Republican presidential aspirants struggled to condemn rape to the chagrin of decent Americans and GOP political strategists one election ago.
Little has changed.
"This is actually pretty simple. If you’re about to talk about rape as anything other than a brutal and horrible crime, stop," said Republican strategist Kevin Madden in 2013, as a former senior adviser in Mitt Romney’s campaign. (Haberkorn, Politico)
Today, evangelicals and Republicans' perverse misogyny has GOP presidential candidates avoiding "legitimate rape" comments (ala Todd Akin), instead casting incredulity about the health, life (and implicitly the will) of women contemplating what to do with their bodies.
This comes as Republicans close Planned Parenthood clinics, tried to defund all clinics or shut down the U.S. government, force ultrasounds and "waiting periods" onto women to "provide information" for women among other "cool thing(s) out there," as Scott Walker put it in his Todd Akin moment earlier this year. (Mal Contends)
Scott Walker — and all GOP presidential candidates — now pretend to attainment in medical science and bio-medical ethics as exemplified by Walker declaring there are no circumstances in which the life of a woman is threatened by bringing pregnancies to full term, no matter what women and their doctors say and want.
Must be frustrating for Scott Walker and Republicans because women are not listening to the information Walker and Republican governors "provide" for women.
At the Fox News debate, Megyn Kelly, asked Walker, "Would you really let a mother die rather than have an abortion? And with 83 percent of the American public in favor of a life exception, are you too out of the mainstream on this issue to win the general election?"
Walker responded: "Well, I'm pro-life, I've always been pro-life, and I've got a position that I think is consistent with many Americans out there. I believe that that is an unborn child that's in need of protection out there, and I've said many a time that that unborn child can be protected, and there are many other alternatives that can also protect the life of that mother. That's been consistently proven." (Spicuzza, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)
Walker likes to make things up as he goes along, and has an odd incapacity to think on his feet, especially when explaining his commitment to an abortion ban, including cases of rape, incest, health, life and of course the will of a woman.
Walker's spokesperson didn't help matters.
Writes the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's Spicuzza:
When asked what better medical options are available — and whether Walker believes there are no instances in which a family and doctors have to choose between the life of the pregnant woman and the life of her fetus — his campaign spokeswoman AshLee Strong repeated late Friday (August 7) that he is '100% pro-life.'
'He acknowledges what science says, and that is that an unborn child is that — a child, and deserving of protection,' Strong said.
Replace legitimate rape with legitimate health and legitimate life concerns and you have the new Republican Party position on women's choice, with appeals to "science," the "false choice" and misunderstanding women have when they believe their health, life and will require an abortion, ... or even access to birth control.
The up side is the 18-point gender gap of women against Mitt Romney in 2012 will likely grow in 2016 with the spreading radicalism of the Republican Party. (Bassett, Huffington Post)
The GOP solution is actually pretty simple. If Republicans enact laws or talk about laws threatening women's health, lives and will as anything other than a brutal and horrible assault against the humanity of women, stop.
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