Proving that Republicans will continue to say incredibly stupid things about rape, a West Virginia lawmaker assured us that even though rape is a horrible thing, it’s not all bad when a child results from it.
During a House of Delegates discussion of a law outlawing all abortions in the state after 20 weeks’ gestation, Brian Kurcaba (R) said , “Obviously rape is awful,” but “What is beautiful is the child is that could come from this.”
“Obviously rape is awful…” says Delegate Brian Kurcaba, R-Monongalia. “What is beautiful is the child is that could come from this.”
— David Gutman (@davidlgutman) February 6, 2015
From the Huffington Post:
Kurcada’s comment about rape and abortion is similar to an argument made by U.S. Senate candidate Richard Mourdock of Indiana in October 2012. “I think that even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen,” Mourdock said in a debate.
Mourdock lost the election to a Democrat weeks later, and the GOP’s big losses in elections that year were largely attributed to controversial rape comments made by Republican candidates. The most notorious remark that election season came from U.S. Senate candidate Todd Akin of Missouri.
“If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down,” Akin said of pregnancy. “But let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work or something: I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be of the rapist, and not attacking the child.”
In 2013, GOP leaders convened an emergency meeting urging their members to stop talking about rape altogether, due to the impact they were having on women voters who have been abandoning the Republican Party in droves.
Apparently Kurcaba was out to lunch that day.
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