House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise laugh as Conference Chair Liz Cheney takes the microphone at a news conference following leadership elections on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., November 14, 2018. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein
BUSTED.
As national Republicans flee the very unpopular attacks on women’s liberty that is taking the form of GOP-led effective abortion bans around the country, Vice News has gotten their hands on a secret memo of national Republican talking points to defend the state level abortion laws.
Of particular interest is the section where they defend forcing rape and incest victims to carry their rapist’s implanted seed to term, as Republicans have decided to go with how horrible it would be to commit a “second violent act” via abortion…
to justify their very violent act of forcible pregnancy:
“Committing a second violent act with abortion to a woman who has already been victimized by an act of rape or incest could physically or psychologically wound her further. Every single child should be afforded the opportunity to live, regardless of how they were conceived.”
Vice explains that the very secret, “’strictly OFF-THE-RECORD’ and not to be printed or reproduced by/for media” document was produced by the Republican Study Committee to offer “messaging guidance” on the Republican Party’s “pro-life platform.”
Screencap via Vice News:
National Republicans have been doing that Chicago tap dance they do where they run away from an issue that is actually in their national platform when it’s unpopular with the public.
And it’s been working in many segments of the population, who claim these are just extremist states passing the attacks on women’s freedom and liberty. But as I wrote before, that’s disingenuous because a fetus being a life with equal protections to all other human life under the law is in the national Republican Party platform.
“Republicans are very busy running away from Alabama’s tough abortion law, even though they not only enabled this exact situation by stealing a Supreme Court seat from President Obama and then installing two exceptionally far-right extremists to the bench but also, their platform insists on personhood for a fetus.
Conservatives are using states to whittle away at Roe v Wade in concert together and they are not doing that because Republicans actually disagree.”
GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, the only leader who is not a member of this conservative group (Vice pointed out that Minority Whip Steve Scalise, Republican Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney and Vice Chairman Mark Walker and Republican Policy Committee Chairman Gary Palmer are all listed as members, which is to say, Republican leadership), tried to distance himself when the Alabama law passed by saying, “In my whole political career, I also believed in rape, incest or the life of the mother, there was exceptions,” he said, adding that that is the Republican Party’s official position and “where many of us stand.”
Actually, no, that is not the official Republican Party position. The problem Republicans have is their party platform gives personhood rights to a fetus. This is not something anyone can legally make an argument no longer exists due to rape and incest, and McCarthy can actually see that playing out as the Republican Party has passed laws that do not make an exception for rape and incest.
There is no way to set a personhood precedent and then claim that other crimes exempt the personhood status. Additionally, even if there were, these are vastly under-reported crimes and under-investigated crimes, with untested rape kits sitting in storage rooms around this country because even though rapists are prone to recidivism, we do not prioritize even basic testing to procure evidence, and since we do not believe women, these cases most often go nowhere.
If Republicans were really concerned with violence against women so much, as their talking point justifying denying abortions to rape and incest victims is trying to suggest, then their first priority would be to actually test these rape kits. But of course, there is not a word about rape kits.
The horrifying part about the Republican platform is not only do they not understand pregnancy or abortion or birth control, but they have created a punitive culture that incentivizes rape by giving every rapist what they most crave over their victims — power and control. But not just for the moment of their crime. Republicans are giving rapists what they most crave for the 9 months of a pregnancy and the 18 years following the forced birth.
These talking points obtained by Vice bust Republicans’ attempt to run away from their own platform. This cruelty is the result of Republicans’ alleged “pro-life” value.
These talking points are proof that even when they are being silent on these abortion laws, Republicans actually support the underlying value system, which means they own these laws.
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