Richard Mourdock: Even pregnancy from rape something "God intended"
In a Tuesday night debate with his Democratic rival and a Libertarian candidate for one of Indiana's U.S. Senate seats, Republican candidate Richard Mourdock suggested that pregnancies resulting from rape are "something that God intended to happen," despite the "horrible situation" from which they derived.
Mourdock, a Tea Party-backed candidate who beat longtime moderate Senator Richard Lugar in the state's Republican nominating contest earlier this year, expressed his view that "life begins at conception" and that he would only allow abortions in circumstances in which the mother's life was in danger.
"I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize life is that gift from God," Mourdock said. "And I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen."
Democrats immediately pounced on his comments, and Donnelly -- who is also pro-life but who supports exceptions for rape and incest -- released a statement questioning the notion that God would "intend for rape to happen."
"The God I believe in and the God I know most Hoosiers believe in, does not intend for rape to happen -- ever," Donnelly said. "What Mr. Mourdock said is shocking, and it is stunning that he would be so disrespectful to survivors of rape."
Mourdock, seeking to clarify his comments in a press conference following the debate, said he had intended to say that "God creates life," and that any interpretation of his comments to mean God "pre-ordained rape" were "sick" and "twisted."
"What I said was, in answering the question form my position of faith, I said I believe that God creates life. I believe that as wholly and as fully as I can believe it. That God creates life," Mourdock said. "Are you trying to suggest that somehow I think that God pre-ordained rape? No, I don't think that. That's sick. Twisted. That's not even close to what I said. What I said is that God creates life."
While to the right on Lugar with regard to issues relating both to reproductive rights and others, Mourdock's stance on abortion is hardly an anomaly in the Republican party. His comments echo similar remarks made by former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum, a staunch pro-life social conservative, while he was still in the midst of a bid for the White House.
"I think the right approach is to accept this horribly created -- in the sense of rape -- but nevertheless a gift in a very broken way, the gift of human life, and accept what God has given to you," Santorum told CNN's Piers Morgan in January. "We have to make the best of a bad situation."
At the GOP convention in Tampa this year, the party approved a platform with language calling for a constitutional amendment banning abortion. The language, which is the same as in the party's 2004 and 2008 platform, did not provide exceptions for victims of rape or incest, or to save the life of the mother.
Mourdock isn't the first Republican Senate candidate this cycle to inspire headlines about comments relating to rape and abortion. Todd Akin, Missouri's embattled Republican Senate candidate, was rebuked even by his own party when he suggested that pregnancies resulting from what he called "legitimate rape" were "really rare."
Akin's comments were roundly decried by Democrats and Republicans alike, and a spokesperson for the Romney campaign said that Romney and Ryan "disagree" with Akin's statement.
Romney, who has endorsed Mourdock, recently appeared in a campaign video on behalf of Mourdock, and campaigned with him in Evansville, Indiana, on Aug. 4. Paul Ryan, who, like Mourdock, opposes all abortions except to save the life of the mother, appeared at an open press funder with him on Sept. 17. Romney opposes abortion with exceptions for the victims of rape and incest and if the life of the mother is at risk.
In a statement released Tuesday night, Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul said Mourdock's remarks were not in line with Romney's views.
"Gov. Romney disagrees with Richard Mourdock's comments, and they do not reflect his views," Saul said.
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"But if in the field the man finds the girl who is engaged, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lies with her shall die. 26"But you shall do nothing to the girl; there is no sin in the girl worthy of death, for just as a man rises against his neighbor and murders him, so is this case. 27"When he found her in the field, the engaged girl cried out, but there was no one to save her," (Deut. 22:25-27).
But that's how you people work. You say that people are blessed if the hurricane doesn't destroy their lives, you say that "He is Good" because you didn't die in the car accident or lose your job or get cancer or die in a plane crash. Then what the hell did those poor VICTIMS do to warrant god hating them so?
