....rape?

Republicans.

Republicans are obsessed with rape. It is perhaps the one issue that
caused the GOP to implode during the 2012 Election. The foot-in-mouth
disease carried by the party has revealed much about the current beliefs
of conservatives and it has spread like a plague in just the last year
or two, and as Republicans have continued to attack rape victims, they
have united women like never before against their extreme anti-abortion
agenda.

In just the last six months alone, Republicans have forced draconian
anti-abortion legislation into law in Kansas, Texas, Ohio, Wisconsin,
North Dakota, and Arkansas even after they acknowledged that they needed
to do more to attract women voters. Well, apparently Republicans don’t
care about what women think because they have done nothing but double
down on the war on women they have been viciously waging since 2010,
when Tea Party Republicans took control of state legislatures and
governorships in states across the nation. Today’s Republican is
required to oppose abortion exceptions for rape victims in order to
avoid a primary challenge from someone further to the right. And because
of that, Republicans have been saying some really stupid things about
rape and rape victims. Here is a comprehensive list of 40 quotes uttered
by Republicans about rape that women should keep in mind the next time
they go into the voting booth in 2014.

1. “Rape is terrible. Rape is awful. Is it made any better by killing an
innocent child? Does it solve the problem for the woman that’s been
raped? We need to protect innocent life. Period.”
-Kansas Governor Sam Brownback, declaring that raped women must be
additionally forced to carry and give birth to their rapist’s baby
against their will in front of an all male crowd at the National
Catholic Men’s Conference, June 2007.

2. “Nobody plans to have an accident in a car accident, nobody plans to
have their homes flooded. You have to buy extra insurance for those two.”
-Barbara Listing, leader of Right To Life, comparing rape to a car
accident, May 2013.

3. “In the emergency room they have what’s called rape kits where a
woman can get cleaned out.”
-Texas State Senator Jodie Laubenberg, absurdly claiming that rape kits
are used to abort a pregnancy, June 2013.

4. “Tampering with evidence shall include procuring or facilitating an
abortion, or compelling or coercing another to obtain an abortion, of a
fetus that is the result of criminal sexual penetration or incest with
the intent to destroy evidence of the crime.”
-New Mexico State Rep. Cathrynn Brown, HB 206 language stating that rape
victims would be charged and arrested for getting an abortion, January 2013.

5. “Granted, the percentage of pregnancies due to rape is small because
it’s an act of violence, because the body is traumatized. I don’t know
what percentage of pregnancies are due to the violence of rape. Because
of the trauma the body goes through, I don’t know what percentage of
pregnancy results from the act.”
-California GOP assembly President Celeste Greig, saying rape victims
don’t get pregnant because it’s a traumatic act, March 2013.

6. “Well, you can make the argument that if she doesn’t have this baby,
if she kills her child, that that, too, could ruin her life. And this is
not an easy choice. I understand that. As horrible as the way that that
son or daughter and son was created, it still is her child. And whether
she has that child or doesn’t, it will always be her child. And she will
always know that. And so to embrace her and to love her and to support
her and get her through this very difficult time, I’ve always, you know,
I believe and I think the right approach is to accept this horribly
created — in the sense of rape — but nevertheless a gift in a very
broken way, the gift of human life, and accept what God has given to
you. As you know, we have to, in lots of different aspects of our life.
We have horrible things happen. I can’t think of anything more horrible.
But, nevertheless, we have to make the best out of a bad situation.”
-Rick Santorum, stating that God sanctions rape to give women the “gift”
of pregnancy, January 2012.

7. “I’ve struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize
that life is that gift from God. And even when life begins in that
horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to
happen.”
-Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock, repeating Rick Santorum’s
belief that rape is sanctioned by God, October 2012.

8. “It seems to be, first of all, from what I understand from doctors,
it’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to
try to shut the whole thing down.”
-Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin, claiming that women can shut down
the reproductive process during rape to prevent pregnancy, August 2012.

9. “Before, when my friends on the left side of the aisle here tried to
make rape and incest the subject — because, you know, the incidence of
rape resulting in pregnancy are very low. But when you make that
exception, there’s usually a requirement to report the rape within 48
hours. And in this case that’s impossible because this is in the sixth
month of gestation. And that’s what completely negates and vitiates the
purpose for such an amendment.”
-Arizona Rep. Trent Franks, claiming that getting pregnant via rape is
rare therefore there shouldn’t be any exceptions for rape victims in
anti-abortion bills, June 2013.

