GOP Candidate is Against Abortion in Rape Cases Because ‘Crime has consequences’

Last updated on February 8th, 2013 at 12:29 am

At a fundraiser, a Washington state Tea Party Republican candidate for the 1st Congressional District who has been avoiding answering questions about abortion was caught on tape by a liberal organization. On tape, candidate John Koster is asked if there are any situations in which he would agree with abortion, to which he responds by saying that incest is rare and as for rape, well, crime has consequences.

Listen here from Fuse Washington:

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Asked if there are any situations in which he would agree with abortion, John Koster is heard saying to Fuse Washington, “I’m not going to make that decision. Incest is so rare, I mean, it’s so rare. But the rape thing, you know, I know a woman who was raped and kept the child, gave it up for adoption and doesn’t regret it. In fact, she’s a big pro-life proponent. But, on the rape thing it’s like, how does putting more violence onto a woman’s body and taking the life of an innocent child that’s a consequence of this crime, how does that make it better? You know what I mean?”

No, we don’t know what you mean, sir. We have no idea but we are scared.

Reminded by the Fuse activist, “Yeah, but she has to live with the consequences of that crime.” Koster replied, “Yeah, I know. I know crime has consequences, but how does it make it better by killing a child?”

Freudian slip? The female rape victim isn’t the criminal, so generally as a society, we don’t get behind the victims of crime paying the consequences. What next – robbery victims must pay the robber?

To sum up for Koster, women are not innocents, but children are. Crime has consequences for victims so why not pile on? Also, now that you’ve been raped, why not give away all power over your body to the Republicans, lest any more “violence” be “put” on your body (clearly a separate being from you, the person, who has rights).

Problems: Incest is not “rare.” Nor is child sexual assault. Nor is rape. Statistically, every two minutes someone is sexually assaulted in the U.S. 1 out of every 6 American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime. 44% of victims of sexual assault are under the age of 18. Are they to be forced to carry a rapist’s baby?

57% of sexual assaults are never reported and 97% of rapists will never spend a day in jail. After hearing John Koster’s wisdom on the subject, you know why none of the above are rare. Ignoring the problem by pretending it is rare is not helping.

In 2010 Koster was endorsed by Sarah Palin and her stingy PAC donated $5,000 to him this go. In 2010, he supported getting rid of the Department of Education, privatizing part of Social Security, getting rid of the IRS and he thought we should withdraw from the United Nations. I think you can guess his views on climate change. He now claims that he’s more moderate.

Koster is also claiming that even though he has an eerily familiar record as a state legislator of voting no on budgets while working to restrict women’s rights, his views on abortion are personal and not really an issue.

Koster is proud of what he oddly refers to as his “pro-life” position. He is running against Democrat Suzan DelBene.

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