LW, you are young but wise to your own needs. It does not matter how much you love him. It matters how much you respect yourself and understand the requirements of your heart.

You need to hear the words "I love you." These words are common usage in your family, so it is not at all odd that you would expect them from a boyfriend of ten months. You said that at five months into the relationship you felt you loved your boyfriend and said these words to him. You indicate that he did not say them back because he did not love you then. Nothing has changed. He does not love you now. Chances are that he will not love you five more months from now.

Dating is one means by which we learn about ourselves. People as young as you can learn about their own requirements. That other people can live just fine without hearing those words does not mean that you can.

It is hard, I know, to accept that someone with whom you now feel madly in love does not return the feeling. When you feel so intensely, how can he not?

He just does not.

The lesson you should learn now and never forget is that our own passion does not necessarily make others more passionate. You will find this useful if you continue to pursue acting. Such knowledge will help you to avoid overacting.

The poet Yeats wrote:

"When you are old and gray and full of sleep,

And nodding by the fire, take down this book,

And slowly read, and dream of the soft look

Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,

And loved your beauty with love false or true,

But one man loved the pilgram soul in you,

And loved the sorrows of your changing face . . ."

I suspect you are rather attractive, and maybe you are used to the admiration of others. In your future, men may love your face and body. Men may love false or true. You may find men who will fill your ears with pretty words, even words of love. Never settle for this alone. Someone who loves your soul is worth waiting for.

Wait.

There can be a request that the Attorney General take the case and investigate further with a view toward prosecution. It is then the Attorney General's call whether or not to proceed. The Attorney General has his/her own investigators and can commandeer the help of the police or sheriff or any other investigative agency with or without the approval of the DA. The DA would have to turn over her evidence to the AG.

In one of the stories I read about this case, there was some talk of doing that. My guess is that would happen only with sufficient pulic clamor and only if the AG knew that the DA was actually through investigating the case.

My guess is that it would be difficult to find out what is going on behind the scenes.

Planned Parenthood is not and should not be an investigative agency for law enforcement. When Planned Parenthood provides services to people under 18, their job is medical service. They are held to the same laws as every other medical profession, counselors, psychiatrists, psychologists, and school personnel. They are required to report abuse. They have an absolute duty to do this in the case of minors. Therefore, if they become aware that someone 15 has had sex with someone 22, they should report this to the appropriate agency.

This requirement is there for good reason to protect minors from sexual exploitation by adults. This requirement does not mean that they have to investigate every underage pregnancy with that assumption in mind. They may assume, unless indications are otherwise, that the minor is simply pregnant by another minor. At age 15 this is a reasonable assumption. If they have a 12 year old pregnant child, this is not a reasonable assumption at all. In that case, by virtue of the child's age they cannot easily rule out incest. They should report.

None of the above has any bearing upon whether or not an abortion should be performed. It is a red herring created by the prolife folks.

None of the above really has any bearing upon the rape case which is the subject of this thread. We have no indication that the 17 year old in the case has become pregnant as a result of rape. Steps were probably taken at the hospital to make pregnancy unlikely in this case.

"Doesn't it strike you as interesting that women's studies departments, which are hypersensitive to the value of language, would be so inexact in the term they use to describe the enemy?"

Lots of academic disciplines are sensitive to the value of language. The women's studies course I took on gender was not at all critical of men in general. Men were not characterized as "the enemy." The course recognized gender inequities that men suffer as well. Talk about gender inequities women face and gender inequities men face was about equal in terms of time.

The Patriarchy is a term that broadly characterizes the societal results of that suffering. The course did not view women as victims or men as victims, but rather pointed out how the larger culture victimized both sexes.

Patriarchy can also be a general term used in the same sense that you seem to prefer. That is not, however, as I was using it in my responses in this thread.