GOP lawmaker says it’s a ‘benefit to society’ when child abuse turns fatal

Alaska Republicans have decided to censure Rep. David Eastman for his comments where he seemed to suggest that is a good thing when children die from abuse because they won’t be a drain on government services, Rolling Stone reported.

“In the case where child abuse is fatal, obviously it’s not good for the child, but it’s actually a benefit to society because there aren’t needs for government services and whatnot over the whole course of the child’s life,” Eastman said during a committee hearing on Monday.

When asked to clarify, he said that “it gets argued periodically that it’s actually a cost savings because that child is not going to need any of those government services that they might otherwise be entitled to receive.”

As Rolling Stone points out, Eastman is a diehard Trump supporter with ties to the militia group Oath Keepers.

From Rolling Stone: Eastman has been censured before, too. The Alaska state House, then controlled by Democrats, voted in 2017 to rebuke Eastman for telling multiple news outlets that some women get pregnant on purpose so they can travel to a big city. “We have folks who try to get pregnant in this state so that they can get a free trip to the city, and we have folks who want to carry their baby past the point of being able to have an abortion in this state so that they can have a free trip to Seattle,” he told the Associated Press.

Speaking to the Associated Press, Eastman slammed Democrats who criticized his remarks, saying he could never “support child abuse when I’ve staked my entire political career arguing for the opposite.”

Eastman, who is against abortion, said in 2017 that abortion is the “ultimate form of child abuse.”

Watch the video below:

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.