West Virginia Republican says rape can be ‘beautiful’ if it produces a child
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 is that could come from this.”
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.
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.
So...did that actually happen? Because this sounds like the onion, but it also sounds like an absolute necessity.
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.
So...did that actually happen? Because this sounds like the onion, but it also sounds like an absolute necessity.
I think two things are going on.
One, I think the media cannot resist asking questions about their position on rape exceptions because the potential for a viral quote is just excellent. So they can tell the party to STFU about rape as much as they want, but these questions will continue to be asked.
Two, I think you get a lot of newer elected officials, or second-stringer old timers, that can't resist trying to out-conservative their conservative counterparts and want to be The Guy Who Stands Up for Life. No amount of training is going to overcome the egos.
Post by UMaineTeach on Feb 6, 2015 11:28:13 GMT -5
His ancestors raped slaves on the plantation, didn't they. Made beautiful babies.
I'm an any time, any reason abortion supporter, but I guess I do appreciate that someone finally has decided to go all in on the choose life front, if it's a life, it's a life, no exceptions.
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.
So...did that actually happen? Because this sounds like the onion, but it also sounds like an absolute necessity.
I think two things are going on.
One, I think the media cannot resist asking questions about their position on rape exceptions because the potential for a viral quote is just excellent. So they can tell the party to STFU about rape as much as they want, but these questions will continue to be asked.
Two, I think you get a lot of newer elected officials, or second-stringer old timers, that can't resist trying to out-conservative their conservative counterparts and want to be The Guy Who Stands Up for Life. No amount of training is going to overcome the egos.
I like that the solution was to stop talking about it, instead of, say, to stop being morons.
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.
So...did that actually happen? Because this sounds like the onion, but it also sounds like an absolute necessity.
I think two things are going on.
One, I think the media cannot resist asking questions about their position on rape exceptions because the potential for a viral quote is just excellent. So they can tell the party to STFU about rape as much as they want, but these questions will continue to be asked.
Two, I think you get a lot of newer elected officials, or second-stringer old timers, that can't resist trying to out-conservative their conservative counterparts and want to be The Guy Who Stands Up for Life. No amount of training is going to overcome the egos.
As long as a significant faction of the Republican party pushes to ban abortion and eliminate any exceptions for rape/incest, you're going to continue to see quotes like this. The problem is not just a PR one, it's that their position is abhorrent to the majority of Americans.
One, I think the media cannot resist asking questions about their position on rape exceptions because the potential for a viral quote is just excellent. So they can tell the party to STFU about rape as much as they want, but these questions will continue to be asked.
Two, I think you get a lot of newer elected officials, or second-stringer old timers, that can't resist trying to out-conservative their conservative counterparts and want to be The Guy Who Stands Up for Life. No amount of training is going to overcome the egos.
I like that the solution was to stop talking about it, instead of, say, to stop being morons.
I don't know if this helps, but I picture the entire meeting as some PR guy screaming at the top of his lungs "SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTTHEFUCKUPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"Suck a bag of dicks" is one of my favorite insults ever.
<3 Louis CK.
I love how he expands upon it ... What does he want me to do? Does he want me to take a bag of dicks and suck it? Like suck the side of the bag? Or does he want me to open the bag and suck each dick individually? Throw the used ones in a bowl like edemame shells? Like that?
We saw him perform in NYC a couple of weeks ago and I was in tears for most of the set. He did a joke about hiring a guy to come remove a bat from his house, and at one point I was laughing so hard that I literally could not breathe. Greer Barnes was the opener and he was hilarious as well.