In math, you know you are correct if you can rewrite the mathematical statements differently but they say they same thing. For example: 2x2=4 also means 4-2=2.
This outlines the simple fact that if God SPARED someone, he also INFLICTED someone else. If God is glorified for saving the lives of a family during Hurricane Sandy, that means that he DID NOT choose to save other people. That means that your God loves people selectively, he torments them with tragedies and plays with their lives like toys for his amusement. He also lied abkut that flood thing. He is cruel and unjust BY YOUR VERY CALCULATIONS.
To consider rape as a means of God showing how he can do "good" out of bad situation means that he created the bad! Why does your god hate you so much?
I'm an American. I am free because of my founding fathers (who were overwhelmingly NOT Christian, btw) and their foresight to give us freedom of and from religion and to allow American citizens the opportunity to pursue life, liberty, etc. Soldiers have died to protect my rights. I will not allow narrow minded conservatives to insist that I serve their God and not my government. I have rights to my body. Our citizens have the right to love whenever they want. Otherwise we would be living the exact same way as those Muslims the Christians so despise. You want religion in our schools? Have the kids bow to Mecca five times a day. It's religious! Make sure they eat kosher - it's religious! No, you want Christian religion to be in our schools and government. (Also, the line about God in the Pledge was added in the 50s). I don't want your religion to determine MY freedom and I sure as hell don't want to be led by your foolish politicians who think rape is just a means to an end.
Maybe you will consider giving those rape babies to gay couples to raise. Oh, that's right. God hates them. God also (in the exact same verse!) despises tattoos, debt and lottery.
And yet, there is a story in the Bible of a man who was under fire from the townspeople. In order to assuage their revenge, he gave the crowd his concubine and his virgin daughter to rape. In the morning, the poor concubine laid on the threshold, unconscious. The man took her home and cut her up into pieces.
I guess he didn't want to be glorified with THAT rape baby.
You can stay delusional and keep repeating your mantras to help you believe whatever comforts you or gives you power (God is my protector! Except when I need protection from him!) but I am FREE. I respect your right to practice your faith but I will NOT allow you to try to rule me with it.
Also, can you instruct your idiot politicians exactly how babies are born?
This is a good argument if you are religious. I'm not religious in that I don't believe in god (I'm not desputing that Jesus existed as there were lots of prophets around at the time so why not one named Jesus, but I don't believe he is/was the son of god of died for my sins, or anyone elses for that matter. christian emotional blackmail).
Anyway - back to the argument. I'm not religious, but my mother was, and when I got pregnant through rape I had already decided to have the pregnancy terminated because as far as I was concerned it had no rights or place to be there because I shouldn't have been raped in the first place. If I hadn't of been raped I wouldn't of gotten pregnant. Simple. My mother wanted me to have the baby for her and I would be its big sister, and the guy who raped me, a friend, deliberately raped me, which means it was a calculated act ('calculated' means to think about it in advance), to get me pregnant because he was desperate for a baby. But I'm not here to be their carrying case, womb warmer, surrogate or good samaritan.
I hated everything about the thing living inside of me and I had no reservations about ending it's existence - NOT LIFE. I was not going to spend 9 months of my life carrying that thing inside of me and bring it to term, and spend hours in excrutiating pain giving birth to it to either to bring it up myself (and why the hell should I be condemned to give my life up for a kid conceived through rape, at no fault of mine, just because I was pregnant), give it up to my mother to bring up, give it up to the rapist, or give it up for adoption. This was *my* body - not theirs and not the thing inside of me. And as the decision to rape and impregnante me was solely his, the decision to abort the pregnancy was solely mine. It was a 2 way street with 2 way traffic going in opposite directions. He raped me and got me pregnant - I aborted the pregnancy. Simple again.
I have never ever ever felt guilty for what I did in having the pregnancy terminated. I stood up for my rights and what was right for me, put his wrong (the rape) to my right (the abortion) and that is what is important and more important.
