Thursday, October 20, 2011

Herman Cain on Abortion Within The Context of Rape and Incest


Piers Morgan asked a question about abortion within the specific context of rape and incest:

"But you’ve had children, grandchildren. If one of your female children, grand children was raped, you would honestly want her to bring up that baby as her own?"

Herman Cain said the following:

... it comes down to it’s not the government’s role or anybody else’s role to make that decision. Secondly, if you look at the statistical incidents, you’re not talking about that big a number. So what I’m saying is it ultimately gets down to a choice that that family or that mother has to make.  Not me as president, not some politician, not a bureaucrat. It gets down to that family. And whatever they decide, they decide. I shouldn’t have to tell them what decision to make for such a sensitive issue.

It sounds to me like Cain is saying that within the context of rape and incest, government should stay out of the decision.  Cain gave a nearly identical response to the question of abortion to save the life of the mother, so I wasn't particularly surprised by this.  Here's what Cain said on Meet the Press:

MR. GREGORY:  What about abortion?  You want to overturn Roe v. Wade.  Could you support or condone abortion under any exceptions at all?
MR. CAIN:  I believe in life from conception, and I do not agree with abortion under any circumstances.
MR. GREGORY:  Exceptions for rape and incest?
MR. CAIN:  Not for rape and incest because...
MR. GREGORY:  What about life of the mother?
MR. CAIN:  Because if you look at, you look at rape and incest, the, the percentage of those instances is so miniscule that there are other options. If it's the life of the mother, that family's going to have to make that decision.
MR. GREGORY:  Mm-hmm.  But you can--would you condone abortion if the life of the mother were...
MR. CAIN:  That family is going to have to make that...
MR. GREGORY:  You won't render a judgment on that.
MR. CAIN:  That family is going to have to make that decision.

The MSM is presenting this as a sort of schizoid conflict of opinions, and it's created a firestorm on conservative websites.  What do you think?

Here's the video with a poll below:





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