Abigail Breslin admits she was sexually abused

From Seventeen

On Tuesday, Abigail Breslin made a courageous and personal contribution to the fight against sexual assault. The 20-year-old Scream Queens The star shared a post on Instagram showing a piece of paper that read: “Consent II: You are not obligated to have sex with anyone you are in a relationship with. Dating is not consent. Marriage is not consent.”

In the caption, Breslin wrote, “I knew my attacker. #SexualAssaultAwarenessMonth #breakthesilence,” revealing that she herself had been sexually assaulted by someone who was not a stranger.

Her post sparked an outpouring of support, with people thanking her for helping to dispel the dangerous myth that consensual sex cannot occur in a relationship.

Abigail’s post also inspired other people to speak out about experiences in which they were sexually harassed by someone they knew.

“My boyfriend in high school sexually abused me for a year,” wrote one user. “I was 17. Now I’m 24 and I’m just now realizing that what he did to me was abuse. I wanted to wait for marriage but he used his love for me as an argument to get me to have sex with him. He made me feel guilty. This still haunts me to this day. Thank you for sharing this with us. It’s so important.”

“Mine was an ex-boyfriend,” wrote another user. “I have been very happily married for 15 years, but those scars are still there and affect my relationship all these years later. The wounds from the assault last a lifetime.”

“My rapist was my fiancé at the time, but everyone in the family said that didn’t count because we were engaged,” wrote another user. “They said I had to give him what he wanted.”

The National Coalition on Domestic Violence estimates that 14 to 25 percent of women are sexually assaulted by their domestic partners during their relationship and that “sexual assault by domestic partners is more likely to result in physical injury than assault by strangers or acquaintances.”

No means no. You are not obligated to have sex with anyone. And if you say no and someone tries to force you to have sex anyway, that is rape, whether it is a boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife, or “friend.”

IIf you or someone you know needs help, visit RAINN’s national online sexual assault hotline, The National Sexual Violence Resource Center website, call the Love is Respect hotline at 1.866.331.9474, or visit www.loveisrespect.org.

You might like it too