A West Virginia Republican wants to make sure everyone is aware of the upside to rape. Yes, of course, it’s unpleasant and horrid, but on the other hand, you can get a child out of it. What a payoff! Imagine if you could get a child that easily any other way – say, by getting your teeth cleaned, or waiting for a bus for an extra long time on a cold day. But you can’t. With most unpleasant things you can’t get a child out of it at all. But with rape, you can! How cool is that?
West Virginia Del. Brian Kurcaba (R) made the comments — which were first reported by Charleston Gazette staffer David Gutman — during a public hearing on Thursday. A health committee in the legislature was debating a proposed 20-week abortion ban. Kurcaba was explaining why he opposed a Democratic-sponsored amendment to add an exception for rape victims.
“Obviously rape is awful,” Kurcaba said. “What is beautiful is the child that could come from this.”
So true. There you are, all depressed and angry and out of sorts, having been raped…and then hey golly what do you know it turns out you’re pregnant! From the rape!! Can you imagine the joy, the gratitude, the relief? The blissful anticipation? The eager imaginings? Your little baby, yours and the rapist’s. So so sweet.
This controversy recently played out on the national stage when the U.S. House of Representatives split over the rape exception included in their own version of a 20-week abortion ban.
Last month, the House hoped to approve a 20-week ban on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. That measure included a narrow exception for rape victims that required them to report their assault to the police, even though the majority of rapes are not officially reported.
Was it called the Nugent Exception?
Several female congresswomen raised concerns about the language of the rape provision, and House leaders ended up canceling the vote at the last minute. The thousands of abortion opponents who traveled to the nation’s capital for the annual March for Life — many of whom favor abortion restrictions without any type of rape exception — were upset about the retreat.
West Virginia lawmakers didn’t back down in the same way. On Thursday, the House Health Committee ended up approving the 20-week abortion ban and rejecting the amendment that would have added a rape exception.
West Virginia, home of surprise babies.
There was quite a hullabaloo years back, in 2007, when Kansas Governor Sam Brownback of Kansas said, to an audience of Catholic men,
This is the same Sam Brownback who boasted of cutting Kansas’ welfare rolls in half. We can all do THAT math.
And how about when Alaska State Rep. Alan Dick (interesting name) said,
Yes, because we’d all feel better if rape victims got their attackers’ permission to made decisions about their own (the rape victims’) bodies.
Scott Brown, clarifying that religious belief trumps all:
Yes, those annoying victims of sexual violence, thinking they’re all that! They should be more considerate of those with sincerely held religious convictions! They’re the REAL victims here!
Texas gubernatorial candidate Clayton Williams showed his mastery of the subject when he said,
Because, obviously, the experience of being sexually violated is just that subjective!
And let’s not forget how Rick Santorum said that women should be forced to carry and give birth to their rapists’ babies. Because God knows best. Obviously.
I think we can all agree that middle-aged men are best qualified to dictate what course of action will be most therapeutic for women rape victims, because they clearly know better than the women themselves.
Keeping in mind, naturally, that rapists who impregnate women against their will have the same rights to child visitation and custody that any other father does in most states. Imagine the joy this new rape-victim mother will feel, when the state declines to convict her rapist, and he then demands – and receives – child visitation privileges! Now THAT’s healing!!
The latest Republican trick–they want to completely remove maternity care from health insurance, because if those Slutty McSlut-Sluts get themselves raped (see what I did there?), they need to pay for it themselves, out-of-pocket. No morning-after pill for them, no abortions, and no hope of any kind of financial support once the baby is born–the baby they never asked for, never wanted, and now, can’t support.
It astounds me that any woman could vote Republican.
Of course it’s a man who made those repugnant comments.
This makes me sick. I assume that having required women to bring the unwanted fruit of rape to term these forced birth enthusiasts are going to raise the child?
Or do they think they can legislate the mother to love and care for it? The permanent reminder of trauma and the criminal responsible.
It is terrifying to discover that such sentiments are popular enough to win elections.
Several female congresswomen …
How nice that ThinkProgress takes notice of the nuances of gender. Or something.