Mike Ghouse, Independent
Center for American Politics
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West Virginia Republican says rape can be ‘beautiful’ if it produces a child
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/02/west-virginia-republican-says-rape-can-be-beautiful-if-it-produces-a-child/comments/
West Virginia Republican says rape can be ‘beautiful’ if it produces a
child
DAVID FERGUSON
06 FEB 2015 AT 09:25 ET
DAVID FERGUSON
06 FEB 2015 AT 09:25 ET
Republican state lawmaker in West Virginia said on Thursday that while rape
is horrible, it’s “beautiful” that a child could be produced in the
attack.
According to Huffington Post, Charleston Gazette reporter David Gutman was
on the scene when Delegate Brian Kurcaba (R) said, “Obviously rape is awful,”
but “What is beautiful is the child that could come from this.”
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Kurcaba made the remarks during a House of Delegates discussion of a law
outlawing all abortions in the state after 20 weeks’ gestation. At 20 weeks,
anti-choice activists and lawmakers allege, a fetus can feel pain and is
therefore too viable to abort.
The bill was passed by West Virginia Republicans in 2014, but vetoed by
Democratic Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin. Now the state GOP has revived the bill and
voted to remove an exception for victims of rape and incest.
Kurcaba’s remarks echo a string of embarrassing statements by Republicans
regarding rape and women’s bodies.
In 2012, Missouri’s Rep. Todd Akin said that pregnancy can’t result from
rape because “If it’s legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut
the whole thing down.”
Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock said that while sexual assaults
are unfortunate, the resulting pregnancy is a “gift from God.”
Libertarian favorite Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) made statements of his own
implying that women routinely fabricate rape stories in order to get
abortions.
“If it’s an honest rape,” said Paul, physicians should allow the victim to
abort, but otherwise, women should not be able to terminate their pregnancies
just because they claim to have been raped.
Republican leaders convened an emergency meeting in 2013 urging the rank
and file to stop talking about rape altogether lest it further alienate women
voters, who have been abandoning the Republican Party in droves.
Nonetheless, Kurcaba — a financial advisor who was elected in 2014 —
appears eager to bring discussions of rape back into the dialogue about women’s
access to reproductive health care.
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