Politician says that rape rarely causes pregnancy. Guess which party.

[Joe Republic]

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[Antonio the Sixth]

When I read "guess which party", I actually thought it was a Democrat. Imagine my relief...

[memphis]

Is this a fundie meme alongside the world being 6000 years old et al? It does seem a lot of pols have made similar comments. I'm not sure if this is some sort of urban legend alongside vaccines causing autism or whatever.

[Likely Voter]

The whole thing comes out of a misguided rationalization for their having no abortion exceptions for rape. It is obviously a very unpopular position to say the government should force rape victims to have the babies of their rapists, so they justify by saying 'but rape babies dont really happen so dont worry about it'

[Citizen (The) Doctor]

Why are Pubs even still talking about this? Nothing good comes out of mentioning abortion.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

The whole thing comes out of a misguided rationalization for their having no abortion exceptions for rape. It is obviously a very unpopular position to say the government should force rape victims to have the babies of their rapists, so they justify by saying 'but rape babies dont really happen so dont worry about it'

I don't think these people actually understand truly how awful saying this stuff is. Their position is popular, at least, in the ultraconservative circles these anti-science nimrods run in. They see the media blowups over rape and write it off as liberal media nonsense.

"Of course we're anti-rape! Of course. It's just gotta be a legit rape, where a girl was forced in an alley at knife point and she almost died and the dude doing it was ugly or poor or black or unpopular."

[Torie]

The California Republican Assembly is packed with crazies wall to wall - and has been for a long time. It would fit right in with the Texas GOP organizations. It has minimal influence however.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

This is a surprise?

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

[Likely Voter]

The whole thing comes out of a misguided rationalization for their having no abortion exceptions for rape. It is obviously a very unpopular position to say the government should force rape victims to have the babies of their rapists, so they justify by saying 'but rape babies dont really happen so dont worry about it'

I don't think these people actually understand truly how awful saying this stuff is. Their position is popular, at least, in the ultraconservative circles these anti-science nimrods run in. They see the media blowups over rape and write it off as liberal media nonsense.

"Of course we're anti-rape! Of course. It's just gotta be a legit rape, where a girl was forced in an alley at knife point and she almost died and the dude doing it was ugly or poor or black or unpopular."

its actually worse than that. They see exceptions as 'loopholes'. Paul Ryan famously said health exemptions were "wide enough to drive a Mack truck through" The worry for these types is that once they ban abortions, all the sluts will start saying it was rape or say it is for health...so they have to ban ALL abortions just to be sure. But then they justify that by saying that there really arent any rape pregnancies, if the woman says they were raped they are probably lying, because (insert mumbo jumbo)

[bballrox4717]

Why are Pubs even still talking about this? Nothing good comes out of mentioning abortion rape.

[7,052,770]

Is this a fundie meme alongside the world being 6000 years old et al? It does seem a lot of pols have made similar comments. I'm not sure if this is some sort of urban legend alongside vaccines causing autism or whatever.

Yes, I heard it a few times from fundies in high school.

[Person Man]

Barring any political analysis of this filth, it actually makes the rest of us think that they are actually rapists. What else do you think of someone who talks about rape all the time?

[Sopranos Republican]

Even if he privately believes that, what good could he possibly think could come of that comment. It's unbelievable what some of these people think are wise things to say.

[DC Al Fine]

Why are Pubs even still talking about this? Nothing good comes out of mentioning abortion.

It keeps the socons in the party.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

It didn't go over well in Missouri, so they're trying to see if it goes over well in the bay area? LOL.

[TNF]

The Republicans sure are going to great lengths to win the rapist vote in 2014.

[pbrower2a]

The GOP agenda demonstrates the egocentrism of pathological elites in the extreme, but even it has some pretensions to idealism. "No abortion under any circumstances" is such a pretension. "She might come to love the baby". "Maybe she is partially culpable". It's about as weak as blaming the victims of muggings for getting mugged.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

It didn't go over well in Missouri, so they're trying to see if it goes over well in the bay area? LOL.

I'm sure those in the Ozarks found it fitting, though.

[Mehmentum]

Seriously Republicans, just stop.  For your own good, stop talking about rape.

[TNF]

Seriously Republicans, just stop.  For your own good, stop talking about rape.

You have a D avatar. Why would you ever want them to think about their own good? Let them talk about rape all day until it makes them completely unelectable.

[RogueBeaver]

Who? But yeah, beneath contempt is the only thing I can say that won't get me death points.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

The California Republican Assembly is packed with crazies wall to wall - and has been for a long time. It would fit right in with the Texas GOP organizations. It has minimal influence however.

But regardless of influence, statements like this one provides a lovely source for quotes and/or soundbites from 'official' Republicans, which can then be used come election-time to boost turnout and persuade fence-sitters. Admittedly, we're off-cycle at the moment so the net impact will likely be very small, but it certainly doesn't help.

What the Republicans really need to start doing on occasions like this is to censor, strip party and legislative posts, or even boot from the party, the offending members. Then they can legitimately fight back against the Dems next time around. Of course, I'm not sure if internal party dynamics in California would even make doing the above possible. And above all, they'd need to make certain to steer clear of 'fake' criticism - that'll hurt them even more in the long run. For that matter, the Repubs may actually have so many insane misogynists among their members and supporters that trying to act against them in any way will hurt more than it will help.

[Torie]

I doubt any elected officials belong to the CA Republican Assembly. So there is no "discipline" to mete out. Nobody has any power to strip a voter of his party registration either.