james g. keegan jr.
2010-10-03 22:12:31 UTC
At least 78 GOP candidates would force women to bear rapists¹ babies
By Daniel Tencer
Thursday, September 30th, 2010 -- 7:51 pm
A partial list of Republican candidates running for US Congress in this
year's mid-term elections shows that at least 78 of them have professed
to oppose abortion in all cases, including where rape or incest are
involved.
The Republican National Coalition For Life, a political action committee
formed by anti-feminist activist Phyllis Schlafly, sends out
questionnaires every election season to Republican candidates asking
them to lay out their positions on abortion.
A list of responses from this year's candidates indicate that 78 Senate
and House candidates answered that they are "pro-life without
discrimination," meaning they don't agree with any exceptions to a ban
on abortion.
The list was flagged earlier this week by Charles Johnson at the Little
Green Footballs blog. Johnson counted 112 candidates who hold that view
of abortion, but a Raw Story count of the listed candidates found 78 who
have won their primary and indicated they would make no exceptions to
allow abortion.
As the list doesn't include all US states or all candidates running for
the House or Senate, the total number of candidates backing a full
abortion ban is likely higher. The list also does not cover
gubernatorial candidates or politicians running for state or local
government.
Among the more notable candidates backing a full abortion ban are
Christine O'Donnell, running for the Senate in Delaware; Rand Paul,
running for the Senate seat from Kentucky; Minnesota Rep. Michele
Bachmann; and Missouri Senate candidate Roy Blunt.
But the list does not include a number of candidates known to hold that
view, including Sharron Angle, who is running for Sen. Harry Reid's seat
from Nevada, and Joe Miller, running for Senate from Alaska.
The influence of the tea party movement on this year's elections may
have something to do with an apparent increase in the number of
Republicans taking a hard-line stance on abortion, reported Amanda
Terkel at the Huffington Post.
Dianne Edmondson, executive director of RNC for Life PAC, told Terkel
that "we have many more candidates responding to us this year than we
did in the last election cycle -- probably about three times as many --
and I'd say at least half of them do meet that criteria."
"The Republican Party is, without actually talking about it, this year
nominating a group of candidates for top-of-the-ticket races that are
more extreme on the issue of abortion than any other slate of
top-of-the-ticket candidates in any other year," MSNBC's Rachel Maddow
reported in August.
Maddow criticized the "small-government conservatives" who supported a
full abortion ban, suggesting they're hypocritical for believing
"government should be big enough that it can monitor every pregnancy in
the country to ensure that every single woman who becomes pregnant is
forced by the government to carry that pregnancy to term."
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/09/78-gop-candidates-force-rapists-babies
/
By Daniel Tencer
Thursday, September 30th, 2010 -- 7:51 pm
A partial list of Republican candidates running for US Congress in this
year's mid-term elections shows that at least 78 of them have professed
to oppose abortion in all cases, including where rape or incest are
involved.
The Republican National Coalition For Life, a political action committee
formed by anti-feminist activist Phyllis Schlafly, sends out
questionnaires every election season to Republican candidates asking
them to lay out their positions on abortion.
A list of responses from this year's candidates indicate that 78 Senate
and House candidates answered that they are "pro-life without
discrimination," meaning they don't agree with any exceptions to a ban
on abortion.
The list was flagged earlier this week by Charles Johnson at the Little
Green Footballs blog. Johnson counted 112 candidates who hold that view
of abortion, but a Raw Story count of the listed candidates found 78 who
have won their primary and indicated they would make no exceptions to
allow abortion.
As the list doesn't include all US states or all candidates running for
the House or Senate, the total number of candidates backing a full
abortion ban is likely higher. The list also does not cover
gubernatorial candidates or politicians running for state or local
government.
Among the more notable candidates backing a full abortion ban are
Christine O'Donnell, running for the Senate in Delaware; Rand Paul,
running for the Senate seat from Kentucky; Minnesota Rep. Michele
Bachmann; and Missouri Senate candidate Roy Blunt.
But the list does not include a number of candidates known to hold that
view, including Sharron Angle, who is running for Sen. Harry Reid's seat
from Nevada, and Joe Miller, running for Senate from Alaska.
The influence of the tea party movement on this year's elections may
have something to do with an apparent increase in the number of
Republicans taking a hard-line stance on abortion, reported Amanda
Terkel at the Huffington Post.
Dianne Edmondson, executive director of RNC for Life PAC, told Terkel
that "we have many more candidates responding to us this year than we
did in the last election cycle -- probably about three times as many --
and I'd say at least half of them do meet that criteria."
"The Republican Party is, without actually talking about it, this year
nominating a group of candidates for top-of-the-ticket races that are
more extreme on the issue of abortion than any other slate of
top-of-the-ticket candidates in any other year," MSNBC's Rachel Maddow
reported in August.
Maddow criticized the "small-government conservatives" who supported a
full abortion ban, suggesting they're hypocritical for believing
"government should be big enough that it can monitor every pregnancy in
the country to ensure that every single woman who becomes pregnant is
forced by the government to carry that pregnancy to term."
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/09/78-gop-candidates-force-rapists-babies
/