Opinion: Why Don't Republicans Understand Rape?
Once again, a Republican politician has said something extreme about rape. Extreme and extremely stupid.
Last night it is was Indiana Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock. He told an audience at a debate that pregnancy resulting from rape is "something God intended."
The Romney campaign released a paper statement claiming that Governor Romney does not share that view.
Romney, however, still supports Mourdock, even in the face of the candidates' belief that God has intentions when it comes to rape and Mitt Romney's ad for Mourdock's Senate campaign will remain on the air.
If anyone was buying Moderate Mitt's sudden transformation, this is the tell.
There is no such thing as Moderate Mitt. It is a show he is putting on to get votes. He is lying to America.
Once election day is over, the Tea Party owns Mitt Romney.
He will sign whatever they want, including massive tax cuts for the wealthy and criminalization of all abortions. All abortions, no exceptions.
Mourdock, like Romney's running mate Paul Ryan, and the GOP Tea Party Congress earlier voted to reclassify some rape as "forceful".
Clearly the GOP has a rape agenda.
They are going to weaken laws about rape and make it impossible for rape victims to control their bodies after they have been violated by a rapist.
They are even pushing to make it impossible for a woman – including someone with kids – whose life is in danger to get an abortion.
Another Tea Party Congressman, Joe Walsh, said last week that it is medically impossible for a woman to die as a result of pregnancy and that there is no need for an exception for the life of the mother.
Romney's reaction to Mourdock's comments were even weaker than Romney's response to Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin's claim that women cannot get pregnant if it is a "legitimate rape" because women's bodies have a way of shutting the whole thing down.
In all that makes at least three Senate candidates Mitt Romney is whole-heartedly supporting for the U.S. Senate that have views about rape that are disturbing and disgusting.
Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate Tom Smith earlier this year said that pregnancy resulting from rape was the same as an out of wedlock pregnancy "if you look at it from the father's perspective".
To take the view that rapists are fathers, that rape is merely another form of procreation and that some rape's are legitimate and others are not is a sick and twisted view of the world.
Republicans want to criminalize all abortions and Mitt Romney's ties to them tell you all you need to know about what will happen to a woman's right to control her body if Mitt Romney wins.
Have you ever heard him explain how a rape victim or a dying mother will get access to the medical treatment they need? What steps a rape victim will have to go through to prove she is eligible? How a dying woman will be granted permission by the GOP to a Constitutional right?
No, of course you have not, because Mitt Romney is lying to America about what he is going to do.
About Bill Buck
Bill Buck is a Democratic strategist, President of the Buck Communications Group, a media relations and new media strategies consulting business based in Washington, DC, and Managing Director of the online ad firm Influence DSP. He has over twenty years of international and national communications experience. The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CBS Local.