I'm not selfish. The rapist who put me in that position in the first place is the selfish one for doing what he did to me. Why should I, or other women who have been in my position, be made to feel bad and guilty because of the actions of a selfish prick? If you were to ask the guy who raped me if he feels guilty for what he did to me he will probably reply that he didn't rape me. Well I know he did. Because I was there.
As for politicians such as Santorum, Mourdock and Akin - they are basically advocates to and for rape, and moreso if it secures a pregnancy. It is *ALWAYS* men who think they have *the* right to tell women what they should and shouldn't do with *THEIR* bodies when it comes to this particular situation, and to ensure mental and emotional blackmail. Men literally have no idea what I woman goes through physically, mentally, emotionally and sexually before, during and aft the rape. They just put us in that position and walk away, and we are the ones who have to put us and ourselves back together again as best we can, with or without support from others. Women are seen and meant to be loving, caring, giving and nurturing, amongst other descriptions. And so when a woman wants to abort a pregnancy through rape, there are certain people who cannot understand why she would want to kill the foetus. There is no legal justice when it comes to a woman being raped let alone made pregnant from it. It is literally a boys club, maybe gods club - who knows. I've always believed that after a man rapes a woman he goes to Rapists (as opposed to Gentleman's) Club, is given a big fat cigar, a single malt and a comfy chair, and they all sit around a fire and talk about their conquests. A house or car that has been broken into gets more respect than a woman's body after she has been raped. Well, after a woman has been raped she too should have that yellow crime scene tape wrapped around her body as her body is now a crime scene. But that will never happen. With men like Santorum, Mourdock and Akin in power, women will *ALWAYS* be viewed as second rate citizens, if not lower, and treated like ****. As a means to an ends when it comes to a man's ****. And you wonder why I hate men like I do.
Children are NOT gifts from god, nor are they conceived by god. god has nothing to do with it whatsoever.
Your god sucks BIG TIME, and you seriously need a wake up call BIG TIME.
Republicans have approved that Viagra be readily available, but not contraceptives for women (Source: http://www.politicususa.com/gop-viagra-planned-parenthood.html). So I ask these questions of all Republicans, who agree with Murdock's statements: Why do you want to take away a woman's right to protect herself? And Why are you trying to take away a Woman's right to say 'No,'? Frankly, Why are you making all these policies against Women? WHY DO YOU HATE WOMEN?
—Defending his comment that a woman becoming pregnant from rape "is something God intended," Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock dug himself into an even deeper hole today when he argued that, if you really stop to think about it, the Virgin Mary was basically raped by God.
"Mary certainly didn't ask for God to impregnate her with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, but obviously the Immaculate Conception, while not the result of a consensual act, was still a part of God's plan—you see what I'm getting at, right?" said the 61-year-old man who currently serves as the state treasurer of Indiana.
Is Richard Mourdock saying that rape is a spiritual breeding program from his God?
Christianity is only a white mans religion.
If a woman gets raped she deserves it.
and so many other things. He is no Samaritan. If that is the analogy you are making.
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The Bible verses I cited were for Dan9080. It is so apparent that he has so much hate and such a wrong view of the Christian faith. You guys asked him to cite references in the Bible to support his racist view of the Bible and he couldn't.
For whatever reason that Dan is hateful, he obviously is ignorant of what the Bible really says. I just wanted to give him some passages where God clearly directed His Good News to be spread to ALL OVER THE WORLD, TO ALL NATIONS, TO ALL RACES, AND TO ALL PEOPLE GROUPS.
Dan, if you're reading this, I hate to tell you, but if you are saved by Jesus and end up in heaven, you WILL BE SURROUNDED BY THE SOULS OF PEOPLE FROM ALL RACES.....FOR ETERNITY!!!!!
If some women CHOOSE to bear their rapist's child, that is their CHOICE, but it does NOT mean that EVERY woman should have to make the same choice under those circumstances.
And NO ONE is suggesting that ALL women who get pregnant under those circumstances should HAVE to get an abortion either (as some people have said is the case)!