Over the weekend, Missouri Republican senatorial candidate Todd Akin made bizarre comments about pregnancies resulting from rape during an interview with a local TV station.  In response to a question regarding his opposition to abortion even in cases of rape, and as part of an effort to illustrate the rarity of such abortions in the scheme of the broader epidemic, Akin offered an inane, inaccurate, and insensitive explanation.  Instead of simply saying that life begins at conception irrespective of how it was conceived, and that giving the baby the death penalty instead of the rapist will not rectify the problem, Akin falsely claimed that pregnancies don’t result from rape.  He also used the bizarre and insensitive use of the word “legitimate” rape to punctuate the point.

Let’s be clear here.  The statement was inane, inaccurate, and insensitive.  But anyone who believes that Akin is pro-rape is insane.  This was an awful verbal gaffe, but it was clear that he was trying to explain the minimal number of abortions that are performed in cases of rape relative to the number of abortions in general.  He certainly wasn’t trying to defend the act of rape in any way, and anyone who is trying to insinuate that opponents of abortion support rape is a disgrace.

Now everyone is turning attention to whether Akin should pull out of the race.  In a perfect world, one goofy and inaccurate comment by a politician would not end his career.  And in a perfect world, that result would apply equally to both parties.  After all, if Democrats were asked to resign after offering a single inane, inaccurate, and insensitive comment, there would not be a single Democrat left in office.  Joe Biden certainly would have never made it to the Senate, much less the office of Vice President.  But the reality is what it is.  We now live in an era when one significant verbal gaffe by a Republican is a career-breaker.

However, whether Akin steps down or not; whether this group or that group demands such a resignation, we must all not lose sight of the broader issue.  It is liberal Democrats who must be ashamed of their abortion views, not our side.  They use abortion in cases of rape, which undoubtedly account for such a small portion of abortions in the country, as a red herring to promote their murderous pursuit of abortion on demand.

Why has Obama not been forced to resign over his failure to vote against baby-killing after the babies were already born from botched abortions during his time in the Illinois legislature?  Why is Claire McCaskill able to get away with her support for taxpayer-funded Viagra for rapists and child molesters?

The entire issue of rape, incest, and other extraordinary exceptions should not be used a means of promoting abortion on demand.  Obviously, it is incontrovertibly clear that pregnancies can and do occur from rape.  However, it doesn’t change the fact that if you believe a baby in the womb is a living and breathing being, killing that baby will not rectify the pain of the rape.  While nothing could ever rectify this subhuman act of violence, the best way to respond is by killing the perpetrator, not the baby.

In fact, it is liberal Democrats who promote banana-Republic criminal justice laws that have allowed rapists off the hook.  I would never stoop to their level and call them pro-rape for their position on criminal justice, but their liberal friends in the public defender business are not exactly helpful to bringing justice to these creeps.  I believe in using the death penalty as a viable option in some circumstances.

Nevertheless, we must not get distracted on this issue.  I can respect the motives of those who support abortion in cases of rape, even though it is ideologically inconsistent with the view that life begins at conception.   Let’s just understand that they are the exception of the exception and must never be used to justify the moral decadence of the abortion on demand policies supported by Obama and McCaskill.

Cross-posted from The Madison Project