More Problems for GOP Brand? Rep. Steve King Says Never Heard of Pregnancy Due to Statuatory Rape or Incest
NOTE: This post has been modified to reflect Rep. Steve King’s remarks. Not Rep. Peter King. It is the policy of TMV to correct errors. We regret the error..
You have to wonder if some GOPers are secretly trying to purge their party not just of RINOS, or conservatives who dare to (GASP!) compromise with the other side, but also purge their party of getting votes from moderates, centrists and independents. How else can you explain the second Republican who now threatens to add another strand in the growing pasta-plate of spaghetti of problems Republicans will have with women voters. Now Rep. Steve King says he never heard of a girl getting pregnant from statuatory rape. Talking Points Memo:
Rep. Steve King, one of the most staunchly conservative members of the House, was one of the few Republicans who did not strongly condemn Rep. Todd Akin Monday for his remarks regarding pregnancy and rape. King also signaled why — he might agree with parts of Akin’s assertion.
King told an Iowa reporter he’s never heard of a child getting pregnant from statutory rape or incest.
“Well I just haven’t heard of that being a circumstance that’s been brought to me in any personal way,” King told KMEG-TV Monday, “and I’d be open to discussion about that subject matter.”
A Democratic source flagged King’s praise of Akin in the KMEG interview to TPM. But potentially more controversial for King is his suggestion that pregnancies from statutory rape or incest don’t exist or happen rarely. A 1996 review by the Guttmacher Institute found “at least half of all babies born to minor women are fathered by adult men.”
The tie between statutory rape and teen pregnancy has been the subject of ad campaigns from groups like United Way.
Couple King’s comments with the latest on Rep. Todd Akin in Missouri, and the Republican Party platform about emerge as coming out for a federal ban against abortions in any and all circumstances, and it would seem that Republicans have some work to do on branding.
On the other hand, some Republicans may feel that their whopping financial advantage over Barack Obama means they can bury him and the Democrats with ads — so being far outside of what even four years ago was the country’s maintream won’t be a big deal.
I’m betting it will be.
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Joe – It’s Steve King, not Peter King (whose picture is shown). I’d be surprised to hear such a comment from Peter King, but Steve King…I’d believe he said just about anything including this foolishness.
This is what I’ve been trying to say. The position Akin staked out is not all that uncommon among the extreme pro-lifer crowd. The narrative it fits is just too perfect. Abortion isn’t necessary because women should just keep their legs shut so it’s their own fault that society is taking away their bodily autonomy. In the case of rape, it still doesn’t matter because when you are raped our magic bodies shut down “that whole thing”. Never mind how horribly wrong it is to punish women with forced childbirth because they dare to have sex, but they basically have to come up with lies to make it seem ok to punish women who *aren’t* dirty sluts with the same fate.
Thanks TO, and Joe’s article has been amended now to correct it. Joe G holds TMV to newspaper standards and this is why now, in the update, you see not just a correction but also mention at the top, of the error itself to begin with.
More ignorance from the party that hates science, shocking!
If I were a woman, I’d be very very afraid of the Republican party.