Paul Ryan Still Believes In Banning All Abortion, Even In Cases Of Rape

Congressman Paul Ryan is being a good vice-presidential nominee and deferring to Mitt Romney‘s decision to support abortion in cases of rape and incest — though, not for any other reason, like, the Constitution. So when asked yesterday by KDKA political editor Jon Delano about his beliefs on abortion, he towed his bosses’ line:

Delano: “Should abortions to be available to women who are raped?”

Ryan: “Well, look, I’m proud of my pro-life record. And I stand by my pro-life record in Congress. It’s something I’m proud of. But Mitt Romney is the top of the ticket and Mitt Romney will be president and he will set the policy of the Romney administration.”

Delano: “Despite Ryan’s views, Romney says he will allow exceptions for rape and incest.”

Delano: “Ryan says women won’t fall for these side issues.”

Ryan: “And I don’t think they’re going to take the bait of all these distractions that the President is trying to throw at them.”

There are no degrees of separation between Todd Akin, the embattled GOP Congressman who has refused to drop out of the race for the U.S. Senate after claiming that women who are victims of “legitimate” rape rarely if ever become pregnant, thanks to some automagic women’s systems that biologists have never heard of.

Both Akin and Ryan believe there should be no abortion ever. Period.

Both Akin and Ryan support legislation redefining rape so men are less-likely to be prosecuted — based on the theory that if a woman gets pregnant, she must have wanted it, despite being raped.

Ian Millhiser at Think Progress notes:

Ryan’s attempt to stick a knife into the increasingly toxic senate candidate cannot be squared with Ryan’s long record of working with Akin to curtail reproductive freedom and redefine rape. Ryan and Akin cosponsored a “personhood” bill that would not only prohibit rape survivors from seeking an abortion, but would likely treat terminating a pregnancy that results from rape as a homicide crime. Similarly, Ryan and Akin partnered on a bill seeking to prevent Medicaid recipients who are raped from obtaining an abortion unless they are victims of “forcible rape.”

 

Nor is this a new position for Paul Ryan. The man Mitt Romney wants to be a heartbeat away from the presidency claimed that abortion should be illegal except for “cases in which a doctor deems an abortion necessary to save the mother’s life” as far back as his first House campaign in 1998. Throughout his career Ryan’s view has been consistent and unambiguous — rape survivors are out of luck.

Welcome to the thirteenth century.

Transcript via Right Wing Watch