Indiana Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock said Tuesday that pregnancy that results from rape can be “something that God intended to happen.” “I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize life is that gift from God,” Mourdock said at a debate. “And I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.”
(Video of the remark has been removed from YouTube but is available here from CSPAN.)
Mourdock appeared to be choking up as he made the comments. He also noted that, while he doesn’t believe in abortion in the case of rape and incest, he does believe it should be used to save the life of the mother.
Democrats immediately pounced on the comment, suggesting that Mourdock was saying God intended for rapes to occur.
“The God I believe in and the God I know most Hoosiers believe in, does not intend for rape to happen — ever,” Mourdock’s opponent, Rep. Joe Donnelly (D), said in a statement. “What Mr. Mourdock said is shocking, and it is stunning that he would be so disrespectful to survivors of rape.”
Mourdock’s campaign clarified after the debate that Mourdock was not saying that God intends for rapes to occur.
“God creates life, and that was my point,” Mourdock said in the statement. “God does not want rape, and by no means was I suggesting that he does. Rape is a horrible thing, and for anyone to twist my words otherwise is absurd and sick.”
Democrats also noted that Mitt Romney cut an ad for Mourdock this week, attempting to tie the GOP presidential candidate to Mourdock’s comment. Romney’s campaign quickly distanced itself from the remark.
“Gov. Romney disagrees with Richard Mourdock’s comments, and they do not reflect his views,” Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said.
While about half of Americans oppose abortion, many who do also support exceptions in the case of rape and incest.
Mourdock, who beat longtime Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) in a primary earlier this year, is locked in a tight race with Donnelly despite Indiana’s Republican lean.
For the national GOP, it’s a potential case of deja vu. The party’s chances in the Missouri Senate race plummeted when newly minted nominee Rep. Todd Akin remarked in August that “legitimate rape” rarely causes pregnancy.
Akin has since apologized for the comment but is struggling both in the polls and in fundraising. GOP leaders tried unsuccessfully to push him out of the race so they could get a different candidate.