10. “Well I just haven’t heard of that being a circumstance that’s been
brought to me in any personal way and I’d be open to hearing discussion
about that subject matter. Generally speaking it’s this: that there
millions of abortions in this country every year. Millions of them are
paid for at least in part by taxpayers. I think it’s immoral for us to
compel conscientious objecting taxpayers to fund abortion through the
federal government, or any other government for that matter. So that’s
my stand. And if there are exceptions there, then bring me those
exceptions let’s talk about it. In the meantime it’s wrong for us to
compel pro-life people to pay taxes to fund abortion.”
-Iowa Rep. Steve King, saying he’s never heard of a child becoming
pregnant by rape and that he won’t support abortion under any
circumstance until proof of such a thing is presented to him, August 2012.

11. “What Todd Akin is talking about is when you’ve got a real, genuine
rape. A case of forcible rape, a case of assault, where a woman has been
violated against her will through the use of physical force where it is
physically traumatic for her, under those circumstances, the woman’s
body — because of the trauma that has been inflicted on her — it may
interfere with the normal function processes of her body that lead to
conception and pregnancy.”
-AFA’s Bryan Fischer, agreeing with Todd Akin’s “legitimate rape”
comment, August 2012.

12. “Ethel Waters, for example, was the result of a forcible rape. I
used to work for James Robison back in the 1970s, he leads a large
Christian organization. He, himself, was the result of a forcible rape.
And so I know it happens, and yet even from those horrible, horrible
tragedies of rape, which are inexcusable and indefensible, life has come
and sometimes, you know, those people are able to do extraordinary things.”
-Mike Huckabee, defending Todd Akin’s rape comments and zero exceptions
for rape victims by talking about how much of a positive gift rape is,
August 2012.

13. “Abortion is never an option. At that point, if God has chosen to
bless this person with a life, you don’t kill it.”
-Missouri Republican central committee member Sharon Barnes, echoing
Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock that rape is God’s way of blessing women
with children, August 2012.

14. “I’m very proud of my pro-life record, and I’ve always adopted the
idea that, the position that the method of conception doesn’t change the
definition of life.”
-Paul Ryan, referring to rape as a method of conception after being
asked about Todd Akin’s rape comment, August 2012.

15. “He also told me one thing, ‘If you do (have premarital sex), just
remember, consensual sex can turn into rape in an awful hurry. Because
all of a sudden a young lady gets pregnant and the parents are madder
than a wet hen and she’s not going to say, ‘Oh, yeah, I was part of the
program.’ All that she has to say or the parents have to say is it was
rape because she’s underage. And he just said, ‘Remember, Roger, if you
go down that road, some girls,’ he said, ‘they rape so easy.’ What the
whole genesis of it was, it was advice to me, telling me, ‘If you’re
going to go down that road, you may have consensual sex that night and
then the next morning it may be rape.’ So the way he said it was, ‘Just
remember, Roger, some girls, they rape so easy. It may be rape the next
morning.’
-Wisconsin State Rep. Roger Rivard, claiming that some girls are just
easy to rape, October 2012.

16. “I lived something similar to that with my own family. She chose
life, and I commend her for that. She knew my views. But, fortunately
for me, I didn’t have to.. she chose they way I thought. No don’t get me
wrong, it wasn’t rape… Uh, having a baby out of wedlock… put yourself in
a father’s situation, yes. It is similar. But, back to the original, I’m
pro-life, period.”
-Pennsylvania Rep. Tom Smith, comparing rape pregnancy to getting
pregnant out of wedlock, August 2012.

17. “A life is a life, and it needs protected. Who’s going to protect
it? We have to. I mean that’s, I believe life begins at conception. I’m
not going to argue about the method of conception. It’s a life, and I’m
pro-life. It’s that simple.”
-Pennsylvania Rep. Tom Smith, saying that rape is just another method of
conception, August 2012.

