Don’t Let Them Fool You: Akin is in the Mainstream of the GOP

August 21, 2012

Don’t Let Them Fool You: Akin is in the Mainstream of the GOP

(Trenton)- According to reports, the Republican National Committee platform will support a federal ban on abortion with no exceptions for victims of rape or incest.  This follows comments this weekend from Missouri Congressman Todd Akin, who claimed that women who were the victims of “legitimate rape” could not become pregnant.  Assemblyman John Wisniewski, Chairman of the New Jersey Democratic State Committee, released the following statement about the Republican position on women’s health.

“As a husband and father of three teenage girls, I believe that women are fully capable of making private health decisions with their doctor, including the decision to terminate a pregnancy.  I echo the words of President Obama, who said yesterday that we should not have male politicians determining what health care decisions women are allowed to make.

While Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan rushed to throw Congressman Akin under the bus following his repugnant comments, we know that in reality, Republicans share many of Akin’s most offensive views on the issue of choice.  Ryan co-sponsored legislation with Akin to limit federal funding for abortion to victims of “forcible rape”- as if there is any other kind of rape?  Both Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan supported “Personhood Amendments,” which would ban all abortions, certain types of birth control, and even in vitro fertilization.

The fact is, the Republican Party, a party that claims to support freedom and personal responsibility, believes that women should have no freedom when it comes to making private and personal health decisions with their own doctors.  Women deserve better.”

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