Steve King Doubles Down on Horrifying "Get Raped, No Abortion" Position: "Their Lives Are as Precious as any Other, Regardless of How They Came to Be." Sicko.
August 26th 2019
Congressman Steve King (Gage Skidmore)
By Marissa Higgins
Steve King, a Republican Congressman for Iowa and overall ghoul has once again taken the opportunity to double down on his incredibly restrictive reproductive health ideals. As was previously reported, Rep. King has clashed with fellow conservatives on reproductive health, arguing that abortion shouldn’t be permitted even in cases of rape and incest. Even the most restrictive of abortion bans generally (though not always) make exceptions for these instances. While any restriction on reproductive health is in itself extreme and wrong, King is solidly in the world of unfathomable.
Of course, he isn’t taking any opportunity to learn or evolve from the backlash to his comments.
On Saturday, King tweeted that babies conceived of rape or incest are “as precious as any other,” which is a great way to prioritize the potential life of an embryo over the real life of a pregnant person who, among other things, is the survivor of a traumatic assault:
As some context for the tweet, Rebecca Kiessling, the founder and president of Save the 1, an anti-abortion group focused on conceptions via rape, spoke to the Iowa Standard and, basically, thanked King for his restrictive and regressive views on reproductive health. Kiessling argued that she herself had been born of rape and thanked King for his dangerous views on abortion.
BuzzFlash We Resist, We Defy, We Expose. Your donation keeps BuzzFlash alive. It is an investment in resistance to injustice, authoritarianism and racism. Please contribute now so BuzzFlash can inform and inspire opposition to Trump and advance progressive change. Donate by clicking here. Unlike the corporate media, we run on a shoestring budget and no one owns us but our readers.
“In a civilized society... we do not punish innocent people for someone else’s crime. That’s exactly what Congressman King said in his statement — the child does not deserve to die for the sins of the father," she stated, apparently not considering that limiting reproductive health is a punishment against the pregnant person in question.
This fits right into what King said earlier this month, when as first reported by the Des Moines Register, he said, “What if we went back through all the family trees and just pulled those people out that were products of rape and incest? Would there be any population of the world left if we did that?"
Then continued his horrifying train of thought, adding, “Considering all the wars and all the rapes and pillages taken place and whatever happened to culture after society? I know I can't certify that I'm not a part of a product of that.”
Recently, at a “No Exception for Life” press conference in Des Moines, Iowa, King also criticized fellow Republicans who are not as extreme on abortion, saying, "those who are pro-life by conviction understand that exceptions are wrong." He went on to state that Republicans who make exceptions in cases of rape and incest are simply making a “political calculation that they need for political purposes.”
King is racist, panders to white supremacists, and overall disturbing in his views about women and non-binary people. It’s great that Republicans are finally calling him appalling, but they don’t get too many brownie points, either—because every restriction on abortion is extreme, as is every upholding of white supremacy.
Posted with permission