18. “You know, I’m a Christian and I believe that God has a plan and a
purpose for each one of our lives and that he can intercede in all kinds
of situations and we need to have a little faith in many things.”
-Nevada Senate candidate Sharon Angle, claiming that God plans rapes,
June 2010.

19. “I think that two wrongs don’t make a right. And I have been in the
situation of counseling young girls, not 13 but 15, who have had very
at-risk, difficult pregnancies. And my counsel was to look for some
alternatives, which they did. And they found that they had made what was
really a lemon situation into lemonade.”
-Sharon Angle, saying that a 13 year old who gets pregnant by her father
should get over it and have the baby, July 2010.

20. “I’ve delivered lots of babies, and I know about these things. It is
true. We tell infertile couples all the time that are having trouble
conceiving because of the woman not ovulating, ‘Just relax. Drink a
glass of wine. And don’t be so tense and uptight because all that
adrenaline can cause you not to ovulate.’ So he was partially right
wasn’t he? But the fact that a woman may have already ovulated 12 hours
before she is raped, you’re not going to prevent a pregnancy there by a
woman’s body shutting anything down because the horse has already left
the barn, so to speak.”
-Georgia Rep. Phil Gingrey, claiming that Todd Akin’s rape comments were
“partly right,” January 2013.

21. “If you listen to what Mourdock actually said, he said what
virtually every catholic and every fundamentalist in the country
believes, life begins at conception… and he also immediately issued a
clarification saying that he was referring to the act of conception and
he condemned rape. Romney has condemned rape. One part of this is
nonsense. Every candidate I know, every decent american i know condemns
rape. Okay so, why can’t people like Stephanie Cutter get over it?”
-Newt Gingrich, defending Richard Mourdock’s rape comment by telling
women to get over it, October 2012.

22. “There are very few pregnancies as a result of rape, fortunately,
and incest — compared to the usual abortion, what is the percentage of
abortions for rape? It is tiny. It is a tiny, tiny percentage… Most
abortions, most abortions are for what purpose? They just don’t want to
have a baby!”
-Maryland congressman Roscoe Bartlett, falsely claiming that rape
pregnancy is rare, September 2012.

23. “Each of these lines attempts to serve a portion of our population
for which we extend our sympathy and encouragement. But nevertheless, it
is only a small portion of South Carolina’s chronically ill or abused.
Overall, these special add-on lines distract from the agency’s broader
mission of protecting South Carolina’s public health.”
-South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, referring to raped and battered
women as ‘distractions’ after vetoing funding to prevent rape and abuse,
July 2012.

24. “Rape and incest was used as a reason to oppose this. I would hope
that when a woman goes in to a physician with a rape issue, that
physician will indeed ask her about perhaps her marriage, was this
pregnancy caused by normal relations in a marriage or was it truly
caused by a rape. I assume that’s part of the counseling that goes on.”
-Idaho State Rep. Chuck Winder, saying women don’t even know what rape
is, August 2012.

25. “We do need to plan ahead, don’t we, in life? I have spare tire on
my car. I also have life insurance. I have a lot of things that I plan
ahead for.”
-Kansas State Rep. Pete De Graaf, saying that women should plan ahead to
be raped, August 2011.

26. “If I thought that the man’s signature was required… required, in
order for a woman to have an abortion, I’d have a little more peace
about it…”
-Alaska State Rep. Alan Dick, suggesting that all women, including rape
victims, should have to get permission from men to get an abortion,
March 2012.

27. “If it’s an honest rape, that individual should go immediately to
the emergency room, and I would give them a shot of estrogen.”
-Ron Paul, echoing Todd Akin’s “legitimate rape” comment 7 months before
Akin actually said it, February 2012.

28. “A jury could very well conclude that this is a case of buyer’s
remorse.”
-Former Colorado Senate Candidate Ken Buck, claiming that the victim may
not have really been raped even though the perpetrator admitted that he
committed the crime, March 2006.

29. “Through our conversations, I’ve heard, ‘what if somebody has a
sincerely held religious conviction about dispensing the emergency
contraception medication? What about their rights? How do we address
those… It’s not about the victim.”
-Scott Brown, putting religious belief above the needs of rape victims,
2005.

30. “When you enter into a marriage, you enter into a contract for all
sorts of different things with your spouse. Why should we take it to a
Class 2 felony and put a husband away who’s been a good husband for
however many years … based off of something that was OK in a marriage up
until that point?”
-Arizona State Rep. Warde Nichols, equating spousal rape to consensual
sex, March 2005.

31. “The facts show that people who are raped — who are truly raped —
the juices don’t flow, the body functions don’t work and they don’t get
pregnant.”
-North Carolina Rep. Henry Aldridge, making the Todd Akin “legitimate
rape” claim over a decade earlier, April 1995.

32. “Rape is kinda like the weather. If it’s inevitable, just relax and
enjoy it.”
-Texas Gubernatorial candidate Clayton Williams, March 1990.

33. “The odds are one in millions and millions and millions. And there
is a physical reason for that. Rape, obviously, is a traumatic
experience. When that traumatic experience is undergone, a woman
secretes a certain secretion, which has a tendency to kill sperm.”
-Pennsylvania State Rep. Stephen Freind, ignoring medical science, March
1988.

34. “Fear-induced hormonal changes could block a rape victim’s ability
to conceive.”
-Arkansas Republican Fay Boozman, making the Todd Akin claim, he also
allegedly called this “block” “God’s little shield,” 1998.

35. “Sometimes we’re actually right when we go with our gut and stand on
principle in supporting underdog candidates.”
-Sarah Palin, responding to Todd Akin’s rape quote, August 2012.

36. “Now Moore, Jennifer Moore, 18, on her way to college. She was
5-foot-2, 105 pounds, wearing a miniskirt and a halter top with a bare
midriff. Now, again, there you go. So every predator in the world is
gonna pick that up at two in the morning. She’s walking by herself on
the West Side Highway, and she gets picked up by a thug. All right. Now
she’s out of her mind, drunk.”
-Bill O’ Reilly, claiming that a murdered rape victim was asking to be
raped because of the way she dressed, August 2006.

37. “I think that when you get married you have consented to sex. That’s
what marriage is all about, I don’t know if maybe these girls missed sex
ed.”
-Eagle Forum President Phyllis Schlafly, saying that men can force their
wives to have sex against their will, March 2007.

38. “Concern for rape victims is a red herring because conceptions from
rape occur with approximately the same frequency as snowfall in Miami.”
-Judge James Leon Holmes, Bush appointee, in a 1980 letter.

39. “Richard and I, along with millions of Americans – including even
Joe Donnelly – believe that life is a gift from God. To try and
construe his words as anything other than a restatement of that belief
is irresponsible and ridiculous.”
-John Cornyn, standing by Richard Mourdock’s rape comments, October 2012.

40. “The young folks that are coming into each of your services are
anywhere from 17 to 22 or 23. Gee whiz, the hormone level created by
nature sets in place the possibility for these types of things to occur.
So we’ve got to be very careful how we address it on our side.”
-Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss, blaming the outrageous number of rapes
in the military on hormones, June 2013.

As anyone can see, conservatives have been saying stupid things about
rape since at least the 1980s. But up until recent years, the extreme
Republican stance on rape had remained on the fringe of the party.
Today, Republicans proudly wear their extreme views on rape in the open
for all to see. It doesn’t compute with them that the vast majority of
women reject those views, and that medical science and rape statistics
completely refutes them. That’s why it is so important to make sure
people across the nation know all about what Republicans have said about
rape and rape victims, and what they have done as a result. The most
important election in our lifetimes will be in 2014 and we cannot afford
to sit out like many did in 2010. There is a reason why Republicans
gained the power to push their crazy anti-women agenda. It’s because
voters failed to show up, thus handing victory to a party that doesn’t
deserve it. Americans must do better in 2014.

We must take back state legislatures, governorships, and the House of
Representatives away from the GOP. It is the only way to preserve the
rights and freedoms that women have fought so long for. That includes
the right to choose whether or not to end an unwanted pregnancy.
Republicans have no right to make reproductive health decisions for
women, especially since the great majority of those in the GOP making
such laws to do so are men. That being said, women should resoundingly
say ‘no’ to Republicans in 2014 and beyond until the GOP war on women is
not only ended, but reversed. If Republicans ever want to hold public
office again, they will abandon their anti-women agenda and their vile
rhetoric. Until then, women will always remember in November.

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