This week, in the new Republican controlled Congress, there has been what Talking Points Memo is calling “the GOP meltdown on abortion and rape.”
The House introduced a symbolic messaging bill that would have banned abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, but it was pulled at the last minute after GOP women and swing-district lawmakers balked over a rape-exception provision that would have required rape victims to report the crime to authorities before having an abortion.
This kind of crap has a LOT of people, including republicans, wondering exactly what the GOP stands for.?Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA) gave this quote?about the priorities of House Republicans, as quoted by Talking Points Memo:
?Week one, we had a Speaker election that didn’t go as well as a lot of us would have liked. Week two, we spent a lot of time talking about deporting children, a conversation a lot of us didn’t want to have. Week three, we’re debating reportable rape and incest ? again, not an issue a lot of us wanted to have a conversation about. I just can’t wait for week four.?
And this quote:
“The less we engage on this issue [of rape] legislatively, the better off we are as a party,” he said. “What kind of message are we sending?”
I can answer that. You’re sending the same message your party has always sent, Rep. Dent — that women don’t matter, our voices don’t matter, and our bodies belong to you.
h/t Political Wire
