Republican lawmaker: Childbirth resulting from rape is "beautiful"
A Republican state legislator from West Virginia said Thursday that women should not be allowed to abort pregnancies resulting from rape because the child that could result from it is "beautiful."
"For somebody to take advantage of somebody else in such a horrible and terrifying and brutal way is absolutely disgusting," said West Virginia Del. Brian Kurcaba during a hearing on proposed new abortion restrictions, CBS Charleston affiliate WOWK-TV reports. "But what is beautiful is the child that could come as a production of this."
Kurcaba later said in a statement that his comments didn't fully represent his views, WOWK-TV reports.
"I apologize to anyone who took my comments about the sanctity of human life to mean anything other than that all children are precious regardless of circumstances," he said in the statement.
The bill under consideration would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. On Thursday, the state legislature's health committee voted down a proposal that would have made exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest, and the bill is now headed for a up or down vote in the full House.
Kurcaba, a financial adviser and resident of Morgantown, West Virginia, was first elected to the statehouse last November. According to his campaign website, he was endorsed by West Virginians for Life, an anti-abortion group, during his primary and general election campaigns.
He becomes the latest Republican lawmaker to offer some eyebrow-raising comments on the subject of rape and abortion. In October 2012, then-Indiana Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock argued during a debate, "I think that even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen."
And perhaps the most infamous rape-related comments during that year came from then-Rep. Todd Akin, R-Missouri, who was running for a Senate seat as well. Akin said that women who were the victims of "legitimate rape" wouldn't become pregnant because "the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."