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Acknowledging that a woman’s right to be safe from a gender-based attack was a “civil right,” I believed, was critically important in changing the American consciousness. When a right reaches the status and categorization of a “civil right,” it means the nation has arrived at a consensus that is nonnegotiable. Violence against women would no longer be written off … Once our criminal justice system — at the local, state and federal levels — recognized these as serious and inexcusable crimes, women could stop blaming themselves.
