Paul Ryan's anti-abortion rights record a target for Obama camp

[maddezmom]

Source: CBS

(CBS News) To cap off his three-day trip to the key state of Iowa, President Obama on Wednesday will be joined by First Lady Michelle Obama on the campaign trail for the first time in over 3 months, as he continues his effort to appeal to swing-state women voters. In his effort, Mr. Obama has regularly stressed his support for issues like reproductive rights -- an issue that may come more sharply into focus now that Rep. Paul Ryan has joined Mitt Romney on the GOP ticket.

Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican who chairs the House Budget Committee, is primarily known for his very conservative budget plan, but his views on social issues like abortion are just as heartening for conservatives as his economic policies.

"I'm as pro-life as a person gets," Ryan, a Roman Catholic, told the conservative magazine the Weekly Standard in 2010.

¬snip¬

His record includes voting to cut off federal funding for Planned Parenthood in 2011, and in 2006, voting against allowing servicewomen overseas to obtain an abortion in U.S. military medical facilities, except to save the life of the mother or in cases of rape or incest. Additionally in 2006, Ryan voted for a bill requiring women obtaining abortions to hear about the pain their unborn child may experience.

Ryan was one of several dozen Republicans to co-sponsor a particularly controversial bill last year that never made it to the House floor called the Sanctity of Human Life Act. The measure stated that the "life of each human being begins with fertilization, cloning, or its functional equivalent... at which time every human being shall have all the legal and constitutional attributes and privileges of personhood."


Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57493360/paul-ryans-anti-abortion-rights-record-a-target-for-obama-camp/

[enough]

1. This is going to turn into a major issue when people realize just how extreme

Ryan is on all issues concerning reproduction. Abortion, "personhood," contraception, in-vitro fertilization, forced ultrasound.

[VWolf]

2. Which is why

his stance needs to be re-framed as anti-choice, not anti-abortion.

[spartan61]

3. I can't help but think that Ryan

has a young daughter. He is so against abortion for any reason and yet, what if his daughter would be raped and became pregnant by the rapist. (Certainly not what I would want to ever happen.) Would Ryan's view on this change because it actually happened to someone close to him? Bad things don't always happen to the "other" person, sometimes they hit close to home, too.

[olegramps]

4. The except to the rule clause would be automatically invoked.

[IcyPeas]

6. see Rick Santorum's answer to that exact question: (video in link)

http://blog.sfgate.com/sfmoms/2012/01/24/rick-santorum-rape-babies-are-gifts-from-god/

I

n an interview with Piers Morgan, the most socially conservative candidate in the GOP field continued to stand steadfast in his opposition to abortion, even in cases where rape is involved.

Morgan pressed Santorum on the issue and asked how the right-wing candidate would feel if his daughter came to him begging for an abortion after being raped. Santorum said, “I think the right approach is to accept this horribly created — in the sense of rape — but nevertheless a gift in a very broken way, the gift of human life, and accept what God has given to you.” He added that rape victims ought to “make the best of a bad situation.”

[qwlauren35]

7. I do not believe his stance would change.

Some people truly believe that life trumps all, justifies all, negates all.

There are many women who have been raped, get pregnant, and bring the child to term. It has always happened, it will always happen to women who are SO Pro-life that they cannot bring themselves to have an abortion even under those circumstances.

It's their life, it's their decision. That's part of being Pro-Choice.

[Dont call me Shirley]

5. Ryan needs to say it as he is: "I'm as anti-women as a person gets".

Last edited Wed Aug 15, 2012, 02:03 PM - Edit history (1)