Just when I thought I'd heard every sexist joke, misogynistic comment and outrageous misconception of what women "need," I picked up the Collegian on March 18 and was utterly appalled. Congratulations, Maria Pardini. You actually managed to come up with a new angle on the abortion issue.

Now, not only do the anti-choice advocates want to control women who (horrors) have consensual sex -- but they want to control the bodies of women who have already had that control taken away from them in the most violent manner possible. The fact that another woman would write a letter stating "with clearest conviction" that a rape survivor should bear a rapist's offspring completely shocks and disgusts me.

When a man rapes a woman, he takes away her most basic right of control over her own body. When an anti-choice person tries to deny a woman her legal right to an abortion, once again the woman's control over her body is taken away. In both cases, the same type of misogynistic violence causes women to suffer the violations of their human rights. A rapist uses physical force or coercion on his victim to dominate her through sexual violence.

The anti-choice movement uses the "innocent child" argument to emotionally blackmail women into carrying unwanted pregnancies to term. When coercive tactics fail, some anti-choice advocates employ more violent methods, such as bomb threats against abortion clinics and blocking the entrances to public buildings. And, when coercive tactics fail, the rapist turns to more violent means as well to achieve the power, dominance and control he wants.

While some of you may be offended by this parallel between rape and the anti-choice movement, I believe it is valid, since the violence of sexism is pervasive and has far-reaching effects. However, Ms. Pardini's comparison of abortion with rape is both ridiculous and insulting. An abortion is a safe, medical procedure when obtained through a clinic by a physician, and does not cause the physical injuries that forced penetration does during rape.

Ms. Pardini's use of loaded language to claim that during an abortion a women is "physically assaulted by the abortionist's instruments" is another example of the anti-choice method of telling false medical horror stories to scare women into carrying fetuses to term.

I find it hypocritical that Ms. Pardini would never "wish rape" on her "worst enemy," yet she would wish a woman to carry a rapist's baby, as a reminder of her rape, for nine months. Rape is the most revolting, dehumanizing trauma a woman can go through, and being forced to carry a rapist's fetus to term only adds to the denial of a woman's control over her own body.

In her letter, Ms. Pardini thanked her biological mother for giving her "the opportunity to live." Well Ms. Pardini, rape survivors have lives too, and you and the anti-choice proponents have neither the authority nor the grounds to take away a rape survivor's "right to life," a life in which she can regain the control her rapist stripped from her and make the choices she needs to make.

I challenge you, Ms. Pardini, and all the anti-choice proponents who share your view on having rapist's babies, to do something the anti-choice movement has yet to accomplish. It is a simple request -- stop re-victimizing the rape victim.