A young girl was abducted at a bus stop and raped in a large city this past weekend. It probably happens every day but I want to tell you about this story because of what was said, and the meaning it conveys.

A group from the neighborhood tried to find the perpetrator, as it was apparently one of their girls who suffered this rape. “This is the worst thing you can do to a young girl,” one said, “to take away her virtue.”

It is, indeed, a very bad thing. It is traumatic. It is something that will change her life forever. However, they meant something far deeper than that. They meant that her worth had been taken away from her. A woman, or a young girl, is worth much more than that. She has worth far beyond her sexual organs, and her sexual being.

It is good to protect women, just as it is good to protect any other human being. But we can’t own them.  American girls have rights over their own bodies. That right cannot be given to anyone else. It is hers alone.

A rape is a tragic thing, and we, too, hope the perpetrator is caught. We also hope that the girl is not devalued further because she has lost her virtue.