CountryRoads, the issue I think is that the "no abortion for rape" position is being defended horribly. If a politician says something like "it is still a human and has a right to life" it is much more tenable than when they try to hold to their position while dancing around it. It seems that is where Akinesque scenarios come about
The issue is that there is this attitude in politics that your position does not have to be only tenable, but objectively and self-evidently correct in every possible sense. This leads to a lot of willful ignorance and a general unwillingness to have mature discussion of the issues. After all, admitting that the opposition might have a defensible point of view is just being a weak-kneed flip-flopper.
