“[E]ven when life begins in that horrible situation of rape. It is something that God intended to happen.”
Those words were not uttered one hundred years ago, not fifty years ago. They were spoken just yesterday by by Richard Mourdock, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Indiana, while debating his Democratic opponent Rep. Joe Donnelly (D-IN), claiming that raped women should be forced to carry their rapist’s baby to term because their forced pregnancy is a “gift from God”:
“I believe life begins at conception. The only exception I have for to have an abortion is in the case of the life of the mother. I struggled with myself for a long time but I came to realize life is that gift from God, even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape. It is something that God intended to happen.”
Even when given an opportunity to retract his statement during a post-debate press conference, Mourdock continued to assert that he believes “God creates life” and that abortion should be illegal even for victims of rape and incest.
“I’ve said that consistently,” Mourdock said. “I’ve said that for a long, long time.”
He did try to backtrack a bit stating “What I said was, in answering the question form my position of faith, I said I believe that God creates life. I believe that as wholly and as fully as I can believe it. That God creates life. Are you trying to suggest that somehow I think that God pre-ordained rape? No, I don’t think that. That’s sick. Twisted. That’s not even close to what I said. What I said is that God creates life.”
You can watch his post-debate comments here:
And in spite of all that, the Romney campaign told CNN’s Jim Acosta that “we’ve not asked [Richard Mourdock’s] campaign to pull” an ad Romney released earlier this week asking voters to “join me in supporting Richard Mourdock for U.S. Senate.” A later campaign statement stated that “[w]e disagree on the policy regarding exceptions for rape and incest but still support him.”
What is most interesting is that Romney has only endorsed a single Senate candidate in this election.
And according to the official blog of the Democratic National Committee:
“Well, Romney got one thing right: There is a lot at stake, especially if you’re a woman. The sad fact is, Mourdock’s rape comment is just the latest outrageous and demeaning episode in a larger Republican platform that’s openly hostile to women. Remember: Romney and Paul Ryan agree that a women should not have the right make decisions about her own body—even in cases of rape or incest. He’s trying to hide it from voters, but Romney supported so-called personhood policies, a no-exceptions human life amendment to the Constitution, and vowed to defund Planned Parenthood. His running mate—like Todd Akin—supported legislation to narrow the definition of rape. And now, Romney refuses to request that his Mourdock ad be taken off the air, and he refuses to pull his endorsement.”
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