What the men of the GOP don’t get about rape and abortion

[struggle4progress]

If women are such a coveted voting demographic, why are so many male politicians hell bent on offending us? ...

Sure, let’s grant that Mourdock never meant to suggest that rape was endorsed by God; clearly, the "it" in his statement referred to the pregnancy. That doesn’t mean that his words weren’t troubling.

Note that Mourdock was advocating a specific and very intrusive public policy -- a ban on abortion even in cases of rape -- because each act of conception, no matter if a violent assault, is part of God’s plan. Yes, it’s a horrible crime. Yes, the pregnancy will likely extend and intensify the victim’s suffering. But we must enshrine this martyr’s burden in law because it is God’s will that we do so.

Why do these men fumble so badly when discussing this most grim topic? Because they see no problem legislating a religious agenda. Usually, there’s no cost in doing so and plenty to gain -- until they wander into a minefield that makes their ignorance plain. These men don’t understand what it’s like to become pregnant from rape -- what it’s like for that to be a possibility -- and they betray no desire to become enlightened ...

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/10/25/3885837/what-the-men-of-the-gop-dont-get.html

[Agnosticsherbet]

1. Because the GOP has deteriorated to a narrow religious party, Christian Republicans...

who follow the most right wing of religious views.

The Christian right is patriarchal, the party of bronze age men, essentially holding a view that women are property with no rights other than as breeding vehicles.

I saw this move in the Southern Baptists in the in 2002, when they stopped allowing women pastors ore deacons. It also exists with ultra-Orthodox Jews and muslims.

This notion that women are property with very limited rights held through the father, the husband, or the sons was once pretty common in religion, and has enjoyed, if that is the right word, a resurgence and has been taken up by the mainstream Republican Party.