A Republican candidate for governor of Michigan is being highly criticized for comments he made around his desire to implement a Texas-style vigilante abortion ban, even for victims of rape.
Chiropractor Garrett Soldano, who has no experience in government, says he wants to “defend DNA” by forcing women who have suffered the horrific experience of rape to carry the fetus and give birth to their rapist’s child.
“They don’t know that little baby inside them may be the next president, may be the next person who changes humanity,” Soldano said on a podcast in January, as The Washington Post reports Tuesday. Video of his comments (below) was posted by the news site Heartland Signal late Monday afternoon, garnering close to half a million views.
After relaying a story of a woman who was “gang-raped by five guys,” Soldano, one of the top Republican contenders, said: “What we must start to focus on is not only to defend the DNA when it’s created, but however how about we start inspiring women in the culture to let them understand and know how heroic they are,” to give birth after being raped.
“God put them in this moment,” he added. “We must always, always protect that DNA and allow it to have a voice.”
On his campaign website, Soldano says he is the author of “God’s True Law, a parent’s guide to raising successful children.” He has been permanently banned from YouTube.
There was massive outrage in response.
“Spoken like a true right wing man who has never been victimized,” wrote MSNBC’s Joy Reid. “This is the kind of Byzantine thinking and absolute arrogance and dismissal of the importance of women as human beings–not inanimate vessels for men’s use–that makes younger people run fast and far from religion.”
Editor-in-chief and columnist at Michigan Advance, Susan J. Demas, called it, “one of the creepiest things I’ve ever seen.”
“Welcome to your future, ladies,” she added.
Jeff Timmer, a Lincoln Project senior strategist tweeted, “What in the fancy flying french fried fuck is wrong with him?”
Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting survivor David Hogg, now a gun control activist and founder / board member at March For Our Lives wrote simply, “What the fuck is wrong with people.”
A few other responses:
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