A Republican state lawmaker insulted women and sexual assault survivors nationwide Thursday when he spoke about rape exemptions in a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. During West Virginia’s House Health Committee meeting, delegate Brian Kurcaba argued that rape and incest victims shouldn’t be exempt from the ban because even pregnancy from rape has a silver lining.
“For somebody to take advantage of somebody else in such a horrible and terrifying and brutal way is absolutely disgusting,” Kurcaba said. “But what is beautiful is the child that could come as a production of this.”
This is not the first time Republican lawmakers have embarrassed their party by voicing ignorant comments about rape, and I’m sure it will not be the last.
In the 2012 election cycle, Republican Party candidates made a number of outrageous comments regarding pregnancies resulting from sexual assaults.
In October 2012, GOP Senate candidate Richard Mourdock argued against rape exemptions in abortion bills because women should consider the pregnancy a “gift from God.”
And who can forget the infamous remark from Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin, who said that “the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down” if it’s a “legitimate rape”?
Unsurprisingly, when Mourdock and Akin lost their Senate seats that year, the National Republican Congressional Committee rushed to offer a training program to prevent future candidates from making similar gaffes. This would be laughable if it weren’t so sad. It’s pathetic that some lawmakers need to be taught how to talk about rape in a way that isn’t profoundly ignorant or offensive.
Obviously, some GOP officials are extremely uneducated about sexual assault, even when the public expresses outrage over these opinions. When Kurcaba attempted to give an apology for his statement after being bombarded with negative press, he insulted sexual assault survivors again by stating that life should be cherished “regardless of circumstances.” In doing so, he implied — like so many other arrogant elected officials before him — that women who become pregnant from rape should be grateful for their pregnancy.
It’s bad enough that certain elected officials continue to pass bills restricting abortion rights, but it is deeply disturbing that they also believe sexual assault survivors should be forced to endure and be thankful for the resulting pregnancy. It would be an understatement to say that this belief is demeaning and harmful to women and sexual assault survivors alike.
Instead of trying to pass intrusive laws that tell women to look for a bright side of rape, GOP officials should switch gears and focus on prioritizing the well-being of their constituents. If they are truly interested in doing the right thing for millions of women, they should educate themselves about the issue.
In addition to talking to doctors and psychologists about the emotional trauma surrounding sexual assault, they should reach out to survivors in their communities and talk to them about their experiences. I doubt that it has ever occurred to them to speak to sexual assault survivors about the issue, but they should if they expect to have even a shred of credibility.
Hopefully, if GOP lawmakers take the time to consider the real and painful impact their proposals would have on rape survivors, they would stop trying to pass laws that would only cause more damage to victims.
If they continue instead to carelessly introduce bills that try to define rape as anything other than the tragedy it is, they have no place in voting on issues concerning women’s health.
Moriah Camenker is a UF public relations senior. Her column appears on Tuesdays.
[A version of this story ran on page 6 on 2/10/2015 under the headline “GOP: There’s no ‘beautiful’ end to rape"]
