{"id":30862,"date":"2012-10-25T08:07:51","date_gmt":"2012-10-25T14:07:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/25\/in-very-slight-defense-of-richard-mourdock.html"},"modified":"2012-11-01T09:19:50","modified_gmt":"2012-11-01T15:19:50","slug":"in-very-slight-defense-of-richard-mourdock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/25\/in-very-slight-defense-of-richard-mourdock.html","title":{"rendered":"In (very slight) defense of Richard Mourdock"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a debate Tuesday night for the Indiana Senate race, Mourdock (a Republican) was asked about abortion exceptions for rape and incest. He replied:<\/p>\n

\u201cI struggled with myself for a long time, but I came to realize that life is that gift from God. And, I think, even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that is something God intended to happen.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

His statement has lit something of a firestorm (legit and exploited both), even with his quick correction post-debate that he didn't think that rape itself<\/i> \u00a0was something God intended.<\/p>\n

A couple of thoughts of my own.<\/p>\n

1. The idea of not granting a rape or incest exception is is a perfectly consistent and defensible position, if<\/b> you grant the rights of "personhood" or humanity to a fetus (I don't, but many do). \u00a0By law and by justice, we don't visit the crimes of the parent on the child. If you are staunchly anti-abortion, providing an escape clause for rape or incest makes no rational sense, since you are essentially saying it's okay to kill a baby if the father was a rapist.\u00a0<\/p>\n

(An exception or the life of the mother, yes, in that you must choose one life or another — though the direction for that choice is, itself, informative.)<\/p>\n

2. Mourdock's thornier issue here was pulling God into the mix, but even here he's on hardly-radical grounds of parsing God's purpose and trying to reconsile the Problem of Evil — why an omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent God lets bad things (like rape) happen — or, put another way, if God knows all that will happen and can act and intervene according to His will, why does he enable a universe where that sort of thing occurs?<\/p>\n

(And, yeah, that's one I struggle with, too. And I don't have any glib answers. Which is a big reason why I<\/i> don't go around publicly attributing things, good or bad, to God's will.)<\/p>\n

Mourdock runs into trouble here (at least one of the places he runs into trouble) because he tries to address just part<\/i> of the equation. \u00a0He's willing to say that a pregnancy from rape is something "God intended," but not that the rape itself is. \u00a0And, yes, hand-wave, free will, all that, but that's just not a distinction that sits well (especially since I suspect a lot of women would consider no<\/i> pregnancy from a rape to be a much greater "gift", if not a coincidentally nearby police officer or stray lightning bolt).<\/p>\n

So, no, he didn't say that God intended rapes<\/i> to occur, and it's not necessarily fair to suggest he thinks such a thing (let alone going down the road of "… so she must have deserved it") — but he opens the door to that interpretation by musing about a theological point that has engaged scholars for centuries and is hardly\u00a0a topic that lends itself to easy or nuanced headline-based discussion.<\/p>\n

Mind you, Mourdock would have been criticized anyway, either for his position on abortion exceptions or if he'd simply murmured about God's will, "Mysterious Ways", and all that — especially if he didn't follow on by saying "And here's how we're going to support the\u00a0women and children who find themselves in this situation." \u00a0Where he really<\/i> erred was in trying to blend the two, mixing "God's plan" in with "rape" as a reason to restrict abortion, and playing directly into a set of issues (and expectations) where the GOP fringe has come across as anti-women, shame-based theocrats who are looking to incorporate A Handmaid's Tale<\/i> into the party platform. \u00a0That's beyond what Mourdock himself said, certainly — but not so far that his statements didn't resonate with those quite legimate concerns from the Left.<\/p>\n

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Embedded Link<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWill Richard Mourdock’s rape remarks hurt Mitt Romney? (+video)<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Romney campaign immediately distanced itself from the remarks of Richard Mourdock, a Republican Senate candidate from Indiana. Democrats portrayed the remarks as evidence of an extreme view on abo…\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Google+:<\/strong> View post on Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a debate Tuesday night for the Indiana Senate race, Mourdock (a Republican) was asked about abortion exceptions for rape and incest. He replied: \u201cI struggled with myself for a long time, but I came to realize that life is that gift from God. And, I think, even when life begins in that horrible situation … Continue reading “In (very slight) defense of Richard Mourdock”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,109,99,134,9,27,71,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-church-state","category-elections-2012","category-health-care","category-politics-law","category-religion","category-religion-me","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":32315,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/24\/abortion-as-felony-evidence-tampering.html","url_meta":{"origin":30862,"position":0},"title":"Abortion as felony evidence-tampering","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 24-Jan-13 2:37pm","format":false,"excerpt":"In a sane world, this would be a reasonable, even important piece of legislation, New Mexico HB 206, creating a felony penalty for tampering with evidence in a rape or incest case:'Tampering with evidence shall include procuring or facilitating an abortion, or compelling or coercing another to obtain an abortion,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49317,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/01\/22\/the-anti-abortion-factions-problem-with-rape.html","url_meta":{"origin":30862,"position":1},"title":"The Anti-Abortion Faction's Problem with Rape","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 22-Jan-15 4:59pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I get it. I really do. If you really believe that abortion is the killing of a little baby, then the origin of that baby (including via rape or incest) is not germane, and having those sorts of exceptions in anti-abortion bills is, itself, saying that it's sometimes okay to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51364,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/06\/03\/scott-walker-deeply-understands-what-raped-women-think-about.html","url_meta":{"origin":30862,"position":2},"title":"Scott Walker deeply understands what raped women think about","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 3-Jun-15 10:44pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Which is why there doesn't need to be a rape or incest exception to Wisconsin's coming anti-abortion bill because, hey, women really only worry about the cause of the pregnancy in the first few months, so if the no-exceptions line is drawn at 20 weeks, who's going to be concerned?Thank\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29948,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/24\/on-the-record.html","url_meta":{"origin":30862,"position":3},"title":"On the Record","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 24-Aug-12 6:51pm","format":false,"excerpt":"All those videos of GOP candidates at Tea Party rallies talking crazy talk? \u00a0Yeah, they get kind of embarrassing when brought up during actual elections \u00a0in front of all the voters. Embedded Link GOPer Says Medicare And Social Security Are Unconstitutional Then Whines When He\u2019s Attacked For It Indiana GOP\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/images0-focus-opensocial.googleusercontent.com\/gadgets\/proxy?container=focus&gadget=a&resize_h=100&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthinkprogress.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F05%2Fmourdock-300x189.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":29988,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/27\/a-consistency-right-or-wrong-of-approach-on-abortion.html","url_meta":{"origin":30862,"position":4},"title":"A consistency (right or wrong) of approach on abortion","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 27-Aug-12 6:39pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Paul Ryan is being consistent. He is, in fact, being more consistent than Mitt Romney, or any number of other politicians who favor outlawing abortion except for cases of rape or incest.If you accept the premises that (a) an unborn fetus is a human being and (b) the rights of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29905,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/19\/well-glad-we-dont-have-to-worry-about-pregnancies-from-legitimate.html","url_meta":{"origin":30862,"position":5},"title":"Well, glad we don't have to worry about pregnancies from "legitimate"…","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 19-Aug-12 8:54pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, glad we don't have to worry about pregnancies from \"legitimate\" rapeOr so claims Todd Akin, GOP Representative of Missouri, and candidate for Senate in that state. \u00a0Because, of course, in \"legitimate\" rape (as opposed to rapes that are, one assumes, \"illegitimate\" or not really rapes, because, y'know, so many\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30862\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}