Wednesday, June 12, 2013

GOP War on Women Continues: GOP Congressman Says "Incidence of Rape Resulting in Pregnancy areVery Low"


One has to wonder whether or not the GOP is sending its elected members of Congress to some sort of "Stepford Wives" treatment center or simply giving them a lobotomy followed by mind control programing.  Or do they simply need to fail an IQ test before being vetted as a candidate?  How else to explain yet another GOP congressman shooting off his mouth with no supporting data or justification and claiming that rape rarely results in pregnancy.  One can only assume that Congressman Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) - who is pictured above - was speaking from some talking points provided by some right wing anti-abortion (and likely anti-gay) "family values" organization.  But then again, look at the Virginia GOP's statewide ticket.  They are all crazy extremists.  Politico looks at the latest case of verbal diarrhea to overt the GOP.  Here are excerpts:

A House Republican pushing for a 20-week nationwide ban on abortions said Wednesday that the incidence of pregnancies resulting from rape is “very low” — then scrambled to clarify his comment after it went viral with comparisons to former GOP Senate candidate Todd Akin.

“The incidence of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low,” said Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) as the House Judiciary Committee debated his bill to ban abortions nationwide after 20 weeks including in cases of rape and incest.

Franks’s comments immediately stirred comparisons to the controversies during the 2012 elections, when Akin and other GOP candidates made a series of statements about abortion and rape, or questioned whether abortion was ever needed to save a woman’s life. In several states — notably Missouri and Indiana — the remarks and their aftermath played into the larger Democratic theme of the “war on women” and helped Democrats win those seats and keep control of the Senate.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) challenged Franks when he made his comment in committee, saying his assertion was “astonishing.”

“The idea that the Republican men on this committee think they can tell the women of America that they have to carry to term the product of a rape is outrageous,” Lofgren said.

It wasn’t only Democrats who objected. Gabriel Gomez, the Massachusetts Republican Senate candidate, told ABC News: “I think that he’s a moron and he proves that stupid has no specific political affiliation.”
The House Judiciary Committee ultimately passed Franks’s bill, which would ban abortions nationwide after 20 weeks based on the controversial assertion that a fetus can feel pain at that point. It is scheduled to get a vote in the full House next week, a spokesman for Majority Leader Eric Cantor said.

In addition to voting down a Democratic amendment along party lines that would provide an exception in cases of rape or incest, the committee voted down amendments to provide a full exception to preserve the life or health of the woman and a more detailed amendment that would provide an exception if the pregnancy could result in lung disease, heart disease or diabetes.

Note how even an exception in the bill to save the life of the mother was voted down by the GOP.   With two daughters of my own, I certainly do not want decisions that could threaten their lives being made by political whore to Bible beaters who glorify ignorance and reject modern medical knowledge. Today's GOP has become something very, very ugly.  It is also noteworthy that whenever to GOP supports bad legislation, the fingers of the "godly Christian" crowd are often all over it.


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