence for sexual assault accusations — yes, Justin Fairfax, I’m looking at you — Sen. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., confessed that a superior officer “preyed” upon and raped her while she served in the Air Force. It’s a vital reminder today that for all the panic over false allegations, sexual assault remains an epidemic, relying on shame to silence victims into forgoing justice.
“I stayed silent for many years, but later in my career, as the military grappled with the scandals, and their wholly inadequate responses, I felt the need to let some people know I too was a survivor,” the first female combat pilot in American history said in a series of prepared remarks during a Senate Armed Services subcommittee hearing. “I was horrified at how my attempt to share generally my experiences was handled. I almost separated from the Air Force at 18 years of service over my despair. Like many victims, I felt like the system was raping me all over again.”
During her Senate campaign, McSally had already come forward to discuss abuse she had suffered at the hands of her high school track coach in a Wall Street Journal story corroborated by a contemporaneous witness. She said then that she had joined the Air Force because she “was looking for ways to not be powerless.”
The senator’s new revelation comes a little more than a month after fellow Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa made public that she, too, survived a rape in college. Like McSally, Ernst’s early assault wasn’t the only one in her life. She only came forward with the confession after her divorce records, which included allegations that her ex-husband physically abused her, were leaked to the public.
Six Republican women serve in the Senate. Now one-third of them have told the public that they’ve survived rape.
A sample of six women isn’t remotely demonstrative of the American population, and it certainly provides no indication that 1 in 3 women have suffered sexual or domestic violence. But it does underscore that the magnitude of this problem is not being exaggerated. From Hollywood to the military, every system that has effectively engaged in suppressing sexual assault victims has relied on shame, convincing victims that they are somehow complicit in their own assaults.
What Ernst and McSally went through is absolutely tragic. Both of their life stories serve as reminders that for every Duke and UVA rape hoax, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of actual victims struggling to survive sexual abuse.
