american congressional nominee calls aborting rapist’s child ‘more violence’
It was a sad night for rape apologists and overt misogynists in the United States Tuesday night, as 67 per cent of unmarried American women voted to re-elect President Barack Obama. One of the Republican losers in the Senate was Tea Partyer John Koster who last week called aborting a rapist’s child ‘more violence on a woman’s body’.
Koster, who was campaigning for a congressional seat for Washington State, was captured on tape making the comments at a fundraiser in Seattle. Liberal activist group Fuse Washington released the recording.
Koster was asked about his staunch pro-life beliefs, particularity if there were any cases in which he’d grant an exception to women seeking to terminate their pregnancy. He didn’t offer an opinion on cases where a woman’s health was in danger, saying: ‘I’m not going to make that decision’
But he did have a few thoughts on “the rape thing”.
‘How does putting more violence onto a woman’s body and taking the life of an innocent child that’s a consequence of this crime, how does that make it better?’ he said, adding, ‘I know a woman who was raped and kept her child, gave it up for adoption. She doesn’t regret it. In fact, she is a big pro-life proponent.’
Koster was also asked about cases of incest, but said it was ‘so rare’ and left it at that.
No word on how forcing a woman to carry her rapist’s child to term is beneficial to her mental or emotional health, or why anyone, besides that woman, is qualified to make that decision.
His comments follow a string of insensitive and uninformed gaffes from the Republican Party over the course of the (very long) election campaign.
Congressional nominee Todd Akin ridiculously claimed pregnancy from ‘legitimate rape’ was impossible because the ‘female body has a way of shutting that whole thing down’. Akin lost his seat to Democratic incumbent Clare McCaskill in Missouri on Tuesday night.
Richard Murdouch argued against abortion in cases of rape, saying the pregnancy was ‘a gift from God’. He was expected to win the senate seat in Indiana, but lost to Democrat Joe Donnelly.
There’s a lot of discussion in the United States and around the world on what lost the election for Romney and his party, but no issue has come up nearly as often as reproductive rights and women’s autonomy.
Unfortunately for Republicans – more accurately, extremist Tea Partyers like Koster, Akin, and Murdouch – it turns out American women care very much about ‘the rape thing’.
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