The Romney/Ryan ticket may suffer some collateral damage from Akin's gaffe because last year Congressmen Ryan and Akin co-sponsored the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act”. This controversial bill introduced the term "forcible rape" in an effort to severely curtail the number of abortions performed on rape victims with taxpayer dollars. Proponents were simply trying to avoid illegimate rape claims by women who were just looking for the government to pay for an abortion they couldn't afford. Reasonable enough from a pro-life perspective, but very difficult to legislate.
Currently lost in the Akin firestorm, however, is the central issue that should outrage every American regardless of sex, race, religion or political stripe. Namely, that human life is always legitimate, no matter its origin. Yes, rape is tragic. Impregnation by rape is a seemingly unspeakable tragedy. But, it does not negate the embryological fact that a human embryo is just that --a human. Though I think Congressman Akin's remarks were boneheaded and embarrassing to conservative Republicans, I do support the logic behind his closing comment on the rape/abortion subject --"The punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child".
People who are otherwise pro-life support the rape exception for abortion, believing it avoidsfurther punishing the victim for her perpetrator's crime. Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are in this camp . It's a noble thought, though an illogical one. Pro-lifers oppose abortion for one simple reason --they believe that an unborn child is a human being and that no one has the right to take an innocent human life...period. It matters not from whence the life came. The rape exception effectively says that the comfort of the rape victim is morally superior to the life of the unborn child. This may be a safe political position to assume, but logically and morally it is fatally flawed.
With our nation's politics entering the ultimate silly season, I'm hopeful that the Akin firestorm will serve to purify the arguments on both sides of the abortion debate. Because in a pure debate where logic is forced to support the moral foundation upon which one stands, I am confident that those standing on the pro-life foundation will prevail.
