Todd Aiken is ass. But he is not alone. His comment about rape was horrifically wrong. His comments about abortion were over shadowed in the twitter storm. Even though many republicans are calling for him to drop out of the race, they are still moving full force for his stance on an absolute ban on all abortion.
Todd Aiken was talking about abortion, not rape. He, like most other far right republicans, is categorically against abortion in any circumstance including rape and incest, or the life of the mother. Let the consequences be the consequences. He believes that abortion is unnecessary. His comments indicated that he thinks that women who are raped either want it or deserve it. It would be one thing if he truly had a moral reason to be against abortion. His comments showed that he is against abortion because he thinks women use abortion as birth control, and women who have sex are immoral. Again, his comments were not about rape, they were about abortion.
While I am not sure what his position on birth control is, I would bet that it probably aligns with the anti-woman, anti-sex “beliefs” that many others on the extreme right have. Many of these beliefs are also aligned with the anti-science creationists beliefs of the religious right that say that sex is only for procreation, and no one should use birth control of any kind. This is the same set of arguments that we heard when Obama instituted birth control coverage.
This country really does need to have a serious debate about abortion and we will never have one. The GOP will have a plank that says that life begins at conception. This would in effect ban abortion in all cases. The consequences of this ban will be that abortion goes undercover – illegal, “back ally”, away from medical practitioners and causing a health catastrophe for women. The GOP establishment wants Todd Aiken to resign over his comments on rape, not his stance on abortion. His comments put a bright spotlight on the anti-abortion stance of the GOP - something the GOP does not want. What the republicans won't do, and have shown they will not do, is support all of the things that really will reduce abortion.
There are many other and better ways to reduce abortion than to make it illegal. Let’s start with quality health care for women that covers well care checkups, birth control and prenatal care. Let’s continue with high quality, science based, age appropriate sex education that includes biology, all forms of birth control and respect for people. Let’s finish with teaching respect for women, girls, boys and men and the community in which we all belong. There are many other ways in which this conversation or debate needs to go.
The GOP set of policies are hypocritical in that they are anti-birth control, anti-abortion, and anti-child, not to mention anti-woman. I don’t understand how a “pro-life” stance can be so anti